Fixing democracy isn't just about reforming institutions—it's about mending civic culture. Folks like Robert Putnam and James Davison Hunter argue that our current political problems are the result not just of a culture of individualism that places the “me” over the “we.”

Last year I gave up on my lifelong dream of being a university professor and venture out in search of "other marshmallows." Little did I know I'd find a Reese's instead. Lessons in Marshmallow Hunting, Part II open.substack.com/pub/thebeaco...

Something in America is deeply broken. It’s tempting to think the fix lies in the next policy or election—but our challenges run deeper than that. We need a new way of thinking about what we owe each other and what it means to be American. Call it a new “civic vision.”

When I was invited to be the Keynote Speaker at the Cato Institute’s Sphere Alumni Fellowship kickoff event last Friday, I was thrilled. Not just because I was honored to present almost ten years of More in Common’s work in political polarization at a well-respected think tank.

Reddit’s AITA? board is a goldmine of data on how real people conceptualize and solve moral dilemmas. A study of posts on the board finds that the nature of the relationships between people in a dilemma is central to moral decision making. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

What makes people assholes? Fascinating research by @dyudkin.bsky.social et al of 370k everyday moral dilemmas on Reddit's “Am I the Asshole?” reveals → 29 types of dilemma → relational obligations most common → dishonesty most often condemned →…and much more! academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

🚀 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁, 𝗮 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗰 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 beaconproject.us

My hottest take of 2025: the best La Croix flavor is Limoncello.

I got over 100 emails today and I am a nothing nobody with zero clout or responsibility. I can't imagine the number of emails that real people get.

I find this so refreshing…it means the battle lines we see as permanent are less than a handful of decades old

Musk’s wealth in 2012: $2 Billion Musk’s wealth in 2024: $447 Billion Bezos’s wealth in 2012: $18 Billion Bezos’s wealth in 2024: $249 Billion Zuckerberg’s wealth in 2012: $44 Billion Zuckerberg’s wealth in 2024: $224 Billion Minimum wage in 2012: $7.25 Minimum wage in 2024: $7.25

An consequence of aiming high is that no matter how well things are going, you must always confront painful nearby possible worlds where things went a little better, where you were a little smarter or were quicker on your feet. Call it the price of ambition.

The longer people participate in collective action, the enraged they get and the more “moralized” they consider the issues they are fighting for. psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...

Offended that someone correctly guessed my age

Thanks, Gordon 😅

Feeling strangely in awe of the reviewer who wrote 13 single-spaced pages explaining why my paper is trash.

The Perception Gap That Explains American Politics. (@stephen-hawkins.bsky.social @dyudkin.bsky.social) More, via Opinion Today: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/241129-top...

Absolutely eye-popping result from a survey conducted by @dyudkin.bsky.social and @stephen-hawkins.bsky.social. Americans generally believe that Democrats are obsessed with LGBT issues—but it's not true. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

“If elections are a battle of perceptions, our data suggest this was a battle Democrats lost.” My colleague Stephen Hawkins and I have an article out today in The Atlantic showing how Americans mistakenly think Democrats prioritize Progressive causes over economic ones. t.co/1O4CmhFjy2

Had a great time re/connecting with amazing scholars at #SJDM2024. It was my first time at the conference, but it definitely won’t be my last! 🙏 @katymilkman.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social @sdpbht.bsky.social @ikesilver.bsky.social @juliaminson.bsky.social @rafmbatista.bsky.social o

I’m sharing talks and posters from this weekend’s @SJDM-tweets.bsky.social conference. First, a talk about the #jobMarket — by the way, I’m hiring a 3-year #postdoc researcher who does quantitative #decisionScience and can #workFromHome in the U.S.: geisinger.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/GeisingerExt... …

Who’s the a$$hole?

 It's not @dyudkin.bsky.social: his team harnessed #Reddit's r/AITA to categorize, rank, and analyze response options to "everyday moral dilemmas". Follow Dr. Yudkin and the paper: scholar.google.com/citations?vi... #corpusLinguistics #dataViz #moralPsych #webScraping #xPhi

Note to anyone thinking of having kids: DO NOT DO IT. You will start to love them so much it becomes physically painful

PSA for anyone wondering what professional life is like outside of academia: TEN OUT OF TEN Truly could not be happier, more motivated, or excited by what I'm working on right now. 🙏

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the the Beacon Project at More in Common. The Beacon Project will be using insights from social science to help build a new moral framework that can speak to modern challenges.

In the past decade, Effective Altruism has motivated people to give hundreds of millions of dollars to charity. In this post, I argue that EA's foundational theory, utilitarianism, overlooks a core feature of morality: honoring relational obligations. www.partialspectator.com/p/effective-...

Allow me to (re)introduce myself. My name is Daniel, and I walked away from academia to live in New Orleans. I believe success takes many forms.

I'm launching a new monthly newsletter about morality, mind, and society. It's called The Partial Spectator. My first post is about how I decided to step away from academia and move to New Orleans. www.partialspectator.com/p/lessons-in...