Expressions of blatantly immoral actions about outgroup members are growing on social media This leads people to radically overestimate the degree to which political outgroup members support immoral actions Democrats and Republicans are both off in their estimates. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

[1/9] Excited to share our new paper "A Pragmatic View of AI Personhood" published today. We feel this topic is timely, and rapidly growing in importance as AI becomes agentic, as AI agents integrate further into the economy, and as more and more users encounter AI.

Interestingly, @simondedeo.bsky.social uses exactly this context of apology as a place where people can use "Mental Proof" to overcome the perception of AI use, by *credibly* communicating intentions -- based on proof of shared knowledge and values. ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AA...

Ten Simple Rules for AI-Assisted Coding in Science arxiv.org/abs/2510.22254 - our latest, led by @ericwbridgeford.bsky.social

Pleased to share new work with @sflippl.bsky.social @eberleoliver.bsky.social @thomasmcgee.bsky.social & undergrad interns at Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, UCLA. Algorithmic Primitives and Compositional Geometry of Reasoning in Language Models www.arxiv.org/pdf/2510.15987 🧵1/n

Who today is influencing science a la Big Tobacco or Oil and Gas? In our new preprint we show how tech companies like Meta are capturing research on their product, using mechanisms that subtly (or not so subtly) shape what science gets produced

Well this is sure to be a blockbuster AI article... @jennarussell.bsky.social et al are kicking ass and taking names in journalism, both individuals and organizations. "AI use in American newspapers is widespread, uneven, and rarely disclosed" arxiv.org/abs/2510.18774

Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/

How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone? Our new preprint, led by @anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837

Conversational turn-taking feels effortless, but it's a complex dance. We find social context—who you're talking to and what you're talking about—fundamentally changes conversational dynamics in both autistic & TD children. 1/ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... w @chrismmcox.bsky.social

😍 Our latest is out now in @commspsychol.nature.com. 🤩 We show with Bayesian modelling and experimental manipulation of uncertainty that developmental differences in social influence depend on differences in the internal uncertainty people have about their choice doi.org/10.1038/s442...

We’re hiring! @sucholutsky.bsky.social and I are seeking a postdoc and RA for a project on trust in AI systems with folks at NYU, Princeton, BU, and Cornell Positions open until filled. Apply soon! Please share 🔁 postdoc: apply.interfolio.com/175495 RA: apply.interfolio.com/175497

1st Sharp Lab preprint! 🚨 We tested how anxiety affects task generalization—not how people generalize threat stimuli, but how they reuse action-outcome structures when planning in new contexts. Worry makes people avoid reusing actions that co-occurred w/ threat! 📄: osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵 1/12

New paper! "Whose agent are you? Relational norms shape expectation from algorithmic and human advisors in social decisions" led by Lior Gazit. We were interested in how people perceive relationships with AI agents, and how flexible these relationships are. doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...

osf.io/preprints/ps... Preprint: Jan Pfänder and Hugo Mercier "The rational impression account of trust in science"

New paper! "Whose agent are you? Relational norms shape expectation from algorithmic and human advisors in social decisions" led by Lior Gazit. We were interested in how people perceive relationships with AI agents, and how flexible these relationships are. doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...

This is an amazing project, so happy to be part of it! @anllohernan.bsky.social examined how people transfer experiential knowledge to others, and which communication style is most beneficial to learners, using 2arn bandit task. Very relevant to experience-description, social transmission and more!

I haven't given any news a while, I've been nose deep into this novel preprint with my excellent collaborators @stepalminteri.bsky.social, @urihertz.bsky.social and Bahador Bahrami: "Uncovering the semantics of teaching in experiential learning with Large Language Models". doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Hello all! 👋 🚨 New Preprint Alert! 🚨 Code World Models for General Game-Playing. ♟️🎲 ♣️♥️♠️♦️ I am pleased to announce our new paper, which provides an extremely sample-efficient way to create an agent that can perform well in multi-agent, partially-observed, symbolic environments! 🧵 1/N

Why do we derogate effective altruists, activists, & other radically prosocial individuals? In new work, we discuss how doing good that deviates from social norms gets stigmatized. New preprint w/ @dcameron.bsky.social @tlau.bsky.social @desmond-ong.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Our recent review article "The Psychology of Virality" with @jayvanbavel.bsky.social is on the front cover of this month's issue of @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social.

Please spread the word! I am recruiting a PhD student this cycle (Fall 2026 start) to join my team in a new venture: the neuroscience of mood. If you are curious to learn more, this short talk provides a good overview of why, what and how. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjIK...

Why do some ideas spread widely, while others fail to catch on? Our new review paper on the PSYCHOLOGY OF VIRALITY is now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social (it was led by @steverathje.bsky.social) Read the full paper here: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

People often receive rewards for good performance, but what happens when rewards do not reflect ability? Two behavioral studies suggest that rewards can impact how we evaluate our own ability, above and beyond the impact of actual performance. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Happy to share our new work showing how social emotions such as anger and gratitude establish an interindividual form of actor-critic learning, which leads to the emergence of norms in groups of interacting individuals. Now published at @apajournals.bsky.social: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

Looking for a PhD next year? Want to come and work on the next generation of OPM-MEG/EEG biomarkers in computational psychiatry? Apply for our MRC iCase studentship with @mkflugge.bsky.social, collabs with @lilweb.bsky.social + industrial placement at P1Vital: www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/gradua...

Concordia 2.0: www.cooperativeai.com/post/google-...

🚨 New preprint: "Decision rule inference limits social escape from learning traps" (with Rheza Budiono and Cate Hartley of the @hartleylabnyu.bsky.social ✨). Read here: osf.io/preprints/ps.... This is more work on a very curious phenomena!

I’m super excited to finally put my recent work with @behrenstimb.bsky.social on bioRxiv, where we develop a new mechanistic theory of how PFC structures adaptive behaviour using attractor dynamics in space and time! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Symposium submissions are now open for #SANS2026 in San Diego! The deadline for these submissions is November 17th at 23:59 Pacific. Check out the submission guidelines here: socialaffectiveneuro.org/symposia-gui...

arxiv.org/abs/2509.15560 "Human and machine intelligence as collective, language-based intelligence."

A new article in Current Opinion in Psychology: Willful ignorance is the deliberate avoidance of information that is relevant but uncomfortable or threatening. We argue that when attitudes are strong, people are more likely to engage in this behavior. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our new paper explains the #polarization of public health Identifying with a social group can shape people’s beliefs and values, leading them to act in ways that have consequences for their health From vaccine hesitancy to smoking cessation, identity plays a critical role: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Excited to share that my recent paper *many llms are more utilitarian than one * has been accepted to NeurIPS 2025! 🎉 #NeurIPS Thanks to my amazing collaborators! @razanbaltaji.bsky.social Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2507.00814

Just published in World Psychiatry our study "Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing" . Amazing work led by @ophirnetzer.bsky.social with the brave survivors of the Nova festival attack. Huge team effort, thx to all! 👉 doi.org/10.1002/wps....

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco. Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee: Sarah Alami (co-chair) Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair) Zachary Garfield Edmond Seabright

Here's a link to the paper: Beyond Mechanism—Extending Our Concepts of Causation in Neuroscience onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🤖After a fantastic debut in 2025, the Theory of Mind in AI workshop at AAAI is back for 2026! We invite submissions on ToM in artificial & biological intelligence—across comp sci, cog sci, comp psych, psychiatry & more. CFP 👉 tom4ai.github.io/AAAI2026/cal... 2025 procs 👉 arxiv.org/abs/2505.03770

Reliability, bias and randomisation in peer review: a simulation https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/4gqce_v1 new preprint from UKRI #metascience Unit

🧠🤖 Ever wondered about the risks of the increasing customization capabilities of AI/AI-powered chatbots & what we can do about it? Check out our recent-ish paper: The governance & behavioral challenges of generative artificial intelligence’s hypercustomization capabilities. doi.org/10.1177/2379...

yup! shameless book and article plug if you want to go deep on the previous hype cycle and get some different angles for critiquing AI Book, "In the Land of the Unreal": www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-land-... Article, "Putting Big Tech in its Place": anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Our response to Corlett & co on what they call 'pseudo-social' paranoia is now online in TICS. We hope this clarifies some persistent misunderstandings of our work and approach. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The TiCS issue featuring our paper on "A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making" is now available online 😄 Honored to have been a part of this awesome interdisciplinary mega-collab led by Christin Schulze (UNSW Sydney) www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Did you buy a bottle of wine from Tescos in the UK between August and October 2019? Is so, your choice may be one of the 3,649,027 purchases which informs this analysis of cognitive bias in shopping https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-025-00341-2

A review just in time for our 59th Wedding Anniversary on 1st September Scenes from a Marriage: How We Found Our Way from Experimental Psychology to Social Neuroscience | Annual Reviews - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Our latest study finds that teaching high-quality listening in business schools not only boosts students’ listening skills but also significantly elevates MBA students’ humility — reshaping how future leaders connect and lead. link.springer.com/article/10.1... @guyitzchakov.bsky.social

Why do societies reliably develop strikingly similar traditions like dance songs, hero stories, shamanism & justice institutions? In a new BBS target article, I propose a theory for such "super-attractors" + cultural evolution more broadly. Now open for commentary: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

do classic decoy effects take place in real-world shopping decisions? wine purchase records in a massive grocery dataset says: yes new work with (former) student Sean Devine, @anyaskatova.bsky.social , James Goulding, and John Harvey www.nature.com/articles/s41... (sorry for the titular pun)

Delighted to share our work on replay and successor representations! We find replay during very short task pauses in human visual cortex that is linked to learning SRs & happens when learning is implicit. Study led by @lnnrtwttkhn.bsky.social #compneuro #neuroskyence www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...