For reasons that are geniunely unrelated to current affairs, I was reading the UN Declaration of Human Rights. And... well... they're resonant. It will literally take 3 minutes to read this. www.un.org/en/about-us/...

Have you actually *read* the World Values Survey? Oh my god. This is an *incredible* mess. And... just wow... Tthe questions reveal some incredible beliefs alien to most "WEIRD" minds*. (Putting the US to one side, for the moment).

There's only one version of this AI I will accept

Behold. The Peppermint Butler clock After many weeks of prototyping, printing, designing, and reprinting. It is complete. (Though there are some teeny weeny tweaks to make).

I've been at my current institution for a little over two-years. My informal grace period has ended, it seems. I've published enough that the spambots and journal editors have all updated to my current institutional email address. My inbox is as messy as everyone else's now.

Happy new year! I wanted to share my new Python package called chatter that streamlines the process of applying AI/ML models to animal communication 🦜🦇🐋🐵👨‍🌾 masonyoungblood.github.io/chatter/

2 year Postdoctoral Research Fellow opportunity at the University of St Andrews on my project "Aesthetic Values and the Social Dimensions of Science" www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/... #philosophy #philsci

🚨 Postdoctoral Opportunity for Female Scientists🚨 The University of Vienna is awarding at least 20 fully funded 4 year postdoctoral positions to outstanding female scientists Interested? Get in touch via direct message careers.univie.ac.at/en/postdoc/e... #MicroSky 🧪 #PostDoc @univie.ac.at

The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Toulouse School of Economics offers jobs for Postdoctoral Researchers with a PhD in psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, or related disciplines. Deadline for application: January 23, 2026 www.tse-fr.eu/groups/depar...

I was in a science museum today, and something was described as 'moving at the speed of an hour hand on a clock', and I simply cannot understand what that means. Maniacal.

I know a woman from grad school, and she's something of a mummy-influence/researcher now. She's aussie, and the big aussie grant is the DECRA. And she's kind of turning her last-minute application to the DECRA into content for her audience. I have very mixed (leaning neg-) feelings about this.

Fun fact: the advice here is relevant to any goal. You want to work out more? You want to have a more fulfilling romantic life? You want to get a new job? Or even something seemingly small: you want to watch more more movies / stay up to date with the news / dress better.

My career is built on scholarship of rituals. I focus less on that now, but it's still my firmament. What are your new year's rituals? I'm not a believer, but I will do a Tarot draw. Also, living in Scotland and celebrating Hogmanay, I learned about 'first footing', which I will do tonight.

Putting aside the obvious issues of LLMs, it's quite remarkable that the most obvious and daily example of corporate big data applications are recommendation algorithms. And they're invariably: "You recently bought a sewing machine. Would you like to order the same sewing machine again?"

It's very fun that academics will use all the $5 words, instead of simply saying 'git gud'.

When I learn that my partner hasn't seen a specific movie, I'm rarely a "Oh my god, you have to watch [x]!" kind-of-guy. ... but tonight I learned she hadn't seen Jaws. So... we have to watch Jaws.

It's never a bad idea to put googley eyes on machines.

Having never worked in the US, it seems wild to me that students can do this at all.

My new lab in Singapore is seeking a full-time RA to help investigate how exploratory cognitive states shape environmental representations (cognitive maps). The position is funded until late 2027, and comes with a postdoc-level salary package. Please forward! careers.sutd.edu.sg/job/Singapor...

My partner made a custom 'guess who' for Christmas :)

Cultural Evolution paper alert 🚨

➡️New article out⬅️ The Fate of Behavioral Modernity by Andra Meneganzin @andrameneganzin.bsky.social Free reading link: rdcu.be/eUOUH

Couldn't see it at all. Then read the comments, and it resolved perfectly.

Utterly discrediting. Maybe for the marketing hacks this is fine, but for scholars? I wouldn't trust their actual panel data anymore.

Our paper on the ☀️ "summer slide" 🛝 is out now @pnas.org! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Summer slide is a replicable phenomenon across diverse datasets that's more than "forgetting" school material in vacation months, but effects of socioeconomic inequality are ➡️ 7x bigger! ⬅️ #PsychSciSky #DevPsy 🧵👇

I've been wrestling with two quite influential theory papers recently. In fact, for a number of years. But recently I've been really trying to unpack them, and work out where they hold and where they don't. In both cases there is a shocking absence of empirical evidence.

Hey @andrameneganzin.bsky.social, this is such a great paper on why defining, capturing, and (most of all) analyzing the emergence of 'behavioural modernity' still is such an important topic link.springer.com/article/10.1.... Congrats.

The Department of Psychology @uzh-ch.bsky.social has an open position for a tenured Lecturer (Research) «Psychological Data Management and -Stewardship» jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie... #psychjobs

One of the really powerful use-cases of AI/LLMs is the ensure that no human is responsible for the claim of an LLM. It absolves liability. University leaders are great at dodging responsibility. So why can't game recognize game? Surely they see that LLMs are a tool of obfuscation. Why embed it?

You can do this right now: Think of a person who wrote a paper you love, whose work influenced or helped you, or has made your professional life better. Search up their email address. Shoot them a quick email of thanks. It means so, so much. This is a rough time of year, share some joy.

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

Want to make nice graphs with me, starting next year? I'm hiring for a position at the University of Witten/Herdecke. uni-wh.softgarden.io/job/61280592...

Officially out! In this review, Aaron Chuey and I discuss how existing work on ToM mostly focused on a single individual’s mental states (e.g., what Sally thinks). Extending ToM, we argue for ToMS—an understanding of how multiple individuals communicate and influence each others’ minds. t.ly/u4rtb

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 early evidence for fire making. Cool. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...

This week, we talk to @hugoreasoning.bsky.social about all things "epistemic". Are we gullible and prone to misinformation? Are we vigilant in favor of our interests? Enjoy the wide-ranging conversation! www.podbean.com/eas/pb-wphps... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e... youtu.be/nf42LNg6y-A

I was trying to describe something to someone today. The best I could do was: it's a piece of the old internet. VASSAL, if you're interested. It's not something that will just pop up in a search, but it's an incredible resource, if you're into boardgames.

It's not uncommon for a journalist, often for radio, to reach out to academics for an interview. Why do they usually only give a few hours notice? Don't they plan days in advance? Why can't they? I'm genuinely curious.

Some absolutely killer, stick-with-you-forever advice I received in grad school was: celebrate effort, not outcomes. My student just hit a hard, short-notice deadline. Maybe they'll be accepted, maybe rejected. Celebrate effort, not outcomes. You can control the former, not the latter.

Hey, look, For the Queen is on sale right now! If you don't have a copy for some reason, at sixteen canadian dollars you can't afford *not* to canada.critrole.com/collections/...

Thank you all, the update than we can barely believe we get to make. To everyone who supported us through this last month, we couldn’t have even come close to this outcome without you all. Have a peaceful festive period, we’ll see you in the bookshop soon 🧡

It shouldn't need saying but I guess it does: the amount of casual racism just generally floating about our infosphere is really, really bad. Feel completely powerless to stop it, though...

I'm at an absurd play tonight, an adaptation of Terry Pratchett. I've actually been to a few of these over the years. And yeah, there's a Terry Pratchett type. I can sense the mean number of swords owned by the audience is above the general population.

God bless Szamado. He's completely correct and has been soldiering away at this for years - but the complexity of the topic is just slightly too high to outcompete Zahavi's (misleading) golf analogy. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

This is going to sound conspiratorial, but it is serves the LLM techbros for the 'em-dash = AI' lay-belief to persist. While em-dashes are diagnostically unreliable, it undermines the legitimacy of real writing/scholarship. And when real can't be discriminated from false, the false can thrive.

I am hiring a postdoc for a DFF-funded project on social influence, and the decision processes that fuel rich-get-richer dynamics in the online/offline world. The position is for up to a year, competitive Danish salary, remote work possible. Interested or know somebody? DM me or share!

All of the companies that make the software I use are increasing their prices, to account for an "investment" in AI. I'm sat here imagining how my clients would feel if I added 30% to each invoice, because I "really got into gambling".

Cripes. They're using Cohen's outdated effect size standards, too. Should be using the revised versions, ala Funder and Ozer. >0.3 is a large effect size. >0.4 is huge, and these are the levels they're reporting at. This should not be downplayed, these are BIG effects.