Can people be led to defend the opposite of their religious beliefs? A new study by Prof. Ryan McKay and colleagues shows they can, shifting later attitudes too. The paradigm holds real promise for illuminating big questions in the field. Open access: doi.org/10.1080/2153...

@hirotakaimada.bsky.social, Carya Maharja, Nattavudh Powdthavee, Valeria Vitale, @lei-zhang.bsky.social, Claudio Rosa, Zenith Delabrida, @kristiansn89.bsky.social, @franzessl1.bsky.social, Mathew White, @envpsyvienna.bsky.social, @acee.princeton.edu www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🌏 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 It’s not that people doubt biodiversity is declining—it’s that we underestimate how many others already share this concern. In our new Perspective, we review work on pluralistic ignorance and set out a research agenda to:

New paper out🌍 Following PRISMA2020, we conducted a systematic literature search and identified/discussed four psychological intervention approaches to engine idling: individual training, offering feedback, community-based interventions, and psychological messaging🚗 doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

New paper out in Political Psychology (@ispp-pops.bsky.social)🚨 We explored the race x politics crossed-categorisation effect on cooperation - the effect depends on participants' race and politics. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Two experimental studies using the intergenerational sustainable dilemma game found that people made more sustainable choices when future beneficiaries were ingroup members, and less when they were outgroup members. @hirotakaimada.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44...

I had an amazing time in Vienna☀️ Thank you Qinyu (@qinyuxiao.bsky.social) very much for hosting me!

It was great to host Hiro @hirotakaimada.bsky.social for a few days in Vienna to discuss research on in-group favouritism, indirect reciprocity, and intergenerational cooperation!

New paper in @commspsychol.nature.com 🚨 We found future ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation in both minimal and national group contexts: people made more and less sustainable choices when future beneficiaries were ingroup and outgroup members, respectively. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Off to Vienna✈️🇦🇹

Runnymede Jazz Orchestra will throw a summer gig at St John’s church in Egham on June 24!🎺🎷🎶☀️😎 www.ticketsource.co.uk/runnymede-ja...

I had the chance to be interviewed by a journalist recently and I asked how they found and approached me. One of the things they said was “I also like jazz”🤣🎺

New paper: Online social identity mapping (oSIM) is now available in Japanese😎 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper orchestrated by @giotravaglino.bsky.social Using data from 8 countries (🇬🇧🇺🇸🇮🇹🇰🇷🇯🇵🇩🇪🇨🇱🇨🇴), we found that the relationship between institutional confidence and civic honesty is moderated by power distance. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New work led and orchestrated by @sandrajgeiger.bsky.social🌍 We replicated pluralistic ignorance in climate beliefs in 11 underrepresented countries. Public-consensus intervention? Not really effective. We also looked at cultural differences using secondary data. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Had a great time visiting London Interdisciplinary School. I’m very excited for potential future collaborations🧠💡

Thanks to everybody who chimed in! I arrived at the conclusion that (1) there's a lot of interesting stuff about interactions and (2) the figure I was looking for does not exist. So, I made it myself! Here's a simple illustration of how to control for confounding in interactions:>

New replication & extension paper out in RSOS via @pci-regreports.bsky.social with @giladfeldman.bsky.social t.co/0I0UlW1XzP

Happy International Jazz Day🎺🎶

I had a great time in 🇵🇱 Thank you very much again, the Centre of Excellence in the Social Sciences at U of Warsaw for inviting me to give a talk and lead a workshop🙏 Looking forward to staying in touch and exploring future collaborations 📝

Really pleased that this paper from my PhD has been published in Nature Scientific Reports! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We used mixed reality to explore how manipulating multisensory integration leads to dis-ownership from the body and how those experiences relate to trait dissociation

Join us at #CESS #ISESS on Apr 16 for @hirotakaimada.bsky.social's (University of London) talk: Intergroup Cooperation and Aggression. On Apr 17, he’ll lead a workshop: Introduction to Economic Games and oTree. Register by Apr 13 to attend the workshop🔽 cess.idub.uw.edu.pl/en/2025/04/w...

A paper led by my former final-year student has just been published 📊 🧾 With a lot of hard work, the lead author, Brodie, has succesfully turned their final year project thesis into a peer-reviewed publication! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Independent Research Fellow @sussex.ac.uk School of Psychology Please share www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMN512/i...

New paper out in Judgment and Decision Making💡 Leveraging data from Israeli professional volleyball players, we revisited some theoretically interesting hypotheses regarding intra- and intergroup cooperation 👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Interesting findings on our intuitive preferences for religious belief 🧠 Research by academics at Brunel University, @rhulpsychology.bsky.social, and other institutions, finds evidence of pro-religious intuitions even in societies that have become largely secular. Read more: ow.ly/Lizv50Vqmg5

Calling all education professionals! Register now for our research and practice event - bringing together researchers and practitioners working to improve outcomes for children and young people! 27 June '25 - find out more & sign up now: www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and...

A manuscript led by my Y3 student has now been accepted in a peer-reviewed journal. They went beyond the curriculum, learning R, RMarkdown, and OSF, and beautifully applied these open science skills to publish their Y3 thesis. So proud and happy🌞 @rhulpsychology.bsky.social

New work shows atheists in some of the world’s most secular countries show an intuitive preference for religious belief over atheism www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Ross and Pisor (2025). Perceived inequality and variability in the expression of parochial altruism www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

In politics, people are not always truth seekers. Often, we reach conclusions because they fit with preferred political narratives: we are biased by ideological motivations. But are some people better equipped to overcome such bias than others? 🚨 Find out in the first pre-print from my PhD 🚨

We’ll bring live modern jazz to the Packhorse again this Friday (21-22:30) 🎺🎷 Join us and celebrate Friday night🍻 We’ll be playing jazz classics from Cole Porter to Carlos Jobim:)

We now have around 50 colleagues on Bluesky:) Here's the RHULPsychology 2024/2025 starter pack - follow along for research updates and fun happenings from our department😎 go.bsky.app/9en5Po4

Rodriguez et al. (2025). Beliefs about being alone shapes the influence of being alone on loneliness as well as a range of pos/neg emotions. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Received a R&R on the manuscript that my Y3 student from my first year at RH first-authored😎

I gave a workshop on writing reproducible analyses using RMarkdown and had Y3 students reproduce numbers reported on one of my papers - reproduction attempt successful😌

Hi Everyone, Angela Dorrough, Giuliana Spadaro, @shuxianjin.bsky.social, and I are guest-editing a special issue at JESP on current directions in social dilemmas research. More info can be found here: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu... We look forward to receiving many exciting submissions!

Some personal news: In April, I will be joining the University of St Andrews as a lecturer @standrewspsyneuro.bsky.social (~assistant professor for non-UK folks). I work on cooperation, institutional legitimacy, and personality. If you're in the area and share some interests, I'd love to chat.

*Please repost* Are you a parent of a child aged between 13-24 years? Are you concerned about young people’s social media usage? We are looking for young people aged 13-24 years to take part in a new project to help understand how we can support their mental health whilst online. Read more ⬇️

If you are an interesting researcher, we are interested in talking to you! Five tenure track positions open. Computing faculty, across all fields, are especially encouraged to apply. Jobs | Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/en/employment/

Applications for lectureship (Professional practice, permanent, 0.5FTE) in our DClinPsy programm close next Monday, March 3. Please apply or share this advert with anyone who might be interested!

Job offer! 3-year PDRA studying archaeological content on social media from a cultural evolution perspective. Based at Edinburgh, supervised by @chiara-bonacchi.bsky.social and myself -project "Weaponised Pasts: The Evolution Of Heritage-based Hostility On Social Media’. Please share! bit.ly/3QCXUFS

My colleague, Haorui Wu, is recruiting a postdoctoral scholar on climate change and resilience. Please share! dal.peopleadmin.ca/postings/18246

🔺Psychology Job Alert 🔺 Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Surrey, UK Closing date: 12 March 2025 More Info: jobs.surrey.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... #AcademicSky #Psychology #SocialPsyc #UKHE Candidates with expertise in the following areas are encouraged to apply 👇

🚨 POSTDOC WANTED 🚨 Join the Behavioral Economics of Crime & Conflict Group at MPICSL in Freiburg! We're seeking a behavioral scientist with PhD in economics, psychology, or related. Experience with experiments is key. Full time, 2 years, no teaching. Apply now! tinyurl.com/FGR251 #EconSky

PhD opening in the UK: cognitive, computational, and sociocultural basis of pro-environmental decision-making www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/cen...

I've had so many rejections in my academic life and they sucked. But, having to reject quality applications hurts and sucks too...

New paper accepted in JDM💡 We explored ingroup favouritism in cooperation, using data from Israeli female professional volleyball players🏐 We examined the potential role of conflict saliencce, past ingroup membership, and national team participation. osf.io/ygpz9

1/8. This week I had a few different conversations with scholars who, in the face of the attacks on science and institutions of learning in the U.S., are wondering what to do. One suggestion I have is: keep doing your work. It matters in and of itself. Why do I say that? A few reasons.

Darwin Day in Iran, 12-14 Feb, with big names in evolutionary psychology - e.g. Pinker, Nesse, Dunbar, Daly. Also Mike Tomasello & me. Attendance free online. Link in poster. Click the 'Globe' button for English and login as a guest. Full programme below. Tehran time = GMT+3.5 hours.