I posted this to reddit, it received a lot of attention before being removed by mods (?) I guess the uncomfortable realities presented were too much for them.

I am happy to share this article, entitled "The importance of Biological Theory". It is my inaugural editorial as the new Editor-in-Chief of @biologicaltheory.bsky.social . In these complex and challenging times, theory is more important now than ever. Enjoy! doi.org/10.1007/s137...

No one has actually done any effective anaylsis to-date to see if the suicide rate has increased with the inception of AI. Before AI, people died by suicide. Now that AI is extremely prevelant, it is easy to blame it for problems that have always existed in our society.

Congrats to Amanda on publishing one of her thesis papers! 🥳 @sarahevictor.bsky.social 📰 Between Urges and Actions: Unpacking Affective Dynamics in NSSI 📰 Get your copy! authors.elsevier.com/c/1m5ih_8RBg... @abct-ssi-sig.bsky.social @iasr-suicide.bsky.social @suicideresearchsym.bsky.social

The COVID natural experiment suggests something very different. Suicide rates increase with declining death rates coming out of the flu season. When death rates are disrupted, suicide rates are also disrupted: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Higher suicide rates often coincide with longer life expectancy. On their own, they are not necessarily a sign of societal decline. For instance, the drop in suicide rates during COVID does not imply that the pandemic was a time of joy or prosperity. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

The NYT article is well balanced. Even researchers who examine the sensitive issue of direct causation in suicide would find too little here to justify placing blame on any single factor. It’s an interesting case, but I don’t expect the lawsuit to be successful.

Imagine the IRL version of this. AI body cam on a SWAT officer assesses threat level of a target in a split second and has the officer kill the target before the officer could ever react. youtu.be/9alJwQG-Wbk?...

The problem may be worse than it looks. Higher mortality rates suppress suicide rates—likely because deaths from other causes preclude later suicides. Rural areas have higher mortality. So how much higher are suicide rates there, after adjusting for this? osf.io/preprints/ps...

🌟New publication!🌟 Feasibility and Acceptability of a Brief Intervention for Youth Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Pediatric Primary Care Providers It was great to be part of the team on this project. I’m excited about continuing this work! @cmpinciotti.bsky.social #suicideprevention

Almost exactly one year after starting my lab (!), I'm thrilled to share our first preprint! 🥳 @leilyb.bsky.social @sharinahamm.bsky.social @francesghart.bsky.social We propose future directions for mathematical, computational, & digital methods to advance suicide research: osf.io/preprints/ps...

I totally broke a ChatGPT guardrail today:

A new piece in @psypost.bsky.social on our recent study published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology. Check it out!

This feels a bit like when your child does something amazing and you feel like you want to take the credit but can't really. My new book Alchemy: An Illustrated History has arrived, and it looks *gorgeous*.

This is amazing. 🪶 www.science.org/content/arti...

It’s kinda wild how psychologists will just keep developing “paradigms” targeting estimands that are less and less plausibly empirically identified, because somehow that’s the epitome of rigorous theorizing (tm)

Can I list Coffee as a co-author?

1/7 PREPRINT UPDATE – I’ve overhauled my paper looking at correlations between suicide rates and death rates, examining Stengel’s theory that suicide becomes rarer when the value of life within a society diminishes, when death is common. #suicidology osf.io/preprints/ps...

A multi-model relationship detection method to assist with naïve exploration of high-dimensional data: Wiley, James Christopher; English, Simon; Church, Kinsey; Ward, Richard A; Flowers, James; Chamoun, Céline

Suicide Cultures and the Sociology of Suicide, University of Edinburgh 6-7th May 2025 blogs.ed.ac.uk/suicide-cult... Sociologically inclined + working on suicide? You can apply to hang out with @annamueller.bsky.social + @sethabrutyn.bsky.social and the #suicidecultures team for 2 days

On January 14, 2025, the CDC released an easy to use dashboard for mapping injury, overdose and violent death (homicide, suicide), in the USA. You can sort by state, county, census tract. GREAT RESOURCE for local grants! Hope new admin doesn't shut it down. Please share. #SuicidePrevention #SWTech

Suicide risk is double in people with chronic pain. What can be done to reduce this risk? In our EJP paper, we found mental defeat a significant predictor of future suicide risk in people with chronic pain 🧪Open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New to Bluesky! I am a #suicidologist and Assistant Professor #Psychology. I am interested in understanding why people die by #suicide and #criticalsuicidology.

Academic pressure and stigma intensify youth mental health challenges. @annamueller.bsky.social & @sethabrutyn.bsky.social's work reminds us that systemic solutions, not just individual interventions, are needed to support young people. #SuicidePrevention #Sociology #SocialWork

Christianity stigmatizes suicide and sexual deviance. Ive argued that stigma is a flexible deterrent that can be applied to any behavior. I have no specific interest in religion, but I do believe it is the indirect causal driver here and that a wealth of research supports this osf.io/preprints/ps...

Easy solution, just don't apply for funding.

This was the follow up to the essay on classical theory being a dead-end. At this point, I began rethinking the logic of theory at the grad level. It is impossible. Is it a survey of the field? A specialization that requires knowing certain debates? #sociology sethabrutyn.com/2020/01/08/w...

1. Preprint update: presenting new data analysis supporting Stengel’s hypothesis that suicide rates decline when societal value of life decreases, such as during periods of higher mortality. osf.io/preprints/ps...

I created a feed for people who are interested in suicidology, or research on suicide, self harm, and related topics. It also tends to pick up other public reports, like newspaper articles, and job postings, which feels like more of a feature than a bug. bsky.app/profile/did:... #suicideresearch

The struggle between individuals and society, culminating in suicide, is as old as humanity. Shakespeare captured this in Romeo and Juliet, where the lovers' deaths forced feuding families to reconcile. To break this cycle, we must understand it. This is my focus. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

1/ New preprint: "Do regional suicide rates predict reproductive fitness in individuals with mental health conditions?" A theory-driven hypothesis explored with limited data. Analysis will continue as more data become available from statistical agencies. osf.io/preprints/os...

Wishing the Elsevier editors who desk-accepted this all the best for their next career moves. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

Stigma against mental illness encourages suicide. Stigma against suicide discourages suicide. How do we reconcile these findings? Here's my take: osf.io/preprints/ps...

I started a suicide and self-injury research starter pack! Please share, and let me know if you’d like to be added! 😊 go.bsky.app/SgoBT7Z

Been thinking about how the consciousness of deceased loved ones can live on in our minds via theory-of-mind, and whether reflexive understanding of this can provide a social incentive for suicide. In looking for related research, I found this interesting paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🤔 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

I conducted a pilot study, examining a hypothesis from one of my earlier papers. “Do regional suicide rates predict reproductive fitness among those with mental health conditions?” I plan to continue analysis as more data become available. Happy to receive feedback. osf.io/preprints/os...

Weekend spent to finish my slides for the PSA Biennial Meeting in New Orleans. My President’s Address will be on Sat 16th at 6pm on the topic of ‘Local Knowledges and the Right to Participate in Science’ — this is based on recent work I did with the UN for this report www.ohchr.org/en/documents...

My new theory paper w/ Dan Balliet accepted to Psych Review, “Fitness Interdependence Underlies Cooperation across Human Ecologies” osf.io/preprints/os...

so many ppl have left twitter they should call it ex

THE SIMPSONS PARADOX

😄 phys.org/news/2024-10...

Book launch of "Evolution Evolving" @eesupdate.bsky.social at KLI Austria next week! Register to attend the hybrid event. Talks by Kevin Lala, Gerd Müller, Tim Lewens, followed by panel discussion with the 5 authors (moderated by yours truly). #EvolutionEvolving This is THE EES book, folks!

I absolutely love this paper about brief psychodynamic therapy for adolescents in crisis - beautifully written & so thoughtful about how self-harm and suicidality might be understood and managed. Recommend reading if you're working in/researching adolescent MH www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....