Our new @theconversation.com piece distills findings from our recent @pnas.org paper analyzing 38m U.S. obituaries (1998-2024). We examine which values families highlight when remembering loved ones and how those values shift over time and major events. theconversation.com/what-38-mill...

Really good read: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Public displays of virtue like donating or speaking up can set norms, but they’re often met with skepticism (“virtue discounting”). Our new paper asks: do people expect their own public virtue to be judged differently than others’ similar actions? bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🪦 New in @pnas.org: we analyzed 38 million U.S. obituaries to ask what signals a life well lived: What values are people most remembered for? How do legacies shift with cultural events? How do age and gender shape what it means to have lived well? www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Across 6 European countries, people feel more responsible to protect future generations than to directly reduce climate change. Both forms of responsibility predict climate policy support. 🔗 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lcgHzzKDP... New paper w/ Zhaoquan Wang, @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, & many others.

@seoyeonbae211.bsky.social and I spoke with @drjimdavies.bsky.social about our new preprint on altruistic motivation. Grateful for his thoughtful write-up in @nautil.us and the outstanding team behind this work (see below)!

Excited to share @seoyeonbae211.bsky.social's first preprint—an ambitious global study of human motivation! Using data from 900,000+ people in 100+ countries, we find altruistic motives consistently outweigh egoistic ones across cultures. osf.io/preprints/ps...

We asked over 8,700 people in 6 countries to think about future generations in decision-making, and this is what we found theconversation.com/we-asked-ove... @stysyropoulos.bsky.social

Across 3 studies, we find that valuing future lives equally—regardless of their distance in time—predicts stronger interest in long-term oriented, high-impact careers. Preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps... @stysyropoulos.bsky.social @amormino.bsky.social @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social

Asking participants to roleplay as a leader of a committee protecting future generations & having them partake in a philosophical thought exercise emphasizing reduction of intergenerational harm increased moral concern felt towards future generations. @kyleflaw.com doi.org/10.1111/bjso...

PsyArXiv Preprints | Mapping the Moral Architecture of Effective and Extraordinary Altruism

Hey y’all! New paper with @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social & @stysyropoulos.bsky.social is out in BJSP! We test ways to expand moral concern to future generations, with spillover benefits for distant others today. #socialpsych #PsychSciSky #psychology bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🚨 New preprint! What drives truly selfless giving? Led by @kyleflaw.bsky.social! We studied effective altruists (EAs) and organ donors to strangers (ODs) comparing them to controls. EAs & ODs ⬆️ moral expansiveness EAs ⬆️utilitarianism Notably, loyalty isn’t always parochial. 👀 🔗 in comments!

I've added a list at the bottom of the post linking to some places you could donate to help programs affected by the foreign aid cuts. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/i/161097332/...

New preprint! Do people who care about future generations actually do less to help others today? Across 3 studies—including both deceased and non-directed living organ donors—we find the opposite: Concern for the distant future predicts altruism now. 🌍🫀 👉 tinyurl.com/23r4cakh

At the national and individual level, increased poverty was related to lower intergenerational concern and less support for farsighted policies @kyleflaw.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...

New paper w Georgetown’s Abigail Marsh & Wharton’s Annie Wilson. We develop & validate a short form of the Social Discounting Task—a behavioral measure of generosity that reliably tracks w other forms of altruism. Perfect for tight surveys or large-scale studies journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

📢New preprint: shorturl.at/M77Bb We surveyed 1,798 psychology PhD students. Marginalized students and students experiencing financial strain report disparities in mental health, worse program satisfaction and poorer academic experiences. Funding & support are crucial to build a fairer academia!

New preprint: shorturl.at/BZacg; with a team of 31 researchers! Low concern for infection + low political trust = less compliance with COVID-19 measures. Using data from 18 countries (N = 18k), we show how distrustful complacency undermines public health especially when leaders oppose science.

📣 Across the U.S., cuts to federal funding for health research are projected to cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. How will YOUR area be impacted? Excited to share SCIMaP, a website that our team has created to communicate the impact of funding cuts. #PsychSciSky #MedicalSky scienceimpacts.org

New paper by @amormino.bsky.social and colleagues! They develop and validate a short form of the Social Discounting Task—a fast, reliable measure of how altruism declines with social distance. Perfect for tight surveys or large-scale studies. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

Now officially out in @pnas.org with @greggsparkman.bsky.social! Almost 90% of Christian religious leaders believe in anthropogenic climate change. American congregants underestimate this consensus. Communicating this has important consequences for norms and beliefs! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

More evidence from the US showing that endorsements of political candidates by scientific journals decreases trust in science @stysyropoulos.bsky.social @kyleflaw.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...

The Trump tax plan only works by cutting public services. This incredible visualization combines the potential tax cuts (which mostly go to the rich) and loss of services (mostly borne by the poor). It is a giant wealth transfer from the poorest to the richest. budgetlab.yale.edu/news/250319/...

📢 New Preprint: Who cares about the future? We examine how age, ideology, SES, and other sociodemographic factors shape future-oriented thinking across 37,000+ participants worldwide. Check it out here: tinyurl.com/4et62tek @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social @stysyropoulos.bsky.social

New Preprint: Social Discounting reliably predicts prosociality in meta-analysis & replication. Increased relational mobility (but not Ind-Col) predicts generosity toward distant others. All undergrads from our replication course are co-authors: tinyurl.com/4acvnbrb @kendraseaman.bsky.social

New Preprint! How do scientific journal endorsements of political candidates impact trust in science? We find declines in trust, especially among moderates & conservatives, supporting research on motivated reasoning. Link: shorturl.at/76W4G #psychology

But our work is far from done—science is still under attack. We’ve got ideas, but we want to hear from you. What’s worrying you most? What should we do next? How can we grow this movement together? Fill out this quick form to share your thoughts & stay connected: forms.gle/QAxH4wD4Y3sg...

How well do people understand the #climate impact of #behavior?🌱 In a new paper, we examine people’s climate-impact perceptions of different behaviors and lifestyles and whether these are linked to behavior and support for behavior-regulating climate policies 🧵 #GreenSky osf.io/preprints/ps...

🚨 Arizonans: Science fuels jobs, innovation, & huge returns—every $1 in federal research brings >$4 back to the economy! In 2023 alone, AZ’s biotech industry drove >$40B impact & >40K jobs. Contact your reps & stand up for science! Thanks @lanishiota.bsky.social for organizing! #StandUpForScience

So proud of Team #standupforscience in Phoenix today! If you missed it, there’s another one at 4:30, Tempe City Hall! @standupforscience.bsky.social

Breaking news: Thousands of researchers and their supporters, including recently fired federal workers, have gathered across the U.S. in response to layoffs and funding cuts ordered by the Trump administration. scim.ag/41zlPv4

Just a couple more hours to #standupforscience in Phoenix! The sun’s out now, with little or no rain predicted. How do we know? SCIENCE! 😁

New preprint! When people have more resources, they allocate more to future generations—but not proportionally more. SES also predicts greater willingness to sacrifice for future welfare. Tackling inequality and poverty might be key for longterm concern! tinyurl.com/46kcst28

In another preprint, we (@stysyropoulos.bsky.social & @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social) found that Americans underestimate how many future generations others see as worthy of consideration in policy and collective decisions, a form of pluralistic ignorance that may hinder long-term action.

We (@stysyropoulos.bsky.social, @jowylie.bsky.social, Gordon Kraft-Todd, @nathanliang.bsky.social, @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social) found striking self-serving asymmetries in how people judge others’ public virtue and how they expect their own to be judged. Check it out below!

Live from #spsp2025: @abdoe.bsky.social shedding light on pluralistic ignorance. Democrats & Republicans *believe* they fundamentally disagree on core values, but in reality, are far more similar than they are different (ds~=1.3)--despite real differences (e.g., in conformity & traditionalism).

@madalina.bsky.social: sample of 63 countries test several interventions to increase climate policy support. Writing letter to future gen is best. Doom & gloom messaging great for increasing sharing but not for increasing support! #spsp2025 #comppsych

Big thanks to @spspnews.bsky.social and everyone who attended our symposium on barriers and pathways to altruistic equality! We appreciate the engaging discussion and insights. Special thanks to Stephanie Preston for providing stellar moderation—your expertise and guidance was outstanding!

Check out our new preprint where we revisit ideological differences in the moral circle.

New preprint! Do liberals prioritize distant others over close relationships? Our large-scale analyses (N=4201) find no tradeoff—liberals’ broader moral concern coexists with care for family & community. Implications for policy & moral psychology: (osf.io/preprints/ps...) #MoralPsychology #Ideology

Join us Saturday afternoon for a #SPSP2025 symposium on the real & perceived boundaries of altruistic equality—and how moral learning can help transcend them! Featuring talks by @amormino.bsky.social, @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Falk Lieder, and me, with moderation by Stephanie Preston!

Excited to share that I’ve joined the Intergenerational Decisions and Effective Action (IDEA) Lab in ASU’s College of Global Futures as a postdoctoral researcher! @stysyropoulos.bsky.social and I will be advancing research on prosocial behavior & sustainable decision-making across generations! 🌵🌎🌍🌏🚀

Excited to share our new paper in PSPB! @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Gordon Kraft-Todd, @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social and I validate a method for assessing impartial intergenerational beneficence––high levels of concern for ALL future generations. Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Impartial altruism theoretically undermines prioritizing close relationships. Yet we found that impartial altruists—who donated a kidney & performed impartially in lab tasks—had close others who reported high relationship quality & showed high impartiality in tasks (vs controls).

Christmas, Hanukkah, and an editorial I wrote with @briandavidearp.bsky.social and @stysyropoulos.bsky.social on the multigenerational bioethics of artificial intelligence coincided this year. Happy holidays! jme.bmj.com/content/50/1...

How does (un)certainty shape concern for the welfare of future generations? New article in PSPB with @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Brendan Bo O’Connor and Liane Young! #psychscisky #sustainability journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New paper with @stysyropoulos.bsky.social & Griffin Colaizzi: Intergenerational psychology offers powerful tools to tackle climate change, inspiring action across historically reluctant groups through future-focused interventions. #climateaction 🌍 Read here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Here's @kyleflaw.bsky.social giving a great talk about extraordinary altruism, effective altruism, and expanding compassion at the MPRG/Consortium on Moral Decision-Making conference. Part of a session on groups and morality. @ssripennstate.bsky.social @prcpennstate.bsky.social bit.ly/4gmBe7E

Something I’ve been reflecting on for some time is whether human values might become more coherent when applied to prescribing and proscribing the behavior of AI systems, compared to how we consider our values in the abstract or when applied to human agents. An empirical question.