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@felixhermans

PhD Candidate at Laboratory for Experimental Social Psychology (LESP), @KU_Leuven | Working on language and stereotypes + social (meta)cognition

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22.04.2025
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Latest posts by @felixhermans

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When Do Generics Feel Justifiable? A Registered Report Bridging Key Theories | Journal of Cognition

Yay! First article of my PhD project is out in the Journal of Cognition ^^
Definitely check it out if you are interested in language, generics, stereotypes, computational modeling, open science (the paper was written as a registered report - a first for me :D)
journalofcognition.org/articles/10....

10.03.2026 10:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ“’ Conference opportunity: The International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) is hosting their 2026 congress in Leuven, Belgium (July 14-18). Registrations and submissions are now open!

Learn more: ow.ly/nHEV50Xj9ZE

29.10.2025 00:26 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

"How disconfirmatory evidence shapes confidence in decision-making"! Now out in @commspsychol.nature.com
w @annikaboldt.bsky.social & Yishu Sun
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s44... Thread ↓↓↓

#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence #Metacognition #Confidence

29.10.2025 16:22 πŸ‘ 36 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Get ready to present your research, engage with cutting-edge research in the field, connect with the social psychology community, find new collaborators, expand your network, and much more!

Welcome!
This is the official account of the General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology 2026.
Here, we'll be sharing all the important updates and information related to the upcoming congress.
Feel free to visit our official website for more details: easp2026strasbourg.com

17.10.2025 14:40 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2

Introducing hMFC: A Bayesian hierarchical model of trial-to-trial fluctuations in decision criterion! Now out in @plos.org Comp Bio.
led by Robin Vloeberghs with @anne-urai.bsky.social Scott Linderman

Paper: desenderlab.com/wp-content/u... Thread ↓↓↓

#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

25.09.2025 09:13 πŸ‘ 51 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Common neural choice signals reflect accumulated evidence, not confidence! Now out in @cerebralcortex.bsky.social w @helenevanmarcke.bsky.social @pierreledenmat.bsky.social @yfvisser.bsky.social @denizerdil.bsky.social a.o.

Paper: desenderlab.com/wp-content/u... Thread ↓↓↓

19.09.2025 10:47 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Redirecting

(7/7) But definitely check out the full paper for much more on other types of generics and what makes them acceptable: doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Many thanks to Vera Hoorens and Susanne BruckmΓΌller for allowing me to be a part of this and also to Gijs Dekkers for the lovely illustrations!

19.09.2025 11:37 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

(6/7) Returning to The Cure: we accept β€œBoys don’t cry” because we read this statement normatively, yet we accept β€œBoys cry” because we read this statement descriptively. The Cure might have thus inadvertently enforced a social norm since β€˜79, oops!

19.09.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

(5/7) In addition to integrating and building upon an extensive body of earlier work, ConStat generates novel and falsifiable hypotheses and provides practical suggestions for future research on generics!

19.09.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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(4/7) We propose ConStat, a Contextual-Statistical framework that builds upon earlier work to solve this puzzle! ConStat assumes that generics transmit information of relevance for individual and coordinated action and has five central tenets:

19.09.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

(3/7) And why does β€œCanadians are right-handed” sound wrong, even though the vast majority of Canadians are? These sentences are examples of "generics”. What precisely makes them acceptable versus unacceptable has long eluded researchers.

19.09.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry YouTube video by TheCureVEVO

(2/7) Back in 1979, The Cure famously wrote β€œBoys Don’t Cry” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GkV...), yet we all know that β€œBoys cry”. What makes us feel both sentences are acceptable? And what makes us accept β€œMosquitos transmit malaria”, even though only very few mosquitos actually do?

19.09.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

(1/7)πŸ“’ New paper by Vera Hoorens, felixhermans.bsky.social, and Susanne BruckmΓΌller in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social : β€œWhy Boys Cry and Don’t Cry. The Contextual-Statistical (ConStat) Approach to the Perceived Validity of Generics”. A small 🧡and link to the paper below!

19.09.2025 11:30 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Summary of design and results from our three studies. (A: Design) Each study used a similar experimental design, measuring both positive and negative demand in an online experiment, with three commonly-used task types (dictator game, vignette, intervention). Our experiments had ns β‰ˆ 250 per cell. (B: Results) Observed demand effects were statistically indistinguishable from zero. The plot shows means and 95% confidence intervals for standardized mean differences derived from frequentist analyses of each experiment and an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effect estimator pooling all experiments (solid bars). Prior measurements of experimenter demand from a previous dictator game experiment (de Quidt et al., 2018; standardized mean difference from regression coefficient) and a meta-analysis primarily including small-sample, in-person studies (Coles et al., 2025; Hedge’s g statistic) are also shown for comparison (striped bars). The main text includes Bayesian analyses that quantify our uncertainty.

Summary of design and results from our three studies. (A: Design) Each study used a similar experimental design, measuring both positive and negative demand in an online experiment, with three commonly-used task types (dictator game, vignette, intervention). Our experiments had ns β‰ˆ 250 per cell. (B: Results) Observed demand effects were statistically indistinguishable from zero. The plot shows means and 95% confidence intervals for standardized mean differences derived from frequentist analyses of each experiment and an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effect estimator pooling all experiments (solid bars). Prior measurements of experimenter demand from a previous dictator game experiment (de Quidt et al., 2018; standardized mean difference from regression coefficient) and a meta-analysis primarily including small-sample, in-person studies (Coles et al., 2025; Hedge’s g statistic) are also shown for comparison (striped bars). The main text includes Bayesian analyses that quantify our uncertainty.

We often hear from reviewers: "what about demand effects?" So we developed a method to eliminate them. Something weird happened during testing: We couldn’t detect demand effects in the first place! (1/8)

15.09.2025 17:18 πŸ‘ 86 πŸ” 40 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 6

It was a pleasure introducing PsyNet and its many applications at the Laboratory for Experimental Social Psychology today! Thanks @felixhermans.bsky.social for the invitation and all PsyNet developers, incl. @pmcharrison.bsky.social and @norijacoby.bsky.social for creating such an amazing platform!

10.09.2025 15:50 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Using Gibbs Sampling with People to characterize perceptual and aesthetic evaluations in multidimensional visual stimulus space Author(s): Van Geert, Eline; Jacoby, Nori | Abstract: Aesthetic appreciation is inherently multidimensional: many different stimulus dimensions (e.g., colors, shapes, sizes) contribute to our aestheti...

For people interested in some awesome open access work using PsyNet, see:
Gibbs sampling with people (Van Geert & Jacoby, 2024) escholarship.org/uc/item/1pc8...
Visual and auditory aesthetic preferences across cultures (Lee et al., 2025) escholarship.org/uc/item/60h1...

10.09.2025 14:16 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Tremendously grateful to @elinevg.bsky.social for providing an introduction to PsyNet (www.psynet.dev) at the Laboratory for Experimental Social Psychology in KU Leuven today!

PsyNet is a new platform uniquely suited to crafting complex experimental designs in an efficient manner!

10.09.2025 14:09 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

I had a fantastic time at the Computational Social Cognition Summer School at U of Birmingham!

What an amazing resource & opportunity for students.

Thanks to organizers @drjocutler.bsky.social Lei Zhang and @thepsychologist.bsky.social & the speakers, instructors, and students!

09.09.2025 11:43 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
OSF

Warning: this is *not* fake news! New preprint out w/ S. Kunkle & @kobedesender.bsky.social on how confidence-driven information seeking is suboptimal in the context of fake news πŸ“°πŸ”πŸ§΅ (1/6):
osf.io/preprints/ps...

08.09.2025 16:08 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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I had a great time in Birmingham learning and connecting with people about computational social cognition #CSC2025. Thanks Dr. Ili Ma & @alosecaatv.bsky.social for being great group leaders, and thanks to @drjocutler.bsky.social & @lei-zhang.bsky.social and everyone else for a great summer school

08.09.2025 11:51 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ§ͺ ReproducibiliTea Leuven invites you to discuss the future of peer review at our next journal club!
πŸ“… Oct 7, 2025 4PM-5.30PM
πŸ“ VHI 01.64 Dekenstraat 2 Leuven

Find out more and register here: tinyurl.com/39yzyw5h

#OpenScience #Academia #PublishOrPerish #PayforPublish

06.09.2025 13:20 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Amazing kick start to the Birmingham - Leiden #CSC2025 summer school from @drjocutler.bsky.social with her introductory lecture "Introduction to Computational Modelling: Theory"

03.09.2025 10:08 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#Day1 #CSC2025
Amazing insights on neural dynamics of good conversation by Prof. Diana Tamir from Princeton Uni. Followed by lectures on effort based discounting modelling.

03.09.2025 22:35 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#Day3 #CSC2025 Last day. Fantastic tutorial on bayesian modeling by @lei-zhang.bsky.social. Lectures on basis functions for social decisions @mkwittmann.bsky.social and social learning mechanisms. We presented our group work on empathy RL, thanks to @annesaulin.bsky.social for her mentorship. πŸ€—

05.09.2025 22:48 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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#Day2 #CSC2025 keynote on on modelling prejudices in social interactions by @davidamodio.bsky.social followed by a comprehensive tutorial on drifting diffusion modelling. πŸ“Š
Day ended with a walking tour of the city ✌️

04.09.2025 22:47 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Had a great time attending the Birmingham-Leiden Computational Social Cognition Summer School this week! Thanks to everyone who was part of #CSC2025 and especially to @drjocutler.bsky.social & @lei-zhang.bsky.social for leading the organization! 10/10 would recommend! More info on www.compsoccog.com

05.09.2025 22:30 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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CSC 2025

Today's the day we welcome over 80 participants, instructors & keynote speakers from all over the world to @uob-sop.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social for the Computational Social Cognition (CSC) Summer School with @leidenpsychology.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social

#CSC2025
www.compsoccog.com

02.09.2025 11:00 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 3
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At the 2025 Meeting of the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences this week, I received the Best PhD Thesis Award 2025. I am very grateful for this recognition of my research combining theory and experimentation and of my commitment to open and reproducible science!

@bapsciences.bsky.social

29.05.2025 18:22 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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Become our new colleague at the #kuleuven!↓↓↓
The Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences invites applications for a full-time Research Professorship in Experimental Cognitive Psychology within the B&C research unit.
#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

24.05.2025 08:01 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Cover of the Handbook of Social Psychology 6th edition 2025

Cover of the Handbook of Social Psychology 6th edition 2025

Since 1954, "The Handbook of Social Psychology" has been the field’s most authoritative reference work, and today is the launch of the 6th edition with 50 new chapters by 100 leading scholars. Best news? The HSP is now an open-access public resourceβ€”free to read, download, and share. the-hsp.com

19.05.2025 15:49 πŸ‘ 249 πŸ” 108 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 15