Check out @hellovic.bsky.social's new paper on the moralization of AI: osf.io/preprints/ps.... Ort check out a cool infographic of the paper.
10.03.2026 00:23
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Check out @hellovic.bsky.social's new paper on the moralization of AI: osf.io/preprints/ps.... Ort check out a cool infographic of the paper.
Check out my student @hellovic.bsky.social's new paper: The Moralization of Artificial Intelligence
With @reemayad.bsky.social, @eloisecote.bsky.social, @yoelinbar.net, and Jason Plaks
Three cheers for humility about AI and limits of human understanding. Resonates with how I've been thinking about AI, empathy, metascience with @minzlicht.bsky.social @jdweng.bsky.social @mgreinecke.bsky.social @jimaceverett.bsky.social. Well written and incisive, this post is really worth a read.
I agree with this. We should do all we can to black students feel welcome. But...and I stresss...we did not need the theory/phenomenon of stereotype threat to reach this conclusion.
Am I understanding this correctly: two out of three threat conditions did not impact performance at all? Cool that the race prime appears to be robust, but what do you make of the other two conditions? What does this mean for the stereotyope evoked-->performance decrement prediction?
Fair enough. But just so we're clear: do you think the supreme court would have listened to arguments based on people feeling uneasy but it not reliably changing academic performance? You don't see this as a theory that is degenerating? (Caveat: I still need to get my head around your perf data).
You didn't list the effect size...I'm too lazy to look it up myself!
I would certainly count even a small effect on the Ravens as important. I haven't seen the data Patrick is referring to, but I also noted his wording "but only if you used the right operationalization of threat". This does not scream general, broad, repliable. But that's just me...
Wrote up my impressions of this year's SPSP conference. A 21-year analysis of the field's political drift, a tribute to Sam Sommers, AI-generated slides with zero apology, and a party I maybe shouldn't have attended.
open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...
Terrible, Phoebe. Also, that @andrewsullivan.skystack.xyz is now retweeting MTG. Oy!
So what you're saying is stereotype threat is reduced to vibes? I agree that it's real in the sense that people feel apprehensive, but if that apprehension does not reliably impact performance that is a MASSIVE step back from original claims.
Fun to read this after my post on stereotype threat was republished by @jayvanbavel.bsky.social et al. I don't agree with all that Mary wrote, but it's worth a read. One place I'll push back: if stereotype threat only really affects feelings (and not performance) would it have made the same impact?
Today Dominic Packer & @jayvanbavel.bsky.social republished @minzlicht.bsky.social's post about "The Downfall of Stereotype Threat" in their widely-read The Power Of Us newsletter. I felt a certain way about that & the evidence presented there & thought I'd respond:
4/ You don't need to be a current SSM member. You just need to find motivation interesting (broadly construed) and be plugged into the Psychonomics community enough to pull together a compelling program.
If this sounds like you--or you know someone it sounds like--please reach out.
3/ What we need: someone willing to chair the application and organize a half-day or full-day meeting. The Psychonomic Society provides solid logistical support, and the application process is straightforward. The 2025 deadline was May 31st, so we're likely on a similar timeline for 2026.
2/ SSM has traditionally been seen as a social psychology group housed within APS, but we're trying to reach new audiences. Motivation research spans cognitive, social, developmental, and neuroscience--and Psychonomics draws exactly the kind of researchers we want to connect with.
1/ Calling all Psychonomics people who care about motivation.
The Society for the Science of Motivation (SSM) is looking for someone to organize a preconference ("Affiliate Meeting") at the 2026 Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting.
4/ AI helped me write this post. Am I a hypocrite?
The struggle to craft a social media update probably isn't building my character. The struggle to think an argument through? That's worth protecting.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
3/ We're not luddites. Washing machines good. AI summarizing your inbox, fine. But AI writing your papers and doing your thinking for you? That's what we're worried about.
2/ Struggle teaches us things. Loneliness, as awful as it is, pushes us toward real connection. Effort makes our work feel like ours.
Strip all that away and you get faster output, fewer skills, and a sense that nothing you do quite matters.
1/ New paper in Communications Psychology: Against Frictionless AI. Led by my student Emily Zohar and @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social.
The argument: AI's greatest selling point is also its problem.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Uncontroversial?! Aren't you saying that AI *might be* useful on...you know...the good place?!
I'm sure this post will get lots of love here!
New paper in Current Directions in Psych Science: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
After countless arguments about what tasks ppl should/should not offload to AI, we instead argue that genAI can be used *augment* research protocols in novel ways. I.e. use AI to make better psych experiments!
Digital artwork of a person seated on a bench in a vibrant, stylized park setting, holding a framed picture of a cloudy sky. To the side is a red lamp and behind are abstract wave patterns.
#UTSC student Dariya Ovsyannikova and Professor Michael Inzlicht share research on AI and empathy: why chatbot responses can be rated as more compassionate, what that says about how we listen, and why safeguards matter when people turn to bots for support, via BBC Online bbc.in/4qXU0rq
#UofT
Conference season is here. Many of you are doing it wrong. You flew across the country to check your email in a different city. New post on what conferences are actually for.
open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...
Preprint of "Wise Empathy Improves Well-being on Instagram" is now available: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Effects of social media on well-being vary, and depend greatly on online experiences. Here, we present a wise empathy intervention to change digital experiences and improve well-being. #empathy 1/4
6/ This project was led by the amazing Jessica Bo (PhD student in CS) and collaboratos, Majeed Kazemitabaar, Mengqing Deng, and Ashton Anderson
arxiv.org/pdf/2510.03667
5/ Sycophancy is more than just a tone problem, it's also a learning problem. LLMs trained to maximize user satisfaction will keep reinforcing whatever you already believe. That's fine if you're right. It's a trap if you're not, and novices are wrong more often.
4/ The alarming part: 71% of participants couldn't tell the difference between the chatbots. They rated helpfulness, reliability, and enjoyment equally, despite one of them actively making them worse at the task. People attributed the difference to their own prompting, not the bot.