Tune in: RCGD’s Stephen Garcia on the psychology of competition! @apajournals.bsky.social
Follow @rcgd-isr.bsky.social for social science research on human behavior.
graphic with light gray background and faint network line pattern; top left isthe ISR logo; large navy headline reads NEXT GENERATION INITIATIVE; across the upper right is a white paper airplane with a dotted flight path; center row shows three polaroid style photo frames with white borders and navy circular icons above each: left photo shows three students collaborating at a table with a laptop and caption Graduate Training with a graduation cap icon; middle photo shows a woman presenting and pointing to a research poster and caption Research Development with a microscope icon; right photo shows a man speaking in front of a screen and caption Leadership in Social Science with an upward chart icon; below is a wide arrow band with three segments reading 700 +, $300k +, and Since 2001 with the Since 2001 segment in yellow; bottom row has three icon panels with captions: a three person icon with the text Emerging Scholars Supported, a stack of money icon with the text Invested Annually, and a mountain peak with a flag icon with the text Supporting Future Leaders; bottom left shows a yellow lightbulb icon; along the bottom is a badge style circle with the number 25 and surrounding text reading 25 YEARS OF TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF FUTURE SOCIAL SCIENTISTS.
ISR Next Generation Initiative invests in future social science leaders. This year marks Next Gen’s 25th anniversary, celebrating 25 years of supporting scholars.
Since 2001, donor funded awards have supported 700+ graduate students, postdocs and early career faculty at the University of Michigan.
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series How Hormones and Sensory Cues Shape the Parental Bain Kristina Smiley March 29 3:30 to 5:00 PM ISR Thompson 1430
Parental care is vital for offspring across all species. TODAY: University of Michigan’s Kristina Smiley will present her findings on how the hormone prolactin promotes parental behavior:
buff.ly/7KDpNHg
Exploring the Mind AADL series: Improving the Science of Making Decisions: From Classic Theories to AI, Monday March 9 at 6 pm at the Ann Arbor District Downtown Library
👀 Human psychology sometimes gets in the way of making the optimal decisions. RCGD director Rich Gonzalez presents at the @aadl.org Exploring the Mind series on Monday: "Improving the Science of Making Decisions: From Classic Theories to AI"
aadl.org/node/645495
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series How Hormones and Sensory Cues Shape the Parental Bain Kristina Smiley March 29 3:30 to 5:00 PM ISR Thompson 1430
Parental care is vital for offspring across all species. University of Michigan’s Kristina Smiley will present her findings on how the hormone prolactin promotes parental behavior at the upcoming @rcgd-isr.bsky.social seminar!
buff.ly/7KDpNHg
We're all connected. But how...exactly?
A quick dip into the history of network analysis in social science.
Interested in the history of social science? Postwar UM researchers and founders of @rcgd-isr.bsky.social made groundbreaking discoveries about how relationships work and advanced foundational methods used widely today to understand networks.
myumi.ch/8q6qk
The Winter 2026 issue of the American Academy of Arts & Science's Bulletin is online, w/ the transcript of my talk & conversation about our constant lifetime companion, our ignorance, focusing on new directions from the lab. From the Induction Weekend.
www.amacad.org/bulletin/win...
Christine Dunkel Schetter holds up an old edition of SRC's Interviewer's Manual (revised ed)
Presenting for @rcgd-isr.bsky.social on prenatal anxiety, Chris Dunkel-Schetter noted all her studies applied strong survey research methodology. "How do I know? Because I taught myself using the Interviewer's Manual from the Survey Research Center @um-src.bsky.social at @umisr.bsky.social." #GoBlue
AI Dunning-Kruger in factchecking across languages:
"Smaller models show high confidence despite lower accuracy, larger models higher accuracy but lower confidence. Gaps most pronounced for claims from the Global South, threatening to widen information inequalities."
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Website launch! The Research to Practice Lab, housed by the University of Michigan Research Center for Group Dynamics, runs community-based, participatory research. The image shows the lab's new website, featuring a group photo of the Family Safety Net project in Alaska.
Led by Lisa Wexler, the Research to Practice (R2P) Lab runs participatory research programs animated by community and interdisciplinary collaboration, scientific, cultural and local knowledges, and reciprocal relationships. Check out its projects and opportunities at r2p.isr.umich.edu!
New work from MiCDA @umisr.bsky.social WSUPsychology affiliate Amanda Leggett in
Social Science & Medicine
Loss, inflammation, and cognition: Understanding the lifecourse impact of early life parental disruption
myumi.ch/pVQ4J
NOT attending #spsp2026 in any way, shape, or form? Here's the paper! spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...
NOT going to Chicago for #spsp2026? Join us at the Trust and Cooperation Preconference for some work on representations of police and space, and why neighborhoods lowest in trust are seen as deserving less trustworthy officers.
❤️ Attachment theory may provide insights into how you relate to other adults-- Robin Edelstein's research on relationships is cited this month in the @us.theconversation.com. Join RCGD Mondays for Edelstein's seminar series on social relationships.
theconversation.com/valentines-d...
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series Prenatal and Preconception Stress & Anxiety: Consequences for Women and Offspring Chris Dunkel Schetter Feb. 23 3:30 to 5:00 PM ISR Thompson 1430
Anxiety during pregnancy has the potential to impact maternal and child outcomes. Chris Dunkel Schetter will share her findings on how anxiety plays a role in maternal health today during @rcgd-isr.bsky.social seminar!
buff.ly/7KDpNHg
Bolu Dogari, Junior Professional Researcher @rcgd-isr.bsky.social alum, will share how standard preprocessing in EDA/physio studies lead to disparate exclusion of Black people, and what recruitment/QC can do about it- at both Critical Perspectives precon and main #spsp2025 conf!
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series Prenatal and Preconception Stress & Anxiety: Consequences for Women and Offspring Chris Dunkel Schetter Feb. 23 3:30 to 5:00 PM ISR Thompson 1430
Anxiety has the potential to impact maternal and child outcomes when it comes to pregnancy. Chris Dunkel Schetter will share her findings on how anxiety plays a role in maternal health at the upcoming @rcgd-isr.bsky.social seminar!
buff.ly/7KDpNHg
University of Michigan postdoc Kareena del Rosario joined us to talk about emotions, which are inherently interpersonal. We're affected by feelings we're exposed to, and our well-being can depend on how we respond to others. Follow @rcgd-isr.bsky.social for more on the science of relationships.
Bright announcement for ICPSR Summer Program scholarships with a March 1 application deadline and over $400K available.
Scholarship applications the 2026 ICPSR Summer Program close Sunday! Over $400k in scholarships available! Apply by March 1. For more details: myumi.ch/ICPSRscholarships
#SumProg26 #ICPSR #QuantitativeMethods #ScholarshipOpportunities #GraduateStudies #DataScienceEducation #ResearchTraining
University of Michigan postdoc Kareena del Rosario joined us to talk about emotions, which are inherently interpersonal. We're affected by feelings we're exposed to, and our well-being can depend on how we respond to others. Follow @rcgd-isr.bsky.social for more on the science of relationships.
Our new preprint explains why social media creates a funhouse mirror--a distorted perception of social norms.
Because extreme voices dominate discourse on most topics, users develop a false sense of shared norms on most topics
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Led by Claire Robertson Kareena del Rosario
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series The Hormone-Brain Dynamics of Social Positioning Kathleen Casto Feb. 16 3:30 to 5:00 pm ISR Thompson 1430
How and why humans have a desire for social closeness, or comparison, could be explained by brain-hormone dynamics. Kent State's Kathleen Casto will present findings from her lab on this matter today at the weekly @rcgd-isr.bsky.social seminar!
buff.ly/7KDpNHg
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series Bridging Relationship Science and Psychoneuroimmunology: How Partners Shape Each Other's Health and Longevity Rosie Shrout March 16 3:30 to 5:00 PM ISR Thompson 1430
Relationships have the potential to provide health benefits, alongside health issues, depending on different factors. British Columbia’s @rosieshrout.bsky.social will present findings that relationships are a public health priority at the upcoming @rcgd-isr.bsky.social seminar!
buff.ly/7KDpNHg
RCGD Winter 2026 Seminar Series The Hormone-Brain Dynamics of Social Positioning Kathleen Casto Feb. 16 3:30 to 5:00 pm ISR Thompson 1430
How and why humans have a desire for social closeness, or comparison, may be explained by brain-hormone dynamics. Kent State’s Kathleen Casto will present her findings on this matter at the upcoming @rcgd-isr.bsky.social seminar! More information on the series can be found here: buff.ly/7KDpNHg
Elizabeth F.S. Roberts: In Praise of Addiction, or How We can Learn to Love Dependency in a Damaged World. Book event is at Literati bookstore, 124 E Washington St. in Ann arbor on 2/11/26 at 6:30 pm
"What if addiction could bind us together instead of tearing us apart?" TOMORROW at @literatibookstore.bsky.social: RCGD medical anthropologist Liz Roberts joins @ulabeast.bsky.social for a talk on her book, In Praise of Addiction. literatibookstore.com/event/2026-0...
Abstract: What motivates people to contribute to Wikipedia? Have you heard of Nupedia? Why do software engineers contribute code to open source projects? Why do technology companies release their large language models as "open weight"? Why has participation declined on Stack Overflow since the release of ChatGPT, but not on the programming subreddit? Why do some crowdfunding sites succeed while others fail? Underlying each of these questions is a more fundamental one: how can social scientists, computer and information scientists and practitioners use social science theories combined with information technology to increase contributions to public goods? To explore this question, my book, "Digital Public Goods", introduces (1) case studies from the technology sector to set up the problems; (2) social science theories of motivation, production, informational nudges, identity and teams, goal setting, and reputation, together with their field implementations using information technologies, as solutions; and (3) experimental evaluations of these theories and solutions. The goal of this book is to merge the latest research in the scholarly literature with successful practices used by digital platforms to provide scholars, students and practitioners with the intellectual tools they need to develop an understanding of digital public goods provision.
Cooperation Colloquium this week:
Yan Chen @yanchenl.bsky.social
Digital public goods: Crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and user-generated content
Date: February 13
Time: 15:00 UTC+1 (Vienna) / 9 ET (NYC)
Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...
Incoming APS President @umpamdk.bsky.social describes the role indirect costs play in the university research landscape, as well as the important role of universities in their local economies, and what's at stake if those indirect costs are cut. #AcademicSky
@umisr.bsky.social is now accepting applications for the 2026 Junior Professional Researcher Program cohort.
JPRP is a two-year paid gig for recent college grads who are considering a career in social science research.
isr.umich.edu/training-opp...
💗 PRBA has named caregiving researcher Florence Johnson of UM Nursing the recipient of the 2026 James S. Jackson Emerging Scholar Award. RCGD's Program for Research on Black Americans carries a legacy of mentorship and foundational social research of Black Americans.
myumi.ch/2rWpe
