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Posts by Nick Ballou

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PhD Student in Meta-Science and Clinical Psychology - Universität Bern Universität Bern is looking for PhD Student in Meta-Science and Clinical Psychology

I’m hiring a PhD student!

The candidate will work alongside @zefreeman.bsky.social, who is joining our research group as postdoc.

jobs.unibe.ch/job-vacancie...

2 days ago 66 54 2 8
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Me, constructively imploring the authors of yet another moderated mediation paper to rethink their choices

[from @veryimportantpeople.dropout.tv - go subscribe to dropout, it's the only subscription I actively enjoy paying for]

1 week ago 1 0 0 0
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I wrote and posted this to Instagram a couple of days ago and it became my most-read poem ever. I’m honored I get to feel big feelings alongside you all. I’m posting it here too and want to use this space more consistently. Hello friends ❤️

1 week ago 8325 2291 295 115
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New hack: if you're unhappy with a set of findings, simply impersonate the authors and submit a retraction on their behalf

✨ problem solved ✨

3 weeks ago 4 1 0 0
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Based on sample of Nintendo Switch Online players, it turns out that folks tend to return to games from "when they were 10 years old" when engaging retro games!

Latest study that I was thrilled to contribute to, out of @oii.ox.ac.uk: psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

3 weeks ago 8 1 0 0
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The Enshittificator Digital products and services keep getting worse. In the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council has delved…

This informational video on enshittification by the Norwegian Consumer Council is absolutely glorious.

1 month ago 37 18 1 3
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🚨New pre-print🚨

osf.io/preprints/ps...

What if the relationship between smartphone use and mental health depends not just on specific harmful or beneficial activities, but also on how users transition between activities?

1 month ago 51 20 3 3
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Experimentum: Trust and Parasocial Attatchment to AI in Higher Education Psychology experiments at the University of Glasgow

A thesis student is looking at parasocial attachment to generative AI in undergraduate and postgraduate students. The questionnaire will take about 10 minutes. Please pass the study link on to anyone who might be interested.

exp.psy.gla.ac.uk/project?para...

1 month ago 4 8 0 0
Bad If True: How Participatory Science Can Be a Warning System for Digital Harms - Innovation at Consumer Reports Breaking through the traffic jam of tech harms with participatory research and early warning systems

How can scientists avoid gaslighting people about digital harms and contribute to solutions — while also maintaining our commitment to following the evidence?

New post out with Alan Smith, manager of Community Leadership for @consumerreports.org

innovation.consumerreports.org/bad-if-true-...

2 months ago 14 5 1 1
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Today, we presented the main results of the mental health days study 2025 (N = 8.177).

Results

> In May 2025, Austria implemented a nationwide smartphone-ban at schools
> Compared to 2024, smartphone use went down by 30 mins
> Life satisfaction went up (5.36 to 5.52)
> Depression sank (15% to 12%)

3 months ago 29 10 2 0
OSF

made me think about @cjvanlissa.bsky.social and co's recent work (doi.org/10.31234/osf...) as well as a much less incisive but aligned piece I wrote about problems in psych games research during my PhD (osf.io/fp89z)

3 months ago 3 1 0 0
While we can continue to identify the factors atplay indefinitely,  this digresses the literature intoa  fact-gathering  exercise.   And  such  an  exerciseis not enough to spawn cumulative understanding.In  the  words  of  Poincaré,  "[s]cience  is  built  upof facts,  as a house is built of stones;  but an ac-cumulation  of  facts  is  no  more  a  science  than  aheap of stones is a house" (Poincaré, 1905, ch. 9)

While we can continue to identify the factors atplay indefinitely, this digresses the literature intoa fact-gathering exercise. And such an exerciseis not enough to spawn cumulative understanding.In the words of Poincaré, "[s]cience is built upof facts, as a house is built of stones; but an ac-cumulation of facts is no more a science than aheap of stones is a house" (Poincaré, 1905, ch. 9)

finally got around to reading @tobiasdienlin.com @yesuncomm.bsky.social & @lennertcoenen.bsky.social's "A simple future for media effects research"

Such a clear and compelling summary of why we (media researchers, but really any psych-adjacent field) are stuck and how to dig ourselves out

3 months ago 7 1 2 0

UX complaint of the day: can we please agree to call it "country of citizenship" instead of "nationality" in web forms so I don't have to check every time whether the available option is American/United States or Netherlands/Dutch

4 months ago 1 0 0 0
The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis | Scientia Psychiatrica Introduction: The proliferation of social media has raised significant concerns about its potential effects on the mental health of adolescents. This meta-analysis aims to provide a comprehensive asse...

So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.

Here's what happened:

scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...

4 months ago 146 75 5 20
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What an obsequious, toadying, servile, brown-nosing, corrupt little cunt Gianni Infantino is.

The FIFA 'peace prize' is the most cringe-worthy, pathetic thing I've ever seen in my life.

Football deserves better than this travesty of a ceremony and ruling body.

4 months ago 1933 431 153 59
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We Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense.

Incredible interview with the Roblox CEO, immediately combative and somehow in favor of implementing prediction markets for children.

I'm generally supportive of their new age assurance safety features, but without independent auditing, my trust remains very low.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/p...

4 months ago 1 0 0 0
A screenshot of the article title "Disconnect to Recharge: Well-Being Benefits of Digital Disconnection in Daily Life" and the abstract.

A screenshot of the article title "Disconnect to Recharge: Well-Being Benefits of Digital Disconnection in Daily Life" and the abstract.

📬 Pub alert

Do effects of digital disconnection interventions translate to well-being benefits in *daily life*?

Our new ESM study concludes: yes but no... kinda 👽🔋
@klingelhoefer.bsky.social @adrianmeier.bsky.social

Out now in Communication Research
doi.org/10.1177/0093...

5 months ago 33 13 2 3
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NEW PREPRINT 💡

Together with @dougaparry.bsky.social, I just published a new preprint experimentally examining how specific normative cues on social media shape self-disclosure using an innovative simulation approach.

Link: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Read on for more information (1/9) 👇

5 months ago 11 8 1 0

American TV commercials have always been unhinged but I've never felt like so much of a foreigner as this past visit home. Just non-stop sports gambling and pharmaceuticals, on broadcasts like the world series with millions of children watching. A ticking time bomb with a very short fuse.

5 months ago 0 0 0 0
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dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap `genzplyr` is an alternative syntax for `dplyr` that replaces boring old function names with GenZ slang. Your data wrangling is about to hit different.

I love this so much, and will absolutely being using squad_up() instead of group_by() and main_character() instead of pull() from now on, reviewers don't @ me

hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

5 months ago 3 0 0 0
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New release of PowerLMM.js! Browser-based power analysis for longitudinal models with dropout.

Now includes:
- Power analysis summary report
- Reproducible & shareable configs (URL/JSON)
- Calculations validated against R
- Hypothesis region visualization

powerlmmjs.rpsychologist.com

5 months ago 96 44 4 2
An aerial photograph of the Tilburg University campus.

An aerial photograph of the Tilburg University campus.

I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social.

We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.

tiu.nu/22989

5 months ago 49 53 1 3

is this a separate list from a normal to-do list, or you just consciously order your todos by priority from time to time?

6 months ago 0 0 1 0

yes, the menial sense of accomplishment from productive procrastination definitely sustains this trick I'm playing on myself! Worth a shot to try blocking different half days for it.

6 months ago 1 0 0 0

oh this looks really interesting, thanks for sharing!

6 months ago 1 0 0 0

As a PhD student, one of my most adaptive habits was doing any <30m task immediately, to clear time for focused work.

The problem is, now <30m tasks could fill most work days, but I can't shake the habit - I want the peace of mind before undertaking chunky work. How do other people handle this?

6 months ago 7 0 6 0
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Why gaming can be good for your mental health - BBC Bitesize Gaming can positively impact mental health balancing mood, help build social connections and provide a safe space to explore identity.

New! Did you know gaming can improve your mental health? Watch @nballou.bsky.social @mentalhealthoii.bsky.social @oii.ox.ac.uk explaining how gaming can lift your mood in this new film from BBC Bitesize. #gaming bit.ly/4pEKWYQ

6 months ago 2 3 0 0

🚨 New Preprint 🚨

Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media.

🧵

Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited?

It turns out, yes!

7 months ago 31 8 1 6
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GAMES: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE | ACM Digital Library Games: Research and Practice offers a lighthouse for games research – a central reference point that defines the state of the art on games and playable media across academic research and industry practice. Inclusive in community, discipline, method, and game form, it publishes major reviews, tutorials, and advances on games and playable media that are both practically useful and grounded in robust evidence and argument, alongside case studies, opinions, and dialogues on new developments that will change games. It embraces open science and scholarship and actively champions new and underrepresented voices in games and playable media.

Annoyed by gross/sexist/AI/... slop in mobile game ads?

Now is the time to write about it!

Submit to @acmgames.bsky.social Special Issue on Game Advertising, submission deadline Oct 31.

All details here: dl.acm.org/journal/game...

7 months ago 2 2 0 0
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Forget Tomb Raider and Uncharted, there’s a new generation of games about archaeology – sort of In this week’s newsletter: an archaeologist (and gamer) on why we love to walk around finding objects in-game and in real life

I wrote a piece for the Guardian games newsletter this week on my PhD research into preserving play experiences, and why I think that the most archaeological games are those that that actually make you *think* like one 🏺

www.theguardian.com/games/2025/s...

7 months ago 228 82 10 4