In case you missed it - here's a little recap of what we did at the end of the SAS 2026 conference! #SAS2026

Words matter 💬 This plenary brought together perspectives on how language shapes emotion regulation, development, & experience—from psychotherapy to childhood to insights from classical India. A powerful reminder of the deep links between words, feelings, and wellbeing. #SAS2026

We're a little late in posting these last bits, but don't forget about the incredible presidential symposium discussing what affective science can learn about affective by also studying plants, animals, and AI! #SAS2026

More awards to recognize!! We want to recognize our best poster and flash talk winners, our winners for best paper of the year, and last but not least all our diversity award winners. Such great work going on at SAS! #sas2026

Another round of applause for our 2026 winners for best dissertation award, early career award, and mid career award! Congratulations Nada, Kieran, Desmond, Hedy, and Sheri! #SAS2026

Congratulations to the winners of the @inclivio.com draw - @lisastarr.bsky.social , @gregdepow.bsky.social, and Christian Waugh - on each receiving a free license to run an EMA study! 🎉📱

So long Pittsburgh and @affectscience.bsky.social!

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Clinical Affective Science precon! It was a thrill just to be in a shared space with you all.

And congrats to my lab for rocking SAS!⭐️

Had THE BEST time hearing about alllll the exciting developmental affective science happening at @affectscience.bsky.social. Huuuuuuge thanks to @profmorningstar.bsky.social for being an amazing precon co-organizer 🌟

Two blond women smile at the camera in a restaurant. They look tired, like they got no sleep on a travel day

Ppt slide - image of a young family smiling and holding each other outdoors. Title “Affective touch and social connection”

Slide depicting a study design “study 5” with emojis - people who reported they slept to regulate their emotions

Two books on a bedspread - Open to Emotion and The Social Biome

So long @affectscience.bsky.social and thanks for all the new science! Loved connecting with the great @heatherurry.bsky.social and @brethelhaurwitz.bsky.social (we forgot to take a pic! I blame Matt), and arrived home to new books already

What's YOUR favorite part about going to a conference?? Take a look at what this year's attendees had to say! #SAS2026

We’re heading to San Diego for #SAS2027! 🌴☀️
And our new president, Chris Oveis, is already promising us a waterslide at the conference location!

What a great way to end an inspiring conference: the final program point of #SAS2026 - a presidential symposium on Rethinking Emotions: Lessons from Animals, Machines, and Plants, featuring fantastic panelists Kristen Lindquist, Karen Bales, Jonathan Gratch, and Karl Niklas.

Another big thank you to Springer Nature for sponsoring SAS2026! #sas2026

@sprofficial.bsky.social ✖️ @affectscience.bsky.social water bottle conference crossover!

Scenes from Pittsburgh #sas2026 @affectscience.bsky.social

Had a lot of fun at yesterday's keynote symposium re: the ties that bond with Tristen and Jeffrey! Who could have expected to see Keanu Reeves and a pair of socks make an appearance :P Check out both of their work to learn more about how to increase social connection! #SAS2026

@mattsouthward.bsky.social shares how NOT regulating one's emotions is common--mostly when ppl don't feel the need. BUT! It's important to consider the reason behind choices because his team ALSO found diffs in outcomes depending on WHY participants chose not to regulate! @affectscience.bsky.social

Super inspiring work from Yulia, Mark, and Jose in yesterday's diversity symposium discussing how to rethink our approaches to studying cultural context! #SAS2026

How do we best communicate @affectscience.bsky.social??

Jonathan Gratch, Kristen Lindquist, & Karl Niklas advocate seeking out formal communications training.

Jonathan Gratch notes in an interview that you don’t have to answer the question asked but use it as a prompt for what you want to say

Wow - what a pre-conference! It was a thrill to co-host the first ever Developmental Affective Science pre-conference to the @affectscience.bsky.social conference this week. I was blown away by the group's energy, enthusiasm, and ideas! 🪴

Luis Flores found that the combination of reappraisal and handholding led to greater reductions in negative affect and negative self-beliefs than either strategy alone @affectscience.bsky.social

Such an apt emotion for the situation 😭 we hope to catch you at SAS 2027!!

When you're at a gathering of affective scientists...you just HAVE to ask their favorite emotion! We asked, and the answers at poster session 1 didn't disappoint--tons of variety (even multiple languages!).

What's YOUR favorite emotion?

#SAS2026

What is loneliness and what can we do about it?? @affectscience.bsky.social

Anita Restrepo showed that undergrads who were lonelier worked harder for others than less lonelier undergrads (but still worked harder regardless of loneliness when working for themselves) regardless of gain/loss framing

Join us for an exciting lineup of talks focusing on emotion differentiation/granularity TOMORROW (Saturday) morning! Looking forward to it! With @amycarolus.bsky.social, @elisekalo.bsky.social, Yiqin Zhu, and Megan Korhummel. #SAS2026
@affectscience.bsky.social

Check out our symposium on translational approaches to loneliness and emotion tomorrow at 9:45am! @affectscience.bsky.social @mattsouthward.bsky.social

Starting off strong with a great welcome from our conference program co-chairs, Katie & Desmond, an informative update from our president, Rachael Jack, and rounding out with an amazing set of talks from Julie, Nick, & Stephen about their work with AI to support mental health!

Nick Jacobson shows us how we might *think* we could use AI to develop a good mental health app @affectscience.bsky.social

However, therapy transcripts aren’t the most enlightening 😅

Shoutout to Nick for doing the hard work to generate an efficacious chatbot!

home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/03...

Bonus pic from the Developmental Affective Science preconference! Add your precon pics to the thread!

Here for @affectscience.bsky.social #sas2026 to kick off with a symposium dive into AI, empathetic support, and therapy