Americans are more polarized in their trust in scientists than in virtually any other societal institution. — James N. Druckman.
(@umisrcps.bsky.social)
More, via Opinion Today:
opiniontoday.substack.com/p/260420-top...
“We synthesize emerging evidence that a tiny number of highly active users drives a disproportionate share of misinformation and toxicity, and explain how platform incentives reward moralized, identity-salient, and emotionally charged content.”
We reviewed @noupside.bsky.social fantastic book "INVISIBLE RULERS" and connected it to the research we have been doing on this topic for the past decade.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
This was written with @rmpillai.bsky.social & @steverathje.bsky.social
We conclude by outlining pragmatic responses—individual, institutional, and policy-level—and by highlighting how generative AI could either accelerate bespoke realities or help rebuild shared understanding, depending on how these systems are designed and governed. osf.io/preprints/ps...
We synthesize emerging evidence that a tiny number of highly active users drives a disproportionate share of misinformation and toxicity, and explain how platform incentives reward moralized, identity-salient, and emotionally charged content.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
The modern information environment enables a tyranny of the minority: extreme & coordinated voices dominate attention, distort perceived social norms, and create a “funhouse mirror” version of public opinion that makes fringe positions look common and conflict look inevitable. osf.io/preprints/ps...
A small fraction of online actors exerts outsized influence over what the public sees, believes, and discusses. In a new paper, we trace how social media influencers turn fringe claims into viral narratives by exploiting a feedback loop between influencers, algorithms & crowds
osf.io/preprints/ps...
A new paper questions the quality of many authoritarianism scales (eg RWA) as they are confounded with cultural.
"Political Intolerance" is the best measure of authoritarianism, suggesting that the disapproval of belief diversity might be a core aspect of authoritarianism.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
The moment "I" becomes "we," something shifts—our decisions. In the @nextbigidea.bsky.social Podcast we reveal how group identity shapes everything from performance to conflict
Nichola Raihani explains why cooperation—not competition—is the real engine of success.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...
Thanks--I always enjoy Chicago!
Open-mindedness was the strongest predictor of *rejecting* conspiracy theories in a sample of 46,745 participants in 68 nations
In particular, participants who were threatened by people who disagree with them were the most likely to believe conspiracy theories.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
I was at the University of Chicago this week for a conference on one the central challenges of our time:
How AI and social media are distorting public discourse, political polarization, online hatred, misinformation, and democratic governance.
See more here:
www.chicagobooth.edu/research/sti...
When people use AI for writing assistance, it can shift their political attitudes by autocompleting sentences in biased ways.
Yet people are often unaware of the AI bias & it's influence
This is not merely about the facts presented, but how autocomplete worlds
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
It’s a classic social dilemma.
Watch the AI doc as this dilemma permeates every level of AI adoption, from the arms race between companies and countries, all the way down to individual academics.
70% of people don’t feel loved as much or as often as they’d like, this new book explains who to build stronger relationships
The 3 words that everyone loves to hear? They’re not “I love you" or "you were right".
Those three words are “tell me more.” www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/how-to-fee...
Contrary to common wisdom, open-mindedness predicts *support* for public health measures and *disbelief* in conspiracy theories, research by Pärnamets et al, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 68 countries, suggests:
buff.ly/XqbAbM0
HT @jayvanbavel.bsky.social
#AcademicSky
This looks like an important paper.
I've had convos with conspiracy theorists who claim that they are simply more open-minded than me (for instance, on where they source their "news").
Which feels an unfair argument. I'm to be impressed bc you're "open" to low-quality information?
Why do two people look at the same evidence and reach completely opposite conclusions?
I discussed selective attention, sycophantic AI, political tribalism, and how it impacts leadership on the Culture Changers Podcast with Allison Hare: youtu.be/-upTCa6s7oc
Open-mindedness was the strongest predictor of *rejecting* conspiracy theories in a sample of 46,745 participants in 68 nations
In particular, participants who were threatened by people who disagree with them were the most likely to believe conspiracy theories.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Bravo— very well deserved!
AI assistance reduces persistence and impairs performance:
People were more likely to give up on problems and performed significantly worse once the AI was removed, compared to people who never used AI.
Using AI for hints did not produce significant impairments
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/o...
This new report from Yale explains why universities have lost public trust and how to regain it
The committee offered dozens of recommendations, like expanding financial aid, reducing admissions preferences, protecting free speech and adjusting grading policies:
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/u...
The story of ed tech is a repeated loop of massive hype and massive disappointment
See MOOCs, and now AI
Evidence can interrupt this unproductive cycle
The Stanford SCALE Initiative, led by rock star Prof Susanna Loeb, brings evidence to the conversation scale.stanford.edu/sites/defaul...
Losing SLACs (small liberal arts colleges) is absolutely a sign of American academia's decline and the gutting of the humanities in particular.
I'm pretty sure SLACs are a uniquely American phenomenon. Most countries don't have hundreds of small, non-research-oriented colleges dedicated to teaching.
@michael.muthukrishna.com and I are hiring a postdoc to join our labs at NYU! We're looking for someone excited to work on one of society's newly emerging and potentially generation-shaping challenges: the multi-agent alignment problem.
I've been thinking the same thing over the past year:
Fighting corruption is smart politically and also crucial for building a healthier society with trustworthy institutions.
"The Economics of Language" argues that people do not respond only to outcomes. They also respond to how those outcomes are described. The words we use shape our thoughts and actions.
Call a Prisoner’s Dilemma a “community game” and cooperation increases.
cambridgeblog.org/2026/03/beha...
Online hostility is predicted by economic & political inequality
Inequality breeds online hostility because people crave status in unequal societies and status-seekers constitute the main perpetrators of hostility in political settings, whether online or offline.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Other-condemning rhetoric—expressions of moral outrage that criticize others’ morality—increases all forms of online engagement (views, likes, comments) across cultures!
This is from an analysis of 400,000 YouTube videos of major news outlets in the US & Korea
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
