In 2018, Charles Murray challenged me to a bet: "We will understand IQ genetically—I think most of the picture will have been filled in by 2025—there will still be blanks—but we’ll know basically what’s going on." It's now 2025, and I claim a win. I write about it in The Atlantic.
Yesterday I posted about how I used comet browser to take a Qualtrics survey almost undetected. Last night, I ran a pilot (N=400) on @joinprolific.bsky.social . I found that almost 10% of "respondents" identified as AI when directly asked.
Stacks of coins arranged in descending order on a wooden table with a person writing on a clipboard in the background.
📊 New research challenges assumptions about values and well-being. Study of 75 countries finds that personal-focused values may actually benefit people in lower-resource contexts more than social-focused ones.
Read more in #PSPB: ow.ly/uNSs50WwHZN
Everyone knows what an emotion is, until asked to give a definition. Then, it seems, no one knows. Most may agree that anger, fear, sadness, and excitement are among the em o- tions. But is pain, hunger, alienation, courage, loneliness, religious awe,startle, or lust? Are emotions mental, physiological, or behavioral events? Are some emotions more "basic" than others, and if so, which ones? Is it legitimate to speak of emotions in infants, cats, birds, insects? We have yet to reach agreement on answers to such questions, or more important, to agree on how such questions could be set- tied.
"Everyone knows what an emotion is until asked to give a definition. Then, it seems, no one knows." (1984)
psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-...
"The underlying problem is that scientists still don't agree on how to define an emotion." (2025)
www.npr.org/2025/06/01/n...
(No shade here - it's hard).
a tiny white and black bulldog puppy stands with his front paws resting on a bar that has weights taller than him on either side. four people stand around the gym and look on as this pup commits to his weightlifting goals. we would absolutely spot him.
This pup just started their fitness journey and could use a spotter. And a little encouragement. 12/10
Fascinating. Nonverbal communication so important, so it's interesting to see numbers on this.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on who is the greatest scientific mind in history.
This is the kind of messaging we need. Love it.
My extremely traditional hypermasculine dad was complaining that, “you’re not allowed to be a man anymore” and I said, “no, you can, being a man is good, you just can’t be a dick to people,” and he thought about that for a minute then nodded. “Alright, yeah, that makes sense.”
There’s still hope!
For every one Andrew Tate who becomes a rich and powerful influencer by embracing a caricature of masculinity there are ten thousand guys who simply become Divorced
Aus uni sector is in rough shape. Not academics' fault. We're not even inside the tent. We can't afford the rent! www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/04/lawl...
Academia is not about publishing papers.
It’s about creating knowledge and teaching it to the world.
It’s about asking big bold questions and mentioning the next generation of intellectual leaders.
The difference makes a huge difference.
Harvard’s putting up a fight from the academic sector. Where are our business leaders?? The silence is deafening. The latest No Mercy / No Malice: www.profgalloway.com/breaking-the...
Check out how the anchors of CBS Evening News ended their broadcast tonight:
Is anyone else noticing a step-change in Gemini lately? Using it much more now, and rarely spotting errors.
Have a candle. It's jet black, on a wooden base, smells like the forest. Want to call it my "mandle" (man-candle), but what are the odds that already refers to a sex thing? (i.e. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34).
Watched 3 new Black Mirror episodes over Easter. 3/3 bangers. So good.
Oof. This isn't great. I wonder if the same trend would be found in mandatory voting regions?
Using the axes of a line graph themselves as the rhetorical device. Neat.
Reflecting on the occasional, paradoxical loneliness of being a psychologist. An abundance of shared goodwill, intimate conversations, genuine moments... but not actual relationships. They are (crucially, appropriately) outside the bounds of professionalism. It's a privilege, but it's odd too.
There are 33m companies in the USA. Only 21k employe 500 or more. And they only make up 23% of workers.
Trump and Elon are ignoring the more than 32m entrepreneurs that can't afford to build a new factory or pay tariffs or absorb cancelled contracts.
Very soon many or most Australian psychs won't have any postgrad training. What could possibly go wrong?
www.psychologyboard.gov.au/News/2025-03...
I'd like to see a revival of panache and artistry in scientific prose style. Since we have to read so many papers, they should be fun and beautiful. I would also argue that this serves the goal of communication: readers will be more likely to remember a striking phrase or image.
Couldn't agree more. Directly translatable skill to places where less formal language rules supreme: teaching, mentoring, grant proposals, outreach, clinical practice. And arguably that's where most impact happens.
Am now seeing partisan politics as daily candles in a volatile market: stressful, incoherent, urgent, biased, loud. Traders (news media, staffers, pollsters) need to care about this, but principled or long-term investors (voters) do not. This metaphor helps.
Fact.
Not my domain but FWIW I'm consistently told by media-training folks, and by polies and staffers directly: meet your reps. And if you want your msg to land then frame it for them, give them a pitch, communicate how it directly impacts your community, etc. You're a prof, you might get an appt.
PhD position in cognitive computational neuroscience, KU Leuven, Belgium
Open position for a PhD student in the context of a larger Methusalem project “The domain-specific and domain-general cognitive and neural processes underlying human success and failure”.
Application deadline: 21 April 2025
Just boosting this again because after a bit of bureaucratic wrangling we are now almost ready to launch! Adverts should be out next week - will keep you posted
