Ashley Thomas
Assistant Professor she/her. I study how people think about social relationships. Usually with babies and kids.
ashleyjthomas.com
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasThe number of children in ICE detention on an average day has skyrocketed 6x since Trump took an office. Families complain of poor medical care and worm-infested food. "It’s only a matter of time before we see a child die," one advocate said. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/29/i...
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasOne small thing you can do today: ICE is ramping up in Maine. Food For All is delivering meals to 300 families that can't leave their homes. They need $7k a day to continue operations. The Culture Study community is raising enough to cover a day—join us? Donate directly: givebutter.com/Scx87A or
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasWow. This is devastating. www.science.org/content/arti...
- Oops -- we should have included a pre-print, but here it is! osf.io/preprints/ps... Abstract core knowledge may shape the basins of cultural attraction: romantic kissing as a case study
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasYale Psychology is accepting applications for the Susan Nolen-Hoeksema postdoctoral fellowship! Open to a broad range of areas in psychology, and applicants should identify 1 or more potential faculty mentors. Apply by Feb 1, 2026: apply.interfolio.com/178435
- Hossein was supposed to come to my lab as a grad student but couldn’t because of the travel ban. I had a blast writing this paper with him, but it was bittersweet knowing he should have been in person with us. ❤️ check out 🧵below. part of a special issue on kissing led by Deb Lieberman.
- This paper is like a souvenir of one of the most frantic and meaningful periods of my life — started during a war and travel bans and now published amid social protests in my home country. Many thanks to @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social for her amazing warmth and support throughout this journey!
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasThis is a fundraising post! An anonymous donor is matching contributions to Children Helping Science up to 100K through the end of the year - if it's in your giving budget, please consider supporting open science infrastructure! giving.mit.edu/search/node/... Details below...
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasThank you to Christina Steele for sharing her work with @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social in lab meeting today! Christina shared neat findings on implicit attitudes toward interracial couples, building on her prior work on development of understanding about relationships. Interesting & important project!
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasFully funded #PhDposition in Comparative Cultural Psychology @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social. We will use touchscreen experiments & eyetracking to study mental simulations in nonhuman apes & human children across different cultures. All info here: www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit... Please share / apply!🙏
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasAre humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵
- Interested in understanding how young humans think about social relationships? I am reading PhD applications this year! **Please note**, that Harvard now requires the GRE. More information here: www.ashleyjthomas.com/workwithme
- Interested in applying to graduate programs or research positions in psychology? Want more information and feedback on your submission materials? Then Harvard’s Prospective Ph.D. & RA Event in Psychology (PPREP) Is for you!! psychology.fas.harvard.edu/pprep More info in the link!! Please retweet!
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas🚨Out in PNAS🚨 with @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social Punishment, even when intended to teach norms and change minds for the good, may backfire. Our computational cognitive model explains why! Paper: tinyurl.com/yc7fs4x7 News: tinyurl.com/3h3446wu 🧵
- The lab feels so empty without our summer interns!
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasI and my lab are happy to be at #cogsci2025! Here's a shortcut to find work from the fabulous folks in my lab (and me) 😄
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasThe Learning Lab is heading to CogSci 2025 (@cogscisociety.bsky.social) to share our latest research! Come say hello!
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasWho's excited for #CogSci2025? 💭
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasThe SoCal Lab is headed to #cogsci2025 this week! Here's where you can find us:
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasLooking forward to #CogSci2025! Anushka Laha and I will be sharing some of the first work from our lab
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasIf you are attending #CogSci2025 I hope you will consider attending our pre-conference workshop on July 29 - "Putting it Together: Interactions Between Domains of Cognition" sites.google.com/view/cogsci2...
- Come see my lab at the Cognitive Science Society Conference #cogsci2025
- Come see my lab at the Cognitive Science Society Conference #cogsci2025
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasNew preprint! Led by Bill Pepe, with @brandonwoo.bsky.social and @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social. We asked if infants think helping and hindering stem from actors' dispositions (i.e. good/nice v bad/mean) or their social relationships, by testing expectations for future behavior: osf.io/preprints/ps...
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas📣 Join the K/Creative Ape Team 🤓 2 PhDs on Creativity in Wild Chimpanzees & Bonobos; w myself & the v awesome @kathelijnekoops.bsky.social @snf-fns.ch Uni Zurich @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @efp2026.bsky.social @ips-primatenews.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primbehavecol.bsky.social 🐵🧪
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas🎈 Out now: 🎈 "The capacity limits of moving objects in the imagination" (by Balaban & me) of interest to people thinking about the imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, capacity limits, and more www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasMassachusetts: $107,694,933 Approved by Congress. Illegally withheld by the DOE.
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasIt's a summer conference season, so I thought I'd tell you about the tremendous efforts our conservation biology colleagues have been making to make conferences more INCLUSIVE & friendly to early career researchers (ECRs) not fluent in English. I find their accomplishments truly inspiring. 🧵(1/10)
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasInfants have been shown to individuate objects before people in a visual occlusion task. Why? @brandonwoo.bsky.social, @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social, et al. find that engagement matters. Infants *do* individuate people who actively engage with them.
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasUndergrads interested in philosophy of science? Please share that applications are open for our summer development program! lpssdp.com?fbclid=IwY2x...
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas🔆 I'm hiring! 🔆 There are two open positions: 1. Summer research position (best for master's or graduate student); focus on computational social cognition. 2. Postdoc (currently interviewing!); focus on computational social cognition and AI safety. sites.google.com/corp/site/sy...
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas🚨Only a few hours left to leave a public comment re: RFK Jr. and Trump administration limiting access to vaccines through the CDC!!! Public Comment at CDC is open until June 20th at 11:59pm EDT. peoplescdc.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-and...
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasNYT found the “big beautiful bill” would be the largest transfer from the poor to the rich in a single law since at least 1990. In fact, it would be the largest transfer *ever.* Reagan’s low-income cuts were MUCH smaller - and his tax cuts were done separately. And before him, nothing comes close.
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasNew paper just dropped🎉 With novel "Curiosity Boxes", we find that chimps & children are very curious about social interactions, & some even give up a reward to gain info! Fun collaboration with @alisongopnik.bsky.social, @janengelmann.bsky.social & others royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
- This is such a great idea
- Neuroscientist Sarah Heilbronner is a proud product of Martin County schools in Florida 🌴. However, federal budget cuts threaten important work she's doing in brain research. 🧪🏠 @srheilbronner.bsky.social www.tcpalm.com/story/opinio...
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasHow bad will it be? Catastrophic. Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come. But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget. Speak up now before it is too late. (inflation adjusted $-s below)
- So cool!!
- 🥳🥳 New paper in @nathumbehav.nature.com: “When development constricts our moral circle." Contrary to popular belief, younger kids may start out with broader moral circles than older ones. Check it out here 👉 rdcu.be/eoaSe w/ @mattiwilks.bsky.social @karrineldner.bsky.social & Lucius Caviola
- Reposted by Ashley Thomas🥳🥳 New paper in @nathumbehav.nature.com: “When development constricts our moral circle." Contrary to popular belief, younger kids may start out with broader moral circles than older ones. Check it out here 👉 rdcu.be/eoaSe w/ @mattiwilks.bsky.social @karrineldner.bsky.social & Lucius Caviola
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasToday I found out that this article was selected for the June print edition. This is so cool! Now I just need to figure out how to get a hard copy for my parents (because this is still a thing) 😆
- I wrote a piece for @sciam.bsky.social about why White parents should be talking to their kids about race and racism. It was so great to work with @megha.bsky.social on this piece! Please share! www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
- Me: Where will you put your clothes when you take them off? (We've been working on keeping room tidy) U (6 years): nowhere Me: Where is nowhere? U: giggles Me: explains conversation of mass
- U: I will destroy my pants Me: They might not be pants anymore, but the stuff will still be in the universe U: But the pants will be in your brain. Me: Huh? U: The pants go through your eyeball into your brain forever. Then I will destroy them but you'll still have the pants in your brain. Me: huh.
- Preprint of data from my first project as a postdoc with With @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social and Liz Spelke. Data and writing from 2019, figures are new :) osf.io/preprints/ps... First, we replicate @lindseypowell.bsky.social 's finding that infants reach for imitators using a very different setup.
- Next we found that infants reach more often for puppets who were *not* imitated by a person compared to those that were imitated.
- Before we began, we predicted that infants would be at chance when they were deciding between those who were imitated and those who were not. We did *not* predict that they would reach for those who were not imitated.
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View full threadTheir commentary reminded me that we never published these data!
- gutted.
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasBeliefs about Social Dynamics and Open Science, w/ @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social & @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social - royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... While perceptions of social dynamics of your field don't predict open science attitudes, we did find high levels of support for open science (YAY) ..
- Please, for the love of science in infant cognition, make videos of your stimuli available (even if you do live puppet shows). I'm trying to read through a paper right now, and there is no way someone could replicate it in good faith because there are no videos and so few details.
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasYou do NOT have to accept this! Post on the public comments to pressure them to NOT do this! www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasCome join us! I have startup funds to hire a postdoc for Fall 2025 at Rutgers to study intergroup relations. The job ad is at jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/249... & evaluations begin in 1 wk (5/16) w rolling evaluation. See 🧵below for a write-up on what I'm looking for in a postdoc. Please share widely!
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasPlease help: Do you know a baby, less than 12 months old, who can walk? We are trying to complete a project, 7 years in the works. And all we need are 3 infants who are less than a year old and can walk, to do a short online looking-time study. 🆘
- Help! I remember recently seeing a blue sky thread, and can't find it, about new research where levels of synchrony for strangers leads to feeling of closeness, but that the opposite is true for people already in established relationships. Anyone with leads?
- Reposted by Ashley ThomasToday, our client Rümeysa Öztürk was released on bail from ICE detention in Louisiana, and she will return to New England to continue her studies. 📸 Giancarlo D’Agostaro
