Diego Reinero, Ph.D.
MindCORE postdoctoral research fellow @Penn studying how moral and political views change through conversations and social networks
- Early-bird registration for our Moral Psychology pre-conference at SPSP ends Jan 22! Register here: spsp.org/events/annua... Don't miss this incredible lineup of speakers (plus some terrific data blitz talks and posters) and networking with this fantastic community! See you in Chicago next month!
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.It was a delight to share insights from our research on youth voting with @asc.upenn.edu on behalf of my fabulous collaborators @curse10.bsky.social @asinclair.bsky.social @diegoreinero.bsky.social @falklab.bsky.social!
- Annenberg researcher @dcosme.bsky.social examines ways to motivate and support youth to vote. We spoke to her about a recent commentary she and her team wrote on how to support youth in overcoming voting barriers:
- 💥New preprint!💥 For democracy to be truly representative we need to include many more voices. But young voters (18-25yo) face unique barriers and are often overlooked. We describe these barriers, and propose a psychologically-informed approach to support and increase voter turnout among youth.
- Young voters played a key role in elections across the country last week. It’s fantastic to see record turnout in so many communities AND we still have so much room to grow! For ideas on how to motivate and support youth to vote check out our new commentary: osf.io/kyzh9_v1 Key points in 🧵
- We outline our key points in a series of bite-size tables. E.g.,
- Huge thanks to @dcosme.bsky.social for leading this effort, to co-authors @curse10.bsky.social @asinclair.bsky.social @falklab.bsky.social, and to youth partners at Penn Leads the Vote who inspired and informed this work!
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Young voters played a key role in elections across the country last week. It’s fantastic to see record turnout in so many communities AND we still have so much room to grow! For ideas on how to motivate and support youth to vote check out our new commentary: osf.io/kyzh9_v1 Key points in 🧵
- UPenn's MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellowship is accepting applications (due Dec 1)! mindcore.sas.upenn.edu/post-doctora... Funding is available for 3 years. Fellows receive ~$70k in salary, $20k in a research/travel budget, assistance in relocation (e.g., $5k), and benefits.
- AI chatbots are sycophantic— a propensity to people-please. It’s like a genius with imposter syndrome, who always defers to the user and assumes the user is correct. With a dash of hallucination. A real misunderstood genius! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Interesting! Although it actually looks like the proportion of political tweets that a user posts—not their *potential exposure* to toxic tweets by accounts they follow—is the strongest consistent predictor of a user's likelihood of posting BOTH impolite or intolerant tweets.
- Social media users adopt the toxic behaviors of ingroup members An analysis of 7 million tweets from over 700,000 accounts finds that exposures to toxic behavior by ingroup members is the primary driver of contagious toxicity online academic.oup.com/jcmc/article...
- Last day to submit an abstract for a poster or data blitz talk at the Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2026! Submit here by Oct 23 at 11:59pm PT: t.co/k3aOQsySSh. It's a can't miss lineup! Registration is now open too; sign up before we sell out (we did last year)! spsp.org/events/annua...
- 🚨Excited to announce the full-day Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2026! We sold out last year, and with this year’s incredible speaker lineup, we expect the same. Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23! spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2026-p... There’s a best poster award!
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Only 9 days left to submit!! Come join us in Chicago in Feb!
- 🚨Excited to announce the full-day Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2026! We sold out last year, and with this year’s incredible speaker lineup, we expect the same. Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23! spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2026-p... There’s a best poster award!
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.🥳🥳 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 Diego Reinero, Ph.D.🚨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 🧵
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Why do we derogate effective altruists, activists, & other radically prosocial individuals? In new work, we discuss how doing good that deviates from social norms gets stigmatized. New preprint w/ @dcameron.bsky.social @tlau.bsky.social @desmond-ong.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/ps...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.I'm excited to share the news that our climate change project won the @spspnews.bsky.social Robert Cialdini Prize for a "paper that uses field methods and demonstrates the relevance of social psychology to outside groups and communities"! You can read it here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- 🚨Excited to announce the full-day Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2026! We sold out last year, and with this year’s incredible speaker lineup, we expect the same. Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23! spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2026-p... There’s a best poster award!
- We're accepting poster & data blitz abstract submissions from all career stages. If your work is broadly related to morality, you should apply! We welcome a wide range of topics and approaches. Submit here: spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2026-p... Deadline to submit an abstract: Oct. 23.
- Keynotes: @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social & Abigail Marsh Invited talks: @peez.bsky.social, Amrisha Vaish, @joshcjackson.bsky.social, @joodykeem.bsky.social, @sydneylevine.bsky.social, @nourkteily.bsky.social, Jessica Salerno, @mattlindauer.bsky.social Organizers: yours truly & @jowylie.bsky.social
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.🌟 Excited to share that I'm recruiting PhD students in Psychology for my new lab at Rice University this cycle (Signal boost appreciated!) To learn more, check out the Learning & Behavior Change Lab website: www.sinclairlab-rice.com Applications are due Dec 1st: psychology.rice.edu/graduate/pro...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.In this @pnas.org Letter, we respond to a comment on our paper about behavioral interventions to motivate action on climate change. In new analyses exploring individual differences, we find that our leading interventions were effective across the political spectrum. 🧵⤵️ www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
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View full threadReposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Original paper here. @falklab.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social @dcosme.bsky.social @diegoreinero.bsky.social @curse10.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.The psych job market may not be dead... but it is gravely injured 😬 So far it's looking like the Trump administration's attacks on higher ed/research are going to have more than 2x the impact on the job market as the covid-19 pandemic. #psychjobs #neurojobs #academicjobs
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.In this letter in @pnas.org, we respond to a comment on our recent paper. Although multiple factors shape whether we act on our intentions, intentions are valuable precursors of behavior that can guide the iterative development of behavior change interventions. www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....
- Cool new paper in PNAS from @vanessachg.bsky.social et al. When it comes to moral dilemmas, LLM's: 1) are more altruistic than humans 2) exhibit a stronger omission bias than humans 3) are biased toward answering "no" These biases may come from fine-tuning. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.🚨New WP🚨 Can AI do "deep canvassing"—the time-intensive, empathic persuasive dialogues that durably reduce prejudice when done by humans? Spoiler: Yes! We find durable reduction in prejudice toward undocumented immigrants LLMs make deep canvassing possible at massive scale osf.io/preprints/os...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Since 1954, "The Handbook of Social Psychology" has been the field’s most authoritative reference work, and today is the launch of the 6th edition with 50 new chapters by 100 leading scholars. Best news? The HSP is now an open-access public resource—free to read, download, and share. the-hsp.com
- 🚨Excited to see our new paper out in @pnas.org led by @asinclair.bsky.social!🚨 We tested 17 psychological interventions head-to-head in a “tournament” to see what motivated people to take action and share info about climate change. Winners depicted here for brevity; read our paper for details!
- What motivates people to take action and share info about climate change? We tested 17 psychological interventions in a tournament—Discover the winners in our new paper! Out now in @pnas.org w/ @falklab.bsky.social, @michaelemann.bsky.social, & team. Thread ⤵️ 1/9 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.What motivates people to take action and share info about climate change? We tested 17 psychological interventions in a tournament—Discover the winners in our new paper! Out now in @pnas.org w/ @falklab.bsky.social, @michaelemann.bsky.social, & team. Thread ⤵️ 1/9 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Wanted to share a handy little resource with you all (especially those in dev psych) — my lab & I made a "journal submission cheat sheet" that summarizes article types, word limits, & other requirements for the journals we typically submit to. Link below 👇🏼 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.👉 👈 Meta announced that they're changing their models to reduce "left-leaning [political] bias"--that means leaning them to the political "right". Lots to unpack about what that might mean. So I ran a quick "shot in the dark" study...and found a *political right* bias in Meta models. Some notes.🧵
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.This statement from the NSF is insane. Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false. Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale
- NSF has posted an “update on priorities.” They’re canceling all “DEI and misinformation/disinformation” grants. And the guidance on how to fulfill the longstanding, legally mandated Broadening Participation requirement is utterly incoherent. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...
- Moral Psych community: @jowylie.bsky.social & I will be organizing the pre-con at SPSP again! This past year was sold-out and we expect next year to be even bigger! Who do you YOU want to hear from next year? Recommend a speaker with this quick form: tinyurl.com/moralpsychrecs
- Using GPS data from 220,000+ Lyft drivers in Florida to look at actual speeding behavior (not just police reports), Aggarwal et al find: White & Minority drivers drive similarly, BUT minority drivers were 33% more likely to be cited for speeding + paid 34% more money in fines.
- Plus nice commentary by Dean Knox & Jonathan Mummolo emphasizing that since actual speeding was rare (3.4% of data), racial disparity is even larger. I.e., denominator should be conditional on speeding Paper: science.org/doi/full/10.... Commentary: science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Trying something new: A 🧵 on a topic I find many students struggle with: "why do their 📊 look more professional than my 📊?" It's *lots* of tiny decisions that aren't the defaults in many libraries, so let's break down 1 simple graph by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social 🔗 www.ft.com/content/73a1...
- Nearly 90% of US Christian religious leaders believe that humans are contributing to climate change. Yet most never talk about it with their congregation (and US Christians underestimate the prevalence of this belief among their leaders). But misperception corrections help!
- Now officially out in @pnas.org with @greggsparkman.bsky.social! Almost 90% of Christian religious leaders believe in anthropogenic climate change. American congregants underestimate this consensus. Communicating this has important consequences for norms and beliefs! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
- New paper finds that what people pay attention to on social media (click “read more”) is 7x more politically diverse than what they publicly engage with (“share” or “like”). Measuring likes and shares alone misses the attention and search process!
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.We're just a few days away from this year's Morality Preconference!! Don't miss it! #SPSP2025
- Very excited to share the #SPSP2025 Moral Psychology pre-conference will be taking place on Feb 20th in Denver Poster submissions are open - Deadline is Oct 17 spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2025-p... co-organised with @jowylie.bsky.social & @diegoreinero.bsky.social
- New research finds that people form swirling ‘vortex’ patterns in densely-packed crowds, with individuals moving in circles. Collective oscillations in massive human crowds! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Cool cross-cultural sample of infants from the US and Uganda shows that emotional contagion is a response to peer distress (e.g., another baby crying) - not just due to the aversive nature of a sound in general onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- Interesting paper finds that Republican elected officials are not fact-checked more often than Democratic officials. Politician prominence predicts fact-checking, but partisanship does not. t.co/K0F6oJ3V1m
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.We are excited to announce this year's Shared Reality Virtual Conference happening Wednesday March 12 & Thursday March 13, 2025, between 9:50 AM - 1:10 PM ET! You can register below to receive the Zoom link! Submit a data blitz anytime until Feb 7. northwestern.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Not every analysis of multiple (<whatever>) requires multiplicity adjustments (correcting p-values for multiple testing): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.“Facts are not censorship. Fact-checkers never censored anything. And Meta always held the cards. It's time to quit invoking inflammatory and false language in describing the role of journalists and fact-checking.” wired.com/story/metas-fact-ch…
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.We're hiring! Please share with your networks and especially those who would make a great fit for our center! More info here: web.sas.upenn.edu/pcssm/opport... @michaelemann.bsky.social
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Is there any work on whether people are more (or less) susceptible to misinformation presented in the form of tik-tok videos than headlines? As a younger millennial/ elder gen z I don't have much trouble discerning headlines, but catch myself accepting info from tik-toks too readily...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.what counts as breaking a rule? you might think this q is easy, but people actually integrate signals from morality, legality, punishability, and normativity to figure it out, new preprint w/ @jowylie.bsky.social & dries bostyn osf.io/preprints/ps... #psychscisky #cognition #socpsyc #philsky
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Pleased to share the latest version of my paper with Arthur Spirling and @lexipalmer.bsky.social on replication using LMs We show: 1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Excellent post on the lack of empirical support for stereotype threat, from someone deeply involved in the research. Also, importantly, "stereotype threat isn't real" != "stereotypes are not threatening." These are very different claims, but the former is often taken to mean the latter.
- Stereotype threat: a once-dominant idea in social psychology that shaped how we think about identity and performance. But what happens when the evidence crumbles? A deep dive into the failed replications, the myths, and what it all means. Read my latest essay: open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Very glad to see this out in American Psychologist - Why misinformation should not be ignored. "We demonstrate that the prevalence of misinformation is nonnegligible ... and that misinformation has causal impacts on important beliefs and behaviors." psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Two political psych starter packs! Both have been around, but 2 has had a lot more people added. Check them out if you haven’t already 1: go.bsky.app/T2Uc2Bx 2: go.bsky.app/43FXWwjat://did:plc:eoedukv7uvfieg5edl6jvg6r/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3kwcmah5j7m26
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.🚨A four-year making @naturehumbehav.bsky.social with @UmitKeles @markthornton.bsky.social @Ralph Adolphs Across large sets of mental states, traits, situations, faces, & participants in five continents🌎 face impressions shape mental state attributions in various situations doi.org/10.1038/s415...
- Moral and political psychologists may want to join this starter pack created by Ryan Bruno!
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Moral psychology postdoc opportunity at the University of Toronto! Please repost, and pass on to anyone you think might be interested.
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.BLUESKY MEGA-THREAD Altmetric is thrilled and also LITERALLY RELIEVED to officially announce: We are now tracking research attention as it happens on Bluesky! We have been picking up posts on the site since late Oct. Our team is on Bluesky all day answering questions. Let's get into it!
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View full threadReposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.There are already many articles for which there is more attention on Bluesky than on other comparable micro-blogging sites, meaning the academic community and the general public have clearly adopted Bluesky as one of its core places to disseminate and discuss new research. A Place of Joy.
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Request for Moral Psych folks!! If you’re planning to attend the Morality Preconf @ this year’s SPSP conference & have NOT signed up yet, please DM or email me! The precon is already sold out (!!), and we are trying to gauge interest so that we can push for more space! Thank you! #MoralPsych
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.A new study found "bypassing" can work better than direct corrections to reduce misinformation's influence on attitudes. Instead of directly correcting false claims, bypassing offers an alternative strategy: focus on positive, truthful statements about the same topic. substack.com/home/post/p-...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.New paper out in @ScienceMagazine! In 8 studies (multiple platforms, methods, time periods) we find: misinformation evokes more outrage than trustworthy news, when it does it's shared more + ppl are less likely to read before sharing. w/ @killianmcl1 @Klonick @mollycrockett 🧵👇
- New paper suggests economists’ political preferences may influence their writing/work. E.g., Papers on the left imply a higher optimal top tax rate (77%) vs. ones on the right (60%), though note our actual federal top tax rate is just 37%. What should we takeaway? academic.oup.com/ej/article/1...
- First, I’ve argued before that the scientific enterprise helps mitigate political bias doi.org/10.1080/1047... and even tested this in academic psychology, finding no link between a paper’s political slant and replicability, citations, or media attention journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
- That being said, scientists are people too. Read Helen Longino's "Science as Social Knowledge" for a nice discussion of the inherent subjectivity of science. jstor.org/stable/j.ctv.... So we shouldn't be that surprised by this latest econ paper's finding.
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View full threadIn the end, most people understand that most scientists try to get things right. About 76% of Americans trust scientists today even after the pandemic dip, and people around the world overwhelmingly want scientists to share their work and be involved in policy-making
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.The rumor is true. I *will* review PhD applications for my lab, newly located at the University of Illinois Chicago! Please apply if you're interested in social identity (with focus on Asian, MENA, Hispanic Americans) and intraminority coalition-conflict. Lab: www.pbandjlab.com (jk there's no rumor)
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Mind, Brain & Society: Works in Progress Tues, 11/19, 4:45-6:30 PM Goddard Labs, 200 Using behavior science to bridge the political divide on climate change Diego Reinero, MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellow Pizza and drinks provided @uofpenn.bsky.social @appcpenn.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Come hear our Fellow, Diego Reinero, at 4:45 today talking about: Using behavior science to bridge the political divide on climate change. 200 Goddard, with pizza & drinks! @diegoreinero.bsky.social
- Mind, Brain & Society: Works in Progress Tues, 11/19, 4:45-6:30 PM Goddard Labs, 200 Using behavior science to bridge the political divide on climate change Diego Reinero, MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellow Pizza and drinks provided @uofpenn.bsky.social @appcpenn.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.This article is totally insane; NPR should be ashamed. The headlines and lede give you no indication at all that RFK is a crank whose claims about vaccines are false and threaten public health. Would they write a story saying "Alex Jones wants to inform the public but he faces a lot of pushback"?
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Finally made a #Blackademics starter pack! Let continue to build community here. This is part of #Blacksky so please show your appreciation to the architect, @rudyfraser.comat://did:plc:hqp33n2fqericzhtg6zprsog/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lazi54cevd26
- Excited to announce the return of the Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2025! A crowd-pleaser for over 20 years! We have an incredible lineup of speakers! 🚨Deadline to submit an abstract is tomorrow night (Oct. 17, 11:59pm PT).🚨 Submit here: bit.ly/3NsJiaQ
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Very excited to share the #SPSP2025 Moral Psychology pre-conference will be taking place on Feb 20th in Denver Poster submissions are open - Deadline is Oct 17 spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2025-p... co-organised with @jowylie.bsky.social & @diegoreinero.bsky.social
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Although corrections to misinformation to work on average, they are 52% more likely to backfire when the correction comes from political outgroup members, finds @diegoreinero.bsky.social @steverathje.bsky.social @jayvanbavel.bsky.social & colleagues polisky commsky doi.org/10.31234/osf...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.Excited that our paper, led by @rrrianabrown.bsky.social & Pia Dietze, is out! We find that racial health disparities violate concerns of moral sacredness moreso than economic disparities, which sparks a sense of injustice and support for action. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Diego Reinero, Ph.D.What are the theoretical underpinnings of refutational interventions? Our 🚨new paper🚨 examines: - prebunking - debunking - narrative counters Part of The Psychology of #Misinfo special issue ed. by @lkfazio.bsky.social & @gordpennycook.bsky.social. commsky authors.elsevier.com/a/1iFp3,rU%7...
