Sam Pratt
Psychology PhD student at UCLA 🐻 learning about morality, politics, and consciousness
- Reposted by Sam PrattI started reading up on the whole "loneliness pandemic" narrative because this seems like a literature where the age-period-cohort problem may be relevant (or maybe it isn't?). Here's data from Australia (HILDA), average agreement with the statement "I often feel very lonely" (SD of ca. 1.8).>
- I am crowdsourcing divisive TV episodes for a study on moral disagreement. If you know of episodes that make for heated conversation, please complete the form below and pass it on! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
- Reposted by Sam PrattLooking for hands-on psychology research experience? We've compiled summer programs, internships, and opportunities specifically for undergraduates. Explore the full guide: ow.ly/sWBj50XT9SM
- It's that time of year - lots of people are hunting for postbacc research jobs and aren't sure where to start. Below are some helpful resources I compiled from my experience. Please feel free to share with others! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
- There is def reason to worry about impact of LLMs in science, but one benefit they've already had is eroding the heuristic that complex writing = good writing LLMs can mask a bad idea with elegant writing, which makes complexity a bad signal of quality. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- I’m taking grad level social psych and am noting examples of social/personality psych directly influencing society. Any other favorite examples? -Good Samaritan laws (bystander effect) -Mass marketing/political messaging (Yale Approach) -Personality traits (Allport) -Dating apps (similarity effect)
- Pleased to share our paper Sending Signals: Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces is an Editor’s Choice paper in JEP:A 🥳 Trigger warnings and safe spaces are increasingly popular. We asked: do they shape how students perceive the classroom climate? psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
- Why do some health choices seem like moral issues 💉😷 whereas others are personal preferences 🦷🧘? Our new paper in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin finds that we moralize health behaviors when we see them as causing harm. doi.org/10.1177/0146...
- Nobel prizes are out, did anyone else get honorable mention?
- New post about the signals that trigger warnings and safe spaces send to students in SPSP blog👇
- Introducing the Words Can Harm Scale: a measure of the belief that words can cause psychological harm. Preprint and online assessment in next tweet!
- ✍️ New Preprint: "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." but can words really harm? We created the Words Can Harm Scale (WCHS) to measure the belief that speech can cause lasting psychological harm. You can take the online assessment here: sampratt99.github.io/Words-Can-Ha...
- People often rely on their own judgment over the "wisdom of the crowds" when making tough decisions (e.g., "which school should I attend?") A new study found that across 12 countries, most participants went with their gut even when given the option to consult others.
- New study finds that as birth rates have declined, we've started spending more on pets. And across several studies, dog lovers often prioritized dogs over people in moral dilemmas 🐶 > 🙍
- A new study seems to show that right-leaning participants care more about left-leaning causes than right-leaning ones 🤯 A surprising finding, but I think we should be cautious about this interpretation 🧵 1/8
- People are averse to "doubling back": in a virtual reality maze game, over half (56%) of participants chose a longer route over a more efficient route when the efficient option required them to "double back", effectively undoing their previous progress.
- Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos: "The existence of consciousness is both one of the most familiar and one of the most astounding things about the world. No conception of the natural order that that does not reveal it as something to be expected can aspire even to the outline of completeness"
- Our recent paper on trigger warnings was covered by @psypost.bsky.social . You can read the article at the link below.
- Feeling mixed feelings on my last day as lab manager in the Deepest Beliefs Lab. It's been an amazing two years working with @kurtjgray.bsky.social and I'm so grateful for all the amazing people I've worked with. But lots to look forward to starting at UCLA in two months!
- Reposted by Sam Pratt[Not loaded yet]
- 55-70% of people followed an arbitrary rule (e.g., wait at a stoplight until a cross disappears) even when 1) nobody is watching, 2) they would get money for breaking the rule, and 3) breaking the rule harms nobody Open access paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
