iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Danica Dillion

koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Research by @danicajdillion.bsky.social et al suggests art is not solely in the eye of the beholder or the artist’s hand, but in the felt connection between them—people see art as more authentic when it appears to reveal the creator’s mind: buff.ly/uX3c8IW

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

My answer: Judy Chicago’s The Creation.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Thanks to my wonderful collaborators @neilrhester.bsky.social, Yochanan Bigman, Mary Smith, Joe Court, Amar Sarkar, and @kurtjgray.bsky.social. This paper has been a several-year journey and it’s fantastic to see it cross the finish line with such a great team.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Together, these findings suggest that art isn’t solely in the eye of the beholder or the hand of the artist, but in the felt connection between the two. In a world of mass production and deepfakes, our desire to find a mind behind the art continues to prevail.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

This connection can emerge even when artists have little control over a work’s execution. An installation that was simply a loop of publicly available footage felt more authentic when viewers learned about the artist’s meaning and emotional investment in it.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

But even exact replicas felt more authentic when the replicator gave them a new artistic purpose that revealed their own intentions—like Dalí, who used replication and mass production as part of the artistic statement itself.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Revealed mind also helps explain our dislike of replicas. Replicas typically feel inauthentic because they reproduce an earlier expression rather than reveal something of the replicator’s own mind.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Revealed mind also shapes aversion to cultural appropriation. People saw art as more authentic when the artist shared the background or experience represented in the work. When a story doesn’t seem to belong to the artist, the work feels less like a window into their mind and more inauthentic.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

In our studies, people preferred the exact same song or story when they believed it was created by a person rather than AI. AI generally isn’t seen as having experiences (consciousness debate aside!), so the experiences depicted in its art often feel like a lie.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The drive for revealed mind helps explain backlash to AI-generated art. People often can’t distinguish AI-generated from human-made art, suggesting that AI art aversion is less about aesthetics and more about provenance.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

When did a work of art last move you? Across 6 studies, we find we’re drawn to art that reveals the artist’s mind—their intentions, emotions, experience, and agency. This desire for "revealed mind" helps explain aversion to AI art and cultural appropriation. New paper! 🧵

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Had a great time talking AI & morality at Future Day! We’re now living with an ethicist in our pocket. How do we make sure it’s actually ethical? I discuss 4 key parts of AI alignment: moral modeling, deliberation, fidelity, and societal integration. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQWR...

youtube.com

Danica Dillion - AI: The Ethicist In Your Pocket

YouTube video by Science, Technology & the Future

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This helps explain the recent outrage in Ohio. The fair has since said it will prohibit AI use in future years.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

We've found one major reason people dislike AI-generated art is that they want to connect with an artist who's expressing genuine experiences through their work. AI isn't seen to have genuine experiences, so the art it creates tends to feel inauthentic. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

People consistently rate the same artwork as lower quality when told it's made by AI. We often can’t distinguish AI-generated art from human-made work, but once we learn that a piece was created by AI we tend to see it as worse.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I spoke with Alissa Widman Neese at @axios.com about the backlash over an AI-generated poster winning an art contest at the Ohio State Fair. www.axios.com/local/columb...

axios.com

An AI poster won an Ohio State Fair contest — here's why it struck a nerve

The backlash reflects deeper concerns about AI, trust and creativity, experts say.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Check out the talks from the Mind & Machine Alignment Summit! Topics include AI companionship, emotional support, embodied intelligence, cultural alignment, political discourse, human agency, consciousness, and the future of AI safety. youtube.com/watch?v=VL5X...

youtube.com

Chinasa T. Okolo — Will AI Save or Destroy Us? | Mind & Machine Alignment Summit 2026

YouTube video by Deepest Beliefs Lab

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Had a great time at the AI and Social Research conference at Penn State. I shared our work on how insights from social science can help AI better model human moral judgments. Thanks to @dcameron.bsky.social and Bruce Desmarais for bringing this group together! www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZN2...

youtube.com

AI and Social Research: Empathic AI, Metascience, and Methodology - Danica Dillion

YouTube video by Penn State Social Science Research Institute

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Reposted by Danica Dillion

Daryl Cameron @dcameron.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It was great to take part in the Mind & Machine Alignment summit put on by @danicajdillion.bsky.social Kurt Gray @helenldevine.bsky.social. Some great conversations about AI alignment, pluralism, and opening our minds about empathy and morality. Collaborations enriched, grew, continued apace. Kudos!

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

To everyone who participated, thank you for being part of this! AI alignment is one of the hardest and most important challenges we face. It was energizing to be in a room full of people tackling it head-on.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It was so fun and rewarding to see this come together with my amazing co-organizers, @kurtjgray.bsky.social and @helenldevine.bsky.social Thank you to our featured speakers for sharing your inspiring work: @julianaschroeder.bsky.social @steverathje.bsky.social Abi Olvera @chinasa.bsky.social ...

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

We're grateful to our sponsors @templetonfdn.bsky.social and The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences for making this gathering possible.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

A major focus of the summit was workshopping project ideas. We’re excited to keep that momentum going and to turn these ideas into real research and tools.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

We explored questions like: How might AI change our deepest beliefs and relationships? How well can AI model our values? Whose values are we aligning AI with? How can AI empower us rather than encourage outsourcing? How can we build benchmarks that capture AI’s neglected psychological impacts?

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It was a huge honor to welcome everyone to the Mind & Machine Alignment Summit to discuss how to make the future of AI go well. Computer scientists, social scientists, and policy experts offered unique perspectives on steering AI toward human flourishing. 🧵

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Historians have long documented these beliefs, but influential theories have linked them especially to large-scale societies and powerful gods. To our knowledge, ours is the first global analysis of moralistic supernatural explanations themselves, showing just how widespread and diverse they are.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Together, our findings support some longstanding hypotheses while revealing substantial diversity in supernatural norm enforcement across the historical record. They suggest that religion served as one of humanity’s earliest and most widespread systems of governance.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

We also found a surprising pattern involving social scale. Larger-scale societies had more moralistic supernatural explanations overall—but not more supernatural punishment beliefs. Instead, they had more supernatural reward beliefs.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Prominent theories of moralizing religion emphasize powerful high gods that enforce morality. Consistent with this view, high gods were more likely than most other agents to be linked with morality when invoked—but they were invoked relatively rarely.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Moralistic supernatural beliefs were attributed to a wide variety of supernatural beings: spirits, ancestors, witches, shamans, ritual specialists, supernatural objects, forces, almighty high gods, and domain-specific gods.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

People often view misfortune as supernatural punishment and prosperity as supernatural reward. These beliefs are often thought to be tied to large-scale societies, yet we found them across societies of all scales. Even among those in the lowest quartile of social scale, 72% held these beliefs.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Long before modern courts, religion helped regulate behavior through supernatural reward and punishment. We found that the vast majority of 114 historical societies worldwide held these moralistic religious beliefs—involving many different supernatural beings. 🧵

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Last call! Submit a talk, poster, workshop, or project idea to the Mind & Machine Alignment Summit by the end of today.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Summit website: u.osu.edu/mindmachinea... Submission form: osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

u.osu.edu

Mind & Machine Alignment Summit

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

One week left to submit! Deadline: April 8 Join researchers and builders across AI, social science, and policy to explore how AI can better align with human values and promote well-being.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

📢 Deadline extended! New deadline: April 8 If you’re passionate about AI alignment, this is a rare chance to connect with AI researchers at the forefront of the field, social scientists studying AI’s broader impacts, and policy experts turning research into real-world impact.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Summit website: u.osu.edu/mindmachinea... Submission form: osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

One week left to submit to the Mind & Machine Alignment Summit! ⏳ Propose a talk, experience, or project idea by March 16. We have a phenomenal lineup of speakers doing cutting-edge work in this space, and we’re excited to hear your ideas!

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Is God really dead, and is technology the murderer? Many theorized that technological advancement would erode belief in higher powers, but it instead appears to reduce supernatural explanations for everyday events. Join me tomorrow at the SPSP Religion and Spirituality Preconference to hear more!

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Join me at the SPSP Roundtable Unconference to discuss how psychologists can strengthen AI alignment! We’ll cover recent work in the psych-AI space, talk career paths & interdisciplinary collabs, and map research priorities to help steer fast-moving tech toward the public good. @spspnews.bsky.social

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

We're excited to announce the first Mind & Machine Alignment Summit at Ohio State! Join leaders from social science and the AI industry to advance AI that promotes well-being and aligns with human values. Learn about emerging work and connect with leading researchers and builders.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Social scientists can help collect globally representative training data, embed social insights into model design for AI safety, and strengthen human feedback methods. Great work is happening, but we still need much more social science-computer science cross-talk.

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

AI alignment has two sides: machines and people. Computer scientists study the first, social scientists the second, and we need more collaboration between these spheres.

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Reposted by Danica Dillion

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

We are facing a crisis of disconnection and this is directly linked to polarization. New research finds that people living in communities with denser social networks consistently reported less partisan animosity and a greater sense of national unity. link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007...

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Building denser, more interconnected communities might not just boost wellbeing—it could also help heal political divides. We encourage future research to explore this possibility further. Many thanks to coauthors @kurtjgray.bsky.social and Kevin Lewis! Full open-access paper here: rdcu.be/ePGvH

rdcu.be

Social network density predicts partisan animosity

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Danica Dillion @danicajdillion.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Second, all main results are correlational. Our experimental manipulation produced only a series of indirect effects culminating in lower partisan animosity. We hope these results inspire future interventions to test whether fostering denser social networks can reduce partisan animosity.

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