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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

New findings from my lab in Nature Communications suggest that racial stereotypes can lead the brain's perceptual system to temporarily "see" weapons where they don't exist. Led by: @dongwonoh.bsky.social Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

The model can explain growing findings: ▪️cross-cultural & individual perceiver variation ▪️variation by targets' race/gender/groups And makes novel predictions: ▪️"proximal" vs. "distal" traits in cascades (competent → intelligent → creative) ▪️earlier activation of putatively latent dimensions (7/8)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

In the model, the structure of trait relationships (e.g., trustworthiness–dominance) can change due to targets or context and cultural and individual learning. Top-down factors—like goals, stereotypes, or attention—reshape the attractor landscape, influencing which traits become most stable. (6/8)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

How does it work? You encounter another person. Features trigger many trait concepts (e.g., sociable, caring, competent), which activate each other or compete, influenced by top-down goals & higher-order processes. The network settles into a stable neural pattern, resulting in impressions. (4/8)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Instead, using attractor neural networks, we propose a high-dimensional model. In the brain, social impressions would operate as dynamic trajectories in a neural-state space that can be shaped by sensory cues, conceptual associations, and higher-order social cognition. (3/8)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

How do we infer countless traits? Models have treated trait perception like color vision: impressions arise from combinations of, e.g., “red” (trustworthy), “green” (dominant), & "blue" (youthful). But unlike color, there’s no evidence for this, and we question the value of latent dimensions (2/8)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

New NSF FAQ is posted. The 5 new priorities presumably don’t demolish science-wide funding. Good news-ish. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Job alert 🚨 We’re hiring a full-time research staff assistant at Columbia starting Fall 2025! The position will focus on several topics in the lab, including the cognitive & neural mechanisms underlying dynamic social perception using fMRI & natural language processing. Link: freemanlab.org/ra2025

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Check out the lab's presentations at #SPSP2025! cc @gabefajardo.bsky.social, @youngkihong.bsky.social, @samklein.bsky.social, Maryam Bin Meshar, John Andrew Chwe, Bastian Weitz

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

NSF may be rolling back data collection on gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation in its national surveys of the US scientific workforce - undermining transparency and an accurate picture of STEM. In a letter last week, I argue these actions likely violate federal law. shorturl.at/IsiWm

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Wyd at 8AM this Saturday? If at #SPSP2025 in Denver, and willing to tolerate such an aggressive time slot, please join us for our symposium on High-Dimensional Social Cognition, featuring @gandalfnicolas.bsky.social , @chujunlin.bsky.social, @joshcjackson.bsky.social, and myself

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 29/10/2024

Excited to announce that Columbia's Department of Psychology is hiring a tenure-track faculty member! Emphasis on multi-method expertise and research programs that complement current strengths in the Department. Come join us! Review begins Nov. 1: apply.interfolio.com/157376

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

But among people who explicitly endorsed these impressions and endorsed engaging in facial stereotyping, the TPJ-pSTS and ATL also instantiated this 2D trustworthiness-dominance space

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

People instantiated this 2D trustworthiness-dominance space in response to faces in the MTG regardless of whether they explicitly endorsed these impressions

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

For future research: exploring multi-week interventions and long-term durability of effects, and extending to racially and gender diverse faces (this presents a few methodological challenges involving statistical learning during the training, which we aim to overcome soon) (6/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

In cases where consequential social judgments are biased by facial stereotypes -- hiring, politics, courtrooms -- our findings suggest that they have the potential to be flexibly remapped and dismantled. (5/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

Previous interventions attempting to educate or nudge people not to use facial stereotypes have not proven successful. Here, by using different mechanisms & rendering the featural associations as no longer stable/reliable, we successfully reduced or eliminated these biases. (4/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

The bias was eliminated not only in overt judgments but also in automatic reactions to faces, as shown via sequential priming. Moreover, by borrowing a paradigm from @bxjaeger.bsky.social, we show that even in the presence of realistic, decision-relevant info, we can eliminate the bias (3/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

Replicating @jpwilson.bsky.social, untrustworthy facial features distinguished who was sentenced to death vs. life in prison in the real world. It also biased subjects' own mock courtroom decisions. Via a counterstereotype intervention, we can reduce or eliminate these effects. (2/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 19/12/2023

New in Psych Science led by Youngki Hong: Facial stereotypes (e.g., trustworthiness) lead to consequential biases in criminal sentencing, hiring, and politics. We show these biases can be eliminated via a training that dismantles the associations. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... (1/6)

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

Hey Bluesky 👋 Columbia is hiring a tenure-track faculty member in social psychology. Emphasis on multi-method expertise, e.g., computational approaches to studying social behavior, psychophysiology, big data, & other novel methods. Review begins October 1. Come join us! apply.interfolio.com/131473

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