Reposted by Hugo MercierTanay Katiyar @adigitaltanay.bsky.social · 9hDoes spreading mental health awareness online amplify self-diagnosis? In my first PhD pre-print, I empirically examine this question (n =3392) with some kick-ass collaborators and tools from cultural evolution A 🧵 13114
Reposted by Hugo MercierEdgar Dubourg @edgardubourg.bsky.social · 14hOur paper 'Carving Stories at Their Natural Joints' is out in Psychological Review (@apajournals.bsky.social). It means a lot to me, especially because I got to collaborate with many researchers from different disciplines whose work I truly admire. 32914
Reposted by Hugo MercierCarl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWaycnyti.msDid Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work. 892120874
Reposted by Hugo MercierPhil Klinkner @pklinkne.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I really love this chart. I'm guess that the correlation here (.85) is about as big as you would find for any other variable. Also, a less serious scholar than @tesler.bsky.social (namely me) would have made a crude Freudian reference to the slope of the line. 1132989
Reposted by Hugo MercierMichael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Seems like it should be part of the "are phones ruining the kids" debate that every marker of teen mental health has improved since 2021 www.cdc.gov/yrbs/youth-h... 47896182
Reposted by Hugo MercierJérémie Beucler @jeremiebeucler.bsky.social · 22/09/20261/15 What do we actually do when we deliberate, and how does it change over time? New preprint with @wimdeneys.bsky.social : "Rhythm of Thought: Tracing the Dynamics of Deliberation in Reasoning". 🔗 doi.org/10.31234/osf... (yes, I like flashy titles 💅) A 🧵👇 11711
Reposted by Hugo MercierJoel T. Patterson @joelpatt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026wow. It's real. www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adve...outsideonline.comWhat Killed the Bear Lady?For 28 years, Kay Grayson lived side-by-side with wild black bears in North Carolina's swampy coastal forests, hand-feeding them, defending them against poachers, and letting them in her home. When sh... 510718
Reposted by Hugo MercierEsther Boissin @boissinesther.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Happy to share a new preprint with @tomcostello.bsky.social, @dgrand.bsky.social and @gordpennycook.bsky.social 🧵 "What beliefs are most debunkable?" osf.io/preprints/ps... We investigate the characteristics of the beliefs that are (or are not) influenced by counterevidence in 3,341 AI dialogues. 13313
Reposted by Hugo MercierSacha Altay @sachaltay.bsky.social · 22/09/2026With Claude I did a systematic literature review of misinformation prevalence, exposure, and concentration. There is a companion website that allows you to play with the data and signal me if an estimate is wrong or missing: altay-research.github.io/misinfo-prev... 3138
Reposted by Hugo MercierGordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Interested in doing a postdoc with me & @dgrand.bsky.social? Consider applying to Cornell's Klarman Fellowship: as.cornell.edu/research/kla... It involves a competitive internal application process, but it's 3 years of funding @$80k/year Please email me/Dave if you're interested! Oct 15th deadlineas.cornell.eduKlarman FellowshipsThe Klarman Fellowships in the College of Arts & Sciences provide postdoctoral opportunities to early-career scholars of outstanding talent, initiative and promise. Among the most selective of its kin... 01917
Reposted by Hugo MercierAurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 17/09/2026It was confirmed yesterday that the centre left coalition won the election in Sweden As predicted, with the far right performing poorly, coverage has almost entirely vanished from international media 3739031177
Reposted by Hugo MercierThomas Talhelm @thomastalhelm.bsky.social · 16/09/2026🚨 It's published! 🚨 This is the big one. 100 cultures, 12,000 people, 108 researchers. Why people (and our most-used surveys) get collectivism wrong and how to fix it. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natureportfolio.nature.com 312461
Reposted by Hugo MercierC. Kirabo Jackson @kirabojackson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026If spending more on schools raises the earnings of the children who benefit, does it eventually make the whole economy richer? My new NBER paper examines this using school-finance reforms. 🧵 www.nber.org/papers/w35755nber.orgThe Macroeconomic Returns to School Finance Reforms: Micro-Calibrated Predictions Meet Causal EvidenceFounded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an... 112050
Reposted by Hugo Merciertal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Complexity is ubiquitous in the world around us. But different stimuli are complex for different reasons. Does the mind nevertheless represent a ‘unified’ notion of complexity across domains? In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps... 215743
Reposted by Hugo MercierDorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Hey folks, I'll be considering PhD applications for the 2026-27 cycle over here at Duke Psych. To learn more about the lab, check us out at www.mindandculturelab.com and/or read through this short FAQ for prospective students: www.mindandculturelab.com/faq 05027
Reposted by Hugo MercierHenry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 12/09/2026"We would be better off if we could rely on actual social science, rather than the kind of bong-hit P(d00m)ing in much of this week’s media commentary, to understand the upheavals that are happening around us."programmablemutter.comHow should social science think about AI?Big structures and large processes are back, baby 38423
Reposted by Hugo MercierBrendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Extremely impressive field experiment by @nmalhotra.bsky.social et al. had few effects on election attitudes among conservatives in TX despite being "exposed to an average of 20 online videos, 18.5 cable TV videos, 23.9 display ads, 3 text messages, and 3 postcards" www.science.org/doi/full/10.... 110733
Reposted by Hugo MercierLindsey Powell @lindseypowell.bsky.social · 09/09/2026UCSD Psychology is hiring!! We’re seeking a new assistant professor colleague who studies high-level human cognition, broadly construed. Please share and/or apply! apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04646apol-recruit.ucsd.eduAssistant Professor in High-level Human CognitionUniversity of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now! 09680
Reposted by Hugo MercierEd Hagen @edhagen.net · 08/09/2026This #rstats package can help you avoid doxxing the participants in your study when you publish your data 🧪 #AcademicSky: sdctools.github.io/sdcMicro/sdctools.github.ioStatistical Disclosure Control Methods for Anonymization of Data and Risk EstimationData from statistical agencies and other institutions are mostly confidential. This package, introduced in Templ, Kowarik and Meindl (2017) <doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i04>, can be used for the generation ... 0187
Reposted by Hugo Mercierkoenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 08/09/2026The illusory truth of repeated factual statements does not generalize to social political opinions, research by Riesthuis & Wood suggests—fluency-based processes appear not to influence truth judgments for subjective or evaluative content: buff.ly/TqJuwHY 062
Reposted by Hugo MercierQuentin André @quentinandre.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Hilarious stuff from hypocrite-in-chief Bill Ackman, currently bankrolling Francesca Gino, who has *check notes* sued three brave scholars for telling the truth. 511928
Reposted by Hugo MercierAlexey Koshevoy @alexeykoshevoy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Are you interested in lexical competition, agent-based modelling, strong inference and Ukrainian? Then this paper, just published in @pnasnexus.org, is for you. With @oliviermorin.bsky.social and @sobchuk.bsky.social, we asked a simple question: why do some words become more common than others? 24317
Reposted by Hugo MercierHenry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Why we need the social sciences to understand AI www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/o...nytimes.comOpinion | We Can’t Know Our A.I. Future if We Don’t Study ItJust as A.I. is poised to change the world, we’re losing our best ways of studying what that change will look like. 610437
Reposted by Hugo MercierJonathan Jarry @jonathanjarry.bsky.social · 04/09/2026This should be a bombshell in the world of science communication. Dietram Scheufele and Dominique Brossard are big names, and the allegations here are nauseating and revolting. 🧵 captimes.com/news/educati...captimes.comUW-Madison students, records detail investigation of professorDietram Scheufele resigned after investigators determined he had sexual relationships with two students and engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct with one. 512042
Reposted by Hugo MercierPolitical Science Research and Methods @psrm.bsky.social · 04/09/2026📰How should researchers debrief participants after exposing them to misinformation? ➡️ @emmahoes.bsky.social & @sachaltay.bsky.social show that specific debriefings with fact-checks reduce belief in false claims, while general warnings may increase skepticism toward true news doi.org/10.1017/psrm... 01810
Reposted by Hugo Mercierkoenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Truth-making institutions producing official interpretations of specific situations through eg divination or ordeals are very similar across cultures. @hugoreasoning.bsky.social & Boyer’s fascinating evolutionary account of their emergence and success: buff.ly/XKxt8wl 042
Reposted by Hugo MercierSMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Anyone who doesn't find this funny is in the lower right. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/philos... PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com 1621350
Reposted by Hugo MercierRob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 01/09/2026 "our mechanisms of epistemic vigilance usually work reasonably well"transformernews.aiAI is a worryingly-good persuader. But don’t panic, yetAI systems are able to persuade people, but turning that ability into meaningful real-world influence may be harder 131
Reposted by Hugo MercierData Colada @datacolada.bsky.social · 31/08/2026An influential paper by Ariely & Wertenbroch (2002) reported two studies with tampered data. Post 1 of 2. datacolada.org/138datacolada.org[138] Artificial Deadlines (Part 1): Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Study About ProcrastinationA new paper in Psychological Science (.htm) reports a failure to replicate Study 2 of Ariely and Wertenbroch’s influential article entitled, “Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Contr… 723799
Reposted by Hugo MercierAlberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 29/08/2026I did not know this: eBay ran field experiments turning off paid search ads on google and there was zero measurable effect on sales. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3... 0155
Reposted by Hugo MercierJan Pfänder @janpfa.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Why do people trust physicists and biologists more than economists or sociologists? In a new paper out in Public Understanding of Science, @hugoreasoning.bsky.social and I argue that it has to do with perceived precision and consensus. doi.org/10.1177/0963...doi.orgSciences perceived as precise and consensual are more trusted - Jan Pfänder, Hugo Mercier, 2026Research focused on the United States shows that people’s trust in science varies considerably between disciplines. Existing explanations of these trust gaps st... 1188
Reposted by Hugo MercierOleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦 @sobchuk.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Reminder: two weeks are left to apply for the PhD and postdoc positions in my lab. See more info here www.aesthetics.mpg.de/en/career/jo... 13535
Reposted by Hugo Merciertadegquillien.bsky.social @tadegquillien.bsky.social · 20/07/2026You roll a fair die, hoping to get a 6. If you are successful, did you *intentionally* roll a 6? In a new paper, I explain why people hesitate to call lucky outcomes intentional:🧵 direct.mit.edu/opmi/article... 22213
Reposted by Hugo MercierChaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 18/07/2026out today! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 015940
Reposted by Hugo MercierFelix M. Simon @felixsimon.bsky.social · 16/07/2026For four years, AI has reigned supreme – and lots of news organisations have jumped on the bandwagon/caught on/thought deeply about how they, too, could make use of it. What do they (want to) use it for? Increasingly for content creation. Full post here: open.substack.com/pub/felixsim... 252
Reposted by Hugo MercierJulien Lie-Panis @jliep.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Why do societies rely on rigid moral rules? Don't lie. Keep your promises. Don't steal. We all recognize there are good reasons to make exceptions. So why are moral rules so often categorical? Our new paper proposes an answer. 🧵 48441
Reposted by Hugo MercierRiccardo Fusaroli @fusaroli.eurosky.social · 20/04/2026What function did ~100k-year-old engravings from Blombos Cave & Diepkloof serve? Decoration, identity marking, proto-writing? osf.io/preprints/ps... uses transmission chains + cognitive experiments to find out & help answering one of the hardest questions in cognitive archaeology. long thread! 1/ 36629
Reposted by Hugo MercierMiguel Clavero @chikichanka.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Natural history on canvas: Brueghel knew about bird-eating noctule bats Just published in @pnas.org, OA for all eyes Led by the one-and-only @romero-vidal.bsky.social, with the amazing @elena-tena.bsky.social and Sonia Sánchez-Navarro @ebdonana.bsky.social LINK: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 420575
Reposted by Hugo MercierKorinna Lindemann @korinlind.bsky.social · 01/07/2026📢 Job Ad: I am looking for one doctoral researcher (75%) in my newly funded DFG project on misperceptions and factual information on immigration from 1.10. or soon after! 📌 Location: MZES, University of Mannheim 💢 Application Deadline: 21st of July 16158
Reposted by Hugo MercierProf Nichola Raihani @nicholaraihani.bsky.social · 01/07/2026If you have (or will soon) complete your PhD & would like to join a thriving cultural evolution research group in NEW ZEALAND, drop me a line. UoA offers a handful of funded research fellowships. Applications must be made by a faculty member. Deadline August. Pls share with your students 13751
Reposted by Hugo MercierOleg Sobchuk 🇺🇦 @sobchuk.bsky.social · 29/06/2026📣 I'm hiring! Two positions (PhD student & Postdoc) in my ERC project Macroevolution of European Literature. Let's study the cultural evolution of literature using massive data 📚📈 📍Frankfurt | Apply by August 15 Details: www.aesthetics.mpg.de/en/career/jo... Please repost to help spread the word! 08082
Reposted by Hugo MercierTania Lombrozo @tanialombrozo.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I wrote a book! It's called WHY WE ASK WHY, and it's about the human drive to explain, combining psychology, philosophy, and stories. It will be released on October 6, but it's currently available for pre-order from Barnes & Noble at 25% off with code PREORDER25. 18437
Reposted by Hugo MercierEdgar Dubourg @edgardubourg.bsky.social · 23/06/2026New paper with @sachaltay.bsky.social! A lot of people think AI can only make science worse. We argue agentic AI can actually be a great tool to do it better! 0113
Reposted by Hugo MercierBrendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 22/06/2026www.nature.com/articles/s41... "Republicans experience higher exposure to Democrats than vice versa: the average Republican’s coworkers are 50% Democratic versus 32% Republican for the average Democrat." 34919
Reposted by Hugo MercierBrendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 22/06/2026Yet again www.nber.org/papers/w3535... 38128
Reposted by Hugo MercierAndrea Howard @drandreahoward.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Okay so I read the whole working paper behind this claim. I’m going to accept the causal analysis as-is and explain why I still don’t think this makes sense. Starting with: the comparison is between counties with vs. without lots of iPhone network coverage, NOT owning vs. not owning an iPhone 🧵 66929
Reposted by Hugo MercierEd Hagen @edhagen.net · 14/06/20261. Attempted cancellations of prominent scholars as proxy wars on ideas one doesn't like: the case of Margaret Mead...and a mea culpa 🧪 #AcademicSky 25831
Reposted by Hugo MercierFelix M. Simon @felixsimon.bsky.social · 12/06/2026✨ 🤖 New pre-print: Is realism dead and do people distrust everything, now that synthetic media is ubiquitous? It’s a bit more complicated. 124