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Jan K. Woike

@jan-k-woike.bsky.social
700 followers 599 following 34 posts

University of Plymouth (UK); Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin; Decision Making Researcher

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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I stand firmly by my assertion that metascientists should have seen this capture of science coming, but there is no reasonable way they can reasonably delude themselves into thinking the new nsf announcements are anything other than epistemic capture. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Science’s reform movement should have seen Trump’s call for ‘gold standard science’ coming, critics say
Efforts to improve the rigor of research may have unwittingly handed the administration a way to attack science
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
We can simulate fish schools or ants in ways that solve complex problems (gradient detection, bridge building, nest selection) but no one would create this weird soul/no-soul dichotomy to argue they these that multi-agent swarms of extremely simple rules are “thinking”.
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Is Burnham trying to appease Trump? Or Reform? What other reason is there for these North Sea oil plans? | George Monbiot
Climate catastrophe is on our doorstep – yet Labour’s impending approval of further drilling will bring more pain for negligible gains, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Josef Fruehwald @jofrhwld.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I've also gone for prohibition
lin611-2026.github.io
AI Policy – Lin611 - Quantitative Methods
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
antipodeonline.org/2024/09/25/c...
antipodeonline.org
Intervention — “Crisis, What Crisis? The UK Higher Education ‘Marketplace’ and the 2022-23 UCU Strikes” - Antipode Online
Sam Scott, University of Gloucestershire Locating the UK Higher Education Crisis During the 2022-23 UCU (University and College Union) strikes it was apparent that spaces of critical interaction were ...
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The richest man owns X. The second and fourth richest men control Google. The third richest man owns The Washington Post. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And now the seventh richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds
Exclusive: Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire sites predicted to emit 4.5m tonnes a year when fully running
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 20/08/2026
You may have heard of a "pollster" that recently admitted to fabricating data for a "social experiment". We have discovered that another firm, TPSI, falsified data to produce results more favorable to a candidate it did undisclosed partisan work for blog.fiftyplusone.news/suspending-t...
blog.fiftyplusone.news
We’re suspending two pollsters from FiftyPlusOne for ethics violations
Both pollsters appear to have failed to disclose that a campaign paid for their surveys, and one admits to changing voters’ responses in favor of the candidate that allegedly paid for the survey.
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 19/08/2026
People who don’t know the difference between ‘entomology’ and ‘etymology’ bug us in ways we cannot put into words.
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Here's the paper - the abstract suggests that students who outsource their homework to AI later do worse on exams (which makes sense!) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary Education
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative AI affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 20/08/2026
Studies show that engaging with stories offers several cognitive benefits. Since fiction helps readers understand complex social dynamics and enhances empathy, reading it may strengthen the social skills we use to understand and connect with others. wapo.st/4ggFGq7
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Dr. Erika Graham-Goering @jeanneologist.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
'Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”.'
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
More evidence, from a large-scale study in China, that using AI hurts learning if it undermines mental effort. When homework time drops due to AI use, so do test scores. Across studies, there is a clear theme: AI tutoring in support of classes is good, using AI to "help" with homework is bad.
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Elizabeth Mitchell Elder @elizabethelder.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Out now in Nature: Human Behavior: @obrian.bsky.social and I find that since about 2016, conservatives have become less healthy than liberals on a range of medical indicators. Since 2020, conservatives have died at higher rates, including of non-COVID-related causes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The political polarization of health outcomes in the USA - Nature Human Behaviour
Using individual-level medical data and death records, this study finds that conservatives in the USA experienced worse health and higher mortality than liberals during the 2010s. No significant gaps ...
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Reminder that Bezos fired the reporter who...covered Amazon. gizmodo.com/jeff-bezos-c...
gizmodo.com
Jeff Bezos Called Washington Post His Worst Investment and Staff He Laid Off 'Terrible' People
The Amazon founder complained to Trump over dinner that nobody there listened to him before slashing staff, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 19/06/2026
President Trump vowed to clean up what he called the “filthy” and “disgusting” water in the Reflecting Pool. But the algae blooms that have long plagued the pool have come roaring back, spawning much debate about the $14 million renovation. wapo.st/4eks4L6
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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
one anecdote: I was searching for a link to one of my old papers on Google, and the automated Gemini summary attributed all of my lab's work to my husband
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Philipp Heimberger @heimbergecon.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
This paper finds that economists whose job market papers report (marginally) statistically significant results are more likely to secure academic jobs. Hiring committees prefer statistical significance; this creates incentives for researchers to p-hack.
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Gig workers are endlessly exploited. AI could make more of us share their fate
As companies integrate AI and hire fewer employees, a shift toward a ‘gig economy’ will commence
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
When I meet people in the real world, they have 0% - and I mean zero - knowledge of the disaster unfolding in British HE. Even if their kids are actually at uni. They look at me as if I've gone mad. This is why. 👇
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 30/05/2026
I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Last year, we shared a paper showing that Labour's accommodation of the radical right did not work. We now have a new version of the paper online: osf.io/preprints/so...
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Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 07/06/2026
🧵 NEW PREPRINT on AI risks: 272 AI experts (I was one of them) used a 3-round Delphi to answer: which AI risks are worst, who's most vulnerable, and who's responsible? Key findings below. 👇 arxiv.org/abs/2606.0... 1/8
arxiv.org
Prioritization of Risks from Artificial Intelligence: A Delphi...
Artificial intelligence poses many risks, ranging from familiar present-day harms to unprecedented and potentially catastrophic ones. Effective risk management requires prioritization: we must...
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 09/06/2026
Among Britons who believe Brexit has been a failure, the Conservatives and Boris Johnson are seen as most responsible for it not succeeding Cons: 85% see as at least somewhat responsible Johnson: 82% Farage: 69% May: 64% Sunak: 59% Lab: 38% Civil service: 33% EU: 33% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
New @bmj.com piece by me & @martinmckee.bsky.social on the need for the UK's public health institutions to prepare to speak up in the event of a populist government set on undermining our population's health protections. The tea leaves aren't that mysterious. www.bmj.com/content/393/...
Screen shot of the top bit of the BMJ article
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
A whole 12% of voters think Brexit has been a success. And just 25% of Leave voters. Sigh.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 25/10/2025
"While corporations urge us to embrace their supposedly inevitable tech-driven future, academics must take a principled stand and defend universities by barring toxic, addictive techn from classrooms." www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a... Tide is def shifting: bsky.app/profile/oliv... 9/n
project-syndicate.org
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I feel like validity and authenticity and integrity are being abandoned right across the board: in politics, social norms, academia, culture - it feels overwhelming to face it all at once and find the energy to push back. When I see takes like this I feel a great wave of hopelessness envelope me.
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Jeremy Faust, MD @jeremyfaust.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Incredibly disturbing story broken by @medpagetoday.com team. www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...
medpagetoday.com
Video: Police Tussle With Diabetes Experts at ADA Meeting
Researchers told they could no longer attend the annual scientific sessions
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 05/06/2026
"It’s fortunate that LLMs are not conscious," Ted Chiang writes, "or else the actions of the big AI firms would be even more scandalous than they already are." theatln.tc/D4SzWQfW
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Thomas Renault @thomasrenault.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🚨 A few months ago, a paper published in Science reported that “LLM adoption is associated with a large increase in researchers’ scientific output.” In a comment released today, we show that the reported effects are driven by a methodological issue in the empirical design. arxiv.org/abs/2605.17979
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Britain is a swamp of lies and disinformation – and we got here on the Brexit bus | Jonathan Freedland
Ten years after the vote, our economy is battered – and our national conversation darkens by the day. Still, there is reason for hope, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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Reposted by Jan K. Woike
Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Publishers: “Short stories don’t sell and are impossible to market so we are not going to take the risk of publishing them.” Also publishers: “What can we publish to fit this era of reduced attention spans when people are reading fewer novels?”
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The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Imagine if a woman president crashed the economy and started a war with no end in sight, and her biggest, seemingly ONLY concern was building a ballroom and redecorating the White House.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Reform UK wants to shut this down. If it did so, it would throw a million people out of work. Why? because it is beholden to the fossil fuel industry. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
UK’s growing green economy worth more than £100bn a year, research finds
Net zero industry accounts for more than a million jobs and benefits whole country, according to CBI Economics
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Lee Savage @leesavage.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Not reported here: just 8% of graduates say that they wouldn't go to university if they could choose again www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-...
kcl.ac.uk
Public hugely overestimate graduate regret while underestimating economic value of universities and being wrong on tuition fees – new study | King's College London
People guess that 40% of graduates wouldn't go to university if they could choose again, when the reality is just 8%
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Heather Logan @helogan.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Important essay about generative AI by software developers Johannes Link and Jakob Schnell: blog.johanneslink.net/2025/11/04/t... Read the whole thing... while you still have the cognitive capacity to do so. 👀
blog.johanneslink.net
To Gen or Not To Gen: The Ethical Use of Generative AI
Is it ethical to use hyper-scaled GenAI?
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Qinyu Xiao @qinyuxiao.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
New working paper with @robertboehm.bsky.social: it is an early version likely needing significant revision, so feedback is very much appreciated. We review multi-level games: a family of economic games that capture tensions within and between groups simultaneously. (1/5) doi.org/10.31234/osf...
doi.org
OSF
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Britain’s green transition should belong to everyone. Why is Labour so intent on stopping us having our say? | George Monbiot
Tearing up planning and using protest laws to criminalise local people – this isn’t how to build the broad consent needed, says the Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
1) New paper out with @shafenbraedl.bsky.social, @patkanngiesser.bsky.social , and Ralph Hertwig: "Partisan Differences in Risk-Taking in a Simulated Pandemic" : www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/normati...; in JBDM: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
plymouth.ac.uk
Normative messaging bridges the partisan gap in pandemic risk-taking
University of Plymouth news: New research led by the University demonstrates that clear messages can align public behaviour during a health crisis,...
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Many are appropriately outraged by Altman’s comments here implying that raising a human child is akin to “training” an AI model. This is part of a broader pattern where AI industry leaders use language that collapses the boundary between human and machine. 🧵/
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I am sick, absolutely sick, of the retreat of civic society, the media and the other political parties in the face of Reform UK - one of the most existential threats the state structures have faced for decades.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Universities can see what's happened to our US partners and colleagues. There's an example right in front of them of what the authoritarians will do once in power. They can fight back now or lose the ability to do so.
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Jan K. Woike @jan-k-woike.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?
When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
A multimillionaire thinks that paying down the national debt is so important that all the poors should get into the workforce earlier, work in it harder, and stay in it later to help pay it off. It's the only possible way to do it!
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Knowledge in Crisis @knowledgecrisis.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Does studying philosophy make you a better thinker? 🤔 A new study finds philosophy majors outperform all other majors in reasoning, curiosity, and open-mindedness—even after controlling for differences at the start of college. What are your thoughts? 💭 #philsky #philosophy #betterthinker
theconversation.com
Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads
Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.
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Sam Levin @samtlevin.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
After Border Patrol shot two people in Portland, DHS claimed they were "vicious gang members" tied to a past shooting. But records I obtained reveal a US prosecutor has since directly contradicted DHS, saying, "We're not suggesting he is a gang member." My dive into how DHS' claims have collapsed:
theguardian.com
DHS’s account of two Venezuelans shot by border patrol falls apart in court: ‘A smear campaign’
Immigration officials said agent shot two ‘vicious gang members’ in Portland, but records obtained by the Guardian reveal US prosecutor contradicted claims
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Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 02/02/2026
I think often of a tweet I saw that was like "if your kid actually reads books, they're gonna be one of the smartest people in like ten years" arxiv.org/abs/2601.20245
How AI Impacts Skill Formation
Judy Hanwen Shen, Alex Tamkin
AI assistance produces significant productivity gains across professional domains, particularly for novice workers. Yet how this assistance affects the development of skills required to effectively supervise AI remains unclear. Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition in the process. We conduct randomized experiments to study how developers gained mastery of a new asynchronous programming library with and without the assistance of AI. We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average. Participants who fully delegated coding tasks showed some productivity improvements, but at the cost of learning the library. We identify six distinct AI interaction patterns, three of which involve cognitive engagement and preserve learning outcomes even when participants receive AI assistance. Our findings suggest that AI-enhanced productivity is not a shortcut to competence and AI assistance should be carefully adopted into workflows to preserve skill formation -- particularly in safety-critical domains.
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