Sign in

Dr Moira Nicolson

@moiranics.bsky.social
3.3K followers 852 following 196 posts

#SocialScientist and Public #Climate Comms and Engagement Honorary Research Fellow @UCL *Sharing research and views in a personal capacity*

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
People in romantic relationships report higher life satisfaction than singles. But this life-satisfaction gap is larger in regions with higher relationship rates, according to a new study of 382,078 adults across 379 regions in Great Britain. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
041
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Blimey this is a good blog from @laurenleek.eu on how algorithms tend us towards monocultures and that markets won’t save us without some help. Read, and follow her laurenleek.substack.com/p/temperatur...
laurenleek.substack.com
Temperature Zero for Culture: Why Everything Is Starting to Look the Same
What 640 London shopping streets, 4,000 Billboard hits, a million films and synthetic AI personas tell us about why everything is flattening into sameness and how to regulate the algorithms behind it.
55720
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · 12/08/2026
Great pic
0262
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Just went outside to water my plants in my currentbody infrared mask and realised if my neighbours saw me they’d likely call the police. Didn’t take it off as was mid way through the session and thought it could also be fun for them to see someone with glowing red eyes using a tiny watering can.
110
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Our poster later this morning at #EASP2026 @fergusneville.bsky.social @cliffstott.bsky.social - @ukri.org funded
184
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Meg Russell has written a chapter on the debate in parliament between 2016 and 2019 in Anthony Seldon's latest book, The Brexit Effect, 2016–2026. Drawing on her 2023 book, she says that parliament 'emerged battered and bruised from the process'. Find out more 👇️
ucl.ac.uk
Meg Russell contributes to popular new book on the Brexit Effect
Meg Russell has written a chapter on 'The Debate in Parliament, 2016–19' in Anthony Seldon’s new book The Brexit Effect, 2016–2026.
044
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
The Sutton Trust @suttontrust.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
✍️ "Many disadvantaged pupils in the UK have high aspirations, which can be reinforced or thwarted by social and local norms." Our latest blog draws on our new research to further unpack the drivers of social mobility beyond just attainment and earnings ⤵️
suttontrust.com
What drives social mobility? A closer look at Crossing Paths - The Sutton Trust
Exploring the dynamics of social mobility beyond attainment and earnings.
033
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Join us this Sunday 21st June at The Globe Theatre in London for its first Climate Open House - find out how to get more involved in climate action in a fun, family friendly setting! There will be repair cafes, energy advice and talks! Free tickets www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/cli...
shakespearesglobe.com
Climate Open House | Shakespeare's Globe
Join us for a free day of discovery, with performances, events and activities taking place around Shakespeare's Globe.
031
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Join us this Sunday 21st June at The Globe Theatre in London for its first Climate Open House - find out how to get more involved in climate action in a fun, family friendly setting! There will be repair cafes, energy advice and talks! Free tickets www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/cli...
shakespearesglobe.com
Climate Open House | Shakespeare's Globe
Join us for a free day of discovery, with performances, events and activities taking place around Shakespeare's Globe.
031
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Thousands gather for anti-racism rally in Belfast after disorder www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Belfast protest: Thousands gather for anti-racism rally
Protesters gathered at Belfast City Hall for a demonstration against racism, after the past week of violence and disorder.
0186
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
www.theargus.co.uk/news/2619228...
theargus.co.uk
How the day unfolded as thousands of protesters fill city to counter right-wing march
Anti-immigration protesters were hugely outnumbered as thousands of counter protesters took to the streets of Brighton
0154
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
'while the media will focus on vaccine scientists & big Pharma companies, the most important issue for control to prevent thousands of deaths in Africa is how to mobilize communities to ensure the best public health practices to reduce transmission' thesocialvaccines.substack.com/p/how-to-sto...
thesocialvaccines.substack.com
How to stop the new Bundibugyo Ebola virus from killing thousands
A social vaccine comes first.
254
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
AI-driven algorithms designed to maximize engagement on social media can unintentionally set the stage for radicalization. By exploiting the need for belonging and certainty, this can open the door for conflict. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
2187
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
This from Shade The UK is a great guide for future proofing your home for hotter weather www.shadetheuk.com/overheating-...
shadetheuk.com
Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes — Shade the UK
031
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Reminds me of a stats class I took when we were told a team of energy demand researchers spent weeks trying to identify why the internal temperature of one of the homes in their study skyrocketed intermittently. Eventually they spoke to the owner who said the cat sometimes sat on the thermostat!
030
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
The Financial Times ran an entire story of coal shipments "jumping" that is based on an algorithmic artifact in shipping data.
16518
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 16/11/2024
This week I spoke on a panel at the National Academies on the implications of artificial intelligence-related data center electricity use and emissions. I talked about how principles of ethical AI include energy & climate. 🔌💡 Video of the workshop is here: www.nationalacademies.org/event/43750_...
My slides with the title Principles for Ethical AI Include Energy and Climate. Left side show the icons from the AI Bill of Rights. Right side bullets are:

Doesn’t raise people’s energy bills

Adds more clean power to the grid than it uses

Invests in distribution system infrastructure

Increases reliability, flexibility, and resilience

Open data and rising efficiency targets

Doesn’t add local pollution and is net-zero emissions 

Develops clean data center community benefits agreements
Panel of one person on a zoom screen and four people on a stage with a green background at the National Academies headquarters in DC.
1286
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Community-based fact-checking works Community notes reducethe subsequent spread of misleading posts by 61% and increase the odds that users delete their false posts by 94% But they appear too late to stop the viral stage of the diffusion making the effect modest. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
22914
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
All the philosophy students who pursued their passion made a wise decision. Learning how to think is a always a good investment. Psychology grads are not doing too badly on the job market either.
50800188
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Creativity is a team sport Our environments and the people around us matter a lot more than our innate abilities when it comes to creativity The greatest invention Thomas Edison made was not the lightbulb or the battery, but creating a innovation team: www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/the-myth-o...
powerofusnewsletter.com
Why Creativity a Team Sport: How Great Ideas Happen
An interview with George Newman on the overlooked social science of creativity and collaboration.
253
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
This website visualizes social media as a room with 100 people 3 people are producing most toxic content Most people assume 43 are producing toxic content, because these 3 are hyperactive and amplified by engagement based algorithms. The other 97 quiet voices disappear thenoisyroom.com
419884
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
John Drury @profjohndrury.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
How Can We Improve Initial Public Response During Emergencies? Recommendations from a Systematic Review of Pre-Incident Information www.mdpi.com/2413-8851/10...
mdpi.com
013
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
A single line in this piece just made my day: “The electricity system operator is understood to be preparing to run the grid without any gas for short periods as soon as this summer, in a first for the UK energy system.” Renewables *work*. And progress matters🎉 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Britain breaks solar energy record twice as UK’s biggest solar farm gets approval
Record high set on Monday and raised on Tuesday, with 14.4GW of electricity generated in sunny spring weather
491866499
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Love this work. It’s so important to point out that measuring social issues is not the same as measuring physical ones. If only we could measure attitudes like we measure body temperature!
010
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Samantha Joel @datingdecisions.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
New paper, out this week in PLOS One, suggests that most close relationship self-report measures are primarily capturing relationship quality 🧵 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org
Predicting relationship quality with itself? A single general factor captures most of the variance across 34 common relationship measures
In relationship science, researchers have generated a wide array of constructs and corresponding self-report measures to characterize, explain, and predict relationship quality – the foremost studied ...
38037
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
There's something just so brilliant about coal mines being directly replaced with solar farms www.pv-magazine.com/2026/04/07/g...
pv-magazine.com
Greek utility completes 2.13 GW solar cluster at former coal mine
Greece’s PPC Group has finished construction of its 2.13 GW solar portfolio in northern Greece. The company is now working on its third large-scale battery storage facility in the area, with plans for...
2691311958
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Online hostility is predicted by economic & political inequality Inequality breeds online hostility because people crave status in unequal societies and status-seekers constitute the main perpetrators of hostility in political settings, whether online or offline. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
46327
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
turgut keskintürk @tkeskinturk.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
my hot take is that this is a *fantastic* result & reason for optimism:
a new article from Nature called:
"Investigating the analytical robustness of the social and behavioural sciences."

highlighted section says:
"Of the reanalyses conducted, 74% reached the same conclusion as the original investigation, 24% yielded no effects or inconclusive results and 2% reported the opposite effect."
1278
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Adorable wooden horses on wheels were pulled around by little ones in the past, too. A timeless reminder that play has been part of the human experience for millennia. From Egypt, Roman period, 30 BC-150 AD. 📷 Julia Thorne/Manchester Museum 🏺
A wooden toy horse on for wheels. Its surface bears incised vertical lines, chips, cracks from age. There is hole in the head, likely for attaching a string to pull it along.
8714176
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
While social media shows you extreme content, AI is more likely to show people more moderate content This means the technology, on average, could have very different effects on polarization. www.ft.com/content/3880...
2317
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Gas only sets Spain's electricity price 15% of the time. When gas costs spike it barely registers on the electricity bill. In countries like Italy and the UK gas sets the price 90% of the time. The difference is enormous. I spoke to @politico.com about this. www.politico.eu/article/spai...
politico.eu
What the EU can — and can’t — learn from Spain’s low energy bills
Madrid says a renewables boom is shielding its citizens from soaring fossil fuel costs. But that’s not the full story.
20735284
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
People have really lost trust in their social media feed--algorithms have amplified the worst voices.
54210
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Rachel Ziemba in this post / interview discusses the effects. rziemba.substack.com/p/why-are-oi...
rziemba.substack.com
Why Are Oil Benchmark Prices so Subdued?
And a few things to watch/read on the continuing conflict.
011
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The more active users are on social media, the more polarized they are! The opinions of the these extreme users are filling your newsfeed, but they are not representative of most citizens or even most social media users--which are far less polarized! arxiv.org/pdf/2603.021...
22615
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
An analysis of over 14 million social media posts from accounts in Canada found that 87% of conspiratorial claims come from just 100 influencers. This minority of users impacts politics, influencing what people view as normal and leads to self-censoring to avoid attacks from conspiracy theorists.
8531239
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Fascinating
011
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Fascinating
011
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
@aoc.bsky.social journalists shouldn’t use any social media platform as a measure of public sentiment as it’s very skewed by a vocal minority who post a lot. “97 % of political posts from Twitter/X come from just 10 % of the most active users on social media” www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Inside the funhouse mirror factory: How social media distorts perceptions of norms
The current paper explains how modern technology interacts with human psychology to create a funhouse mirror version of social norms. We argue that no…
001
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
"Does 200 lines of Python code understand anything? My siblings in Christ I hope it’s clear how utterly bizarre this question is." www.todayintabs.com/p/a-i-isn-t-...
todayintabs.com
A.I. Isn't People
How many Reddit posts does it take to learn to read?
0206
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
James Plunkett @jamestplunkett.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Excited to be finally giving a talk at TransformGov! 👏👇
185
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
If 90s and 00s girls magazines gave women body dysmorphia, LinkedIn is giving people career and life dysmorphia. Social media bias works in both directions it seems. 😢
000
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I've lots of complaints about analytic philosophy (c.f. my blog posts about it being a failing research programme!) but I always need to be clear that my objections to it are absolutely not in the "be clear about your argument structure and the conditions under which your claims would be true" part.
2554
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Prof Aleksandra Cichocka @alekscichocka.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Kent Psychology is hiring 🎓We have two posts: 1) open area and 2) cog neuro. More details can be found here: jobs.kent.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... Feel free to reach out with questions!
jobs.kent.ac.uk
Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Lecturer in Psychology
The School of Psychology is seeking to appoint a Lecturer in Psychology and a Lecturer in Psychology focusing on Cognition and Neuroscience  to join a collegial, supportive, and intellectually vibrant...
02319
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
'Four minutes of air conditioning' The new, excellent essay by my colleague @hannahritchie.bsky.social on energy poverty. ourworldindata.org/four-minutes...
ourworldindata.org
Four minutes of air conditioning
Billions of people have access to far less electricity per day than is required to run an air conditioner for just one hour.
03211
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Rep. Lloyd Doggett @doggett.house.gov · 16/02/2026
The disruptive climate crisis makes hot weather hotter and cold, colder. This year, our overheated planet has been making some of our weather much colder and in Washington much snowier.
37662174
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Great thread on what it takes to inspire climate action - especially this point on why people often need help with the basics - who do I speak to? How do I convene a group? @parisawright.bsky.social has started a new network to help people set up their own community sustainability initiatives.
2112
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
I’ve wanted to go to Arizona ever since I watched Boyhood.
000
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Mike Henry @onlyveesaz.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Good Morning ☀️ 🏜️ Growing up in Michigan, this is NOT what I thought the desert looked like…
Sunrise in SE Arizona- shot on iPhone
521227161
Reposted by Dr Moira Nicolson
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
AI makes it much easier to produce fake news and disinformation- but I feel it’s massively under appreciated how much AI chatbots have removed one of the simplest rules of thumb everyone has for whether an article or piece of content is likely to be good or not - which is, how well it’s written.
212
Dr Moira Nicolson @moiranics.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
AI makes it much easier to produce fake news and disinformation- but I feel it’s massively under appreciated how much AI chatbots have removed one of the simplest rules of thumb everyone has for whether an article or piece of content is likely to be good or not - which is, how well it’s written.
212