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Michael Prinzing

@mprinzing.bsky.social

Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

It turns out that the latter is consistently associated with better well-being (cross-sectionally, within and between persons, and in longitudinal changes over 2 years), whereas the latter is not. In fact, it's actually associated with *worse* well-being.

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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Philosophy was mostly "armchair" in the mid-20th century—but it's not anymore! Philosophers have increasingly cited empirical sources and discussed empirical data and evidence. In fact, as of the 2020s, non-empirical philosophy has become the minority.

A graph showing the percentage of philosophy articles that cited empirical sources each year between 1970 and 2024. That proportion has increased from approximately 10% in the 1970s to over 50% in the 2020s.

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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

That said, there are major differences in these within-person changes across majors (e.g., English & arts move most to the left, while business and engineering actually shift right), as well as demographics (e.g., women move leftward more than men), and other individual characteristics

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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Since around 2012, grads have increasingly identified as liberal, while non-grads remained steady. And this diploma divide in political ID emerges during college. In the mid-1990s, students did not change their ID during college, but they increasingly have done so since.

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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Indeed, we found situations affording opportunities for these virtues are unpleasant. But virtues seem to buffer these situational influences. Compassion, patience, and self-control all showed positive within- and between-person links with (especially eudaimonic aspects of) well-being.

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Michael Prinzing @mprinzing.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I think you're right! Check it out! In "Leiterific" journals there's been really dramatic growth in citations of empirical sources and references to empirical data, evidence, research, etc. Also, articles citing more empirical sources receive more citations (i.e., are more influential).

Two figures showing growth in the percentage of philosophy articles citing empirical sources and the mean number of empirical sources cited per article

Two figures showing growth in the percentage of philosophy articles using "empirical" phrases and the mean number of occurrences of such phrases

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