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Reka Blazsek

@rekablazsek.bsky.social
467 followers 732 following 56 posts

Cognitive & social science by day (CEU @weareceu.bsky.social), piano also by day 🔸 ownership, norms, moral psychology, institutions 🔸 interdisciplinary science 🔸 economics & public policy 🎧 curates playlists at headphoneson.substack.com

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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
In the end I gave the title "Jargon and jargon of jargon" (Cognition and the nature of ownership). I considered "When cognition met ownership" after When Harry met Sally, but was talked out of it
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Oded Ritov @oded-ritov.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Do chimpanzees value their friendships enough to pass on juicy pineapple? In our new paper, out now at Evolution and Human Behavior, we find that they do! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Screenshot of the paper header on ScienceDirect. Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 47, Issue 6, November 2026, article 106948. Title: "Chimpanzees steal less from their friends and expect them to do the same." Authors: Oded Ritov, Christoph J. Völter, Liran Samuni, Avi Benozio, Dacher Keltner, Jan M. Engelmann, Laura S. Lewis, Esther Herrmann.
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Concluding paragraph of my thesis 🤭:
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Thought provoking essay on the different meanings and consequences of anthropomorphic AI open.substack.com/pub/legitima...
open.substack.com
The Ghost in the Machine Goes to China
Unpacking China's law on anthropomorphic AI and what it tells us about AI visions
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Cannot stop watching these videos of euphoria 🥹
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 13/04/2026
Finally, Hungary we will be sovereign, not a vassal of Russia
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Historic night in Budapest 🥲 #Hungaryelects
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
🤯🤯🤯
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
The past month has gone by very fast, with a major scandal in the media almost every day. The last few hours feel incredibly slow. #Hungaryelects
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Katalin Halmai @eublogo.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
🇭🇺 Hungarian elections Voter turnout stands at 66.01% as of 3:00 p.m. It is huge. The previous turnout record was set in 2002, during the second round of the then-two-round electoral system, when 53.59% of voters had cast their ballots by 3:00 p.m.
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Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
There's been lots of coverage of the elections in the international media in recent days. For something different, I recommend this from Ábel Bede, on the rise of Péter Magyar, the expected winner today hungarianobserver.substack.com/p/the-surfer...
hungarianobserver.substack.com
The Surfer and the Waves
Ábel Bede discusses the reasons behind the rise of Péter Magyar, with reports from Tisza rallies in County Békés and County Pest.
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Tens of thousands chant “Russians, go home!” at tonight’s anti-Orbán concert in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian election.
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Sacha Altay @sachaltay.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
One of my favorites paper got published 🤓 It covers a lot of ground and it’s the best summary of my views on misinformation and what to do about it. Give it a read :) 🔓 osf.io/preprints/ps... 👉 doi.org/10.1177/1461...
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Can't wait to submit my thesis, "Witty catchphrase: Length-enhanced superlative verbiage of obscure topic"! It took just under half a decade of my life.
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Manikya Alister @manikyaalister.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Humans have a remarkable capacity for efficient, intelligent reasoning. In a new working paper, @perfors.net and I discuss how our ability to reason from *social* information is one way that we achieve this capacity. osf.io/preprints/ps...
Figure from the paper. How does social reasoning enable efficient intelligence? 1. Directs us to the information that is most important for learning. 2. Inferences about others' minds help us interpret information they provide (and provide better information for others). 3. Avoids some of the costs of direct learning like cognitive/physical effort, and negative outcomes. 4. Enables us to build on and refine the knowledge of others. 5. Provides cues that help us infer which agents' knowledge we should build on without needing to observe their behaviour directly.
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
LLMs are imputation machines. They pull patterns from text data; Useful for things like coding, especially coding that has been done before. Academics work in knowledge generation, which goes far beyond imputation. If you think LLMs can replace grad students, you are telling on yourself.
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Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
This tweet, from Suno’s lead investor, will surely be used in court one day. She says she has shifted her listening from Spotify to Suno. *This is a direct admission that Suno competes with the music it trains on.* 🧵 1/5
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 13/02/2026
Institutions are the social technologies that power our world, allowing us to rely on complete strangers every day of our lives. But how do we ensure that this trust isn’t misplaced? In this Essay, the game theorist Julien Lie-Panis explores what makes institutions function @jliep.bsky.social
buff.ly
Institutions are how we scale up cooperation among millions | Aeon Essays
Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?
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The Cognitations podcast @cognitations.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
🎙️ EP #19 Think our ancestors lived in a state of "primitive communism"? New research reveals our deep past was far more complex than the "noble savage" myth suggests. @adigitaltanay.bsky.social & Jay explore this & much more with @manvir.bsky.social youtu.be/1BRZy9O665k?...
youtu.be
The Social Lives of Our Ancestors | Manvir Singh
YouTube video by The Cognitations Podcast
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Every ad now
[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]

JANET:
Ugh...

LIZ:
What's up?

JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!

LIZ:
Have you tried...

AI peas?

JANET:
AI peas?

LIZ:
They're peas with AI!

[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].

LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas

JANET:
What

LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]

Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?

[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]

LIZ:

Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine

[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]

LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!

JANET:
What

LIZ:
Shut up

LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow

From opening the bag of peas

to boiling the peas

to eating the peas

To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.

JANET:
Is it really necessary to-

LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET

[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:

AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.

[Ends]
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Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
No question, this is the most original paper I have ever written It says that something that seems plain and obvious - humans have an intuitive sense of what is and is not grammatical - and describes how this apparent common sense is actually misleading Thread coming soon!
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Happy World Linguistics Day from Budapest, capital of a peculiar linguistic phenomenon--the Hungarian language!
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 25/10/2025
Brazil, Australia and Italy have the highest satisfaction scores in Nature’s global 2025 PhD survey. A Nature Careers article examines what makes earning a doctorate in these countries different. #Academicsky 🧪
go.nature.com
Are these the happiest PhD students in the world?
Brazil, Australia and Italy have the highest satisfaction scores in Nature’s global 2025 PhD survey — but are these nations really the best places to do a doctorate?
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Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast) @epthepod.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
This week, Language and Communication (and the Lindy Hop) with @thomscottphillips.bsky.social! youtu.be/Gex5b6Nbq7I?... www.podbean.com/ew/pb-dur6p-... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
youtu.be
Language and Communication with Thom Scott-Phillips
YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Who owns new creations? with @jfkominsky.bsky.social & @heintz-c.bsky.social is out in #cogsci2025 proceedings! escholarship.org/content/qt4m...
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Happy to see my paper on mind-reading & ownership with @heintz-c.bsky.social out in Cognitive Science! 🧵
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Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Is mind-reading involved in ownership judgments? By @rekablazsek.bsky.social & @heintz-c.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Tobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Brilliant keynote by @laurennross.bsky.social at #cogsci2025 on cognitive science and its philosophy. Lauren pointed out the myriad ways in which cogsci and philosophy support and benefit one another, using explanation and causal reasoning as case studies. Thank you for a great talk!! 🙏
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CEU Department of Network & Data Science @ceu-dnds.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
How do social inequalities shape epidemic outcomes? Our PhD alum Adriana Manna shares insights from her award-winning dissertation on contact patterns, vaccination gaps & a novel modeling framework. 📖 Interview: bit.ly/44uT6KF #NetworkScience #EpidemicModeling
bit.ly
How Do Socioeconomic Factors Influence Epidemic Outcomes? | Central European University
Research illuminating the characteristics driving behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic was carried out by PhD candidate Adrianna Manna.
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The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
New episode (1120), my second interview with Dr. Pascal Boyer. We talk about ritualized behavior, ownership #Psychology, and victim-devaluation. #Anthropology #Science YouTube: youtu.be/ZcvVxnyFQoo Podcast: bit.ly/46v51JL
youtu.be
#1120 Pascal Boyer: Ritualized Behavior, Ownership Psychology, and Victim-Devaluation
YouTube video by The Dissenter
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
media.tenor.com
Size Matters GIF
ALT: Size Matters GIF
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Ethics of AI researchers violate fundamental ethics norms in academia. Incredible story. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
theatlantic.com
‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’
The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment.
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Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
my revised article arriving at manuscript central
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
What navigating the academic job market seems like youtube.com/shorts/S2aQ2...
youtube.com
Would You Get It Right? 👀
YouTube video by Red Bull
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Zach Garfield @zhgarfield.com · 11/04/2025
With @sheinalew.bsky.social: Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, in @naturecomms.bsky.social #evolution #culture 🧪 #LeadSciSky #CultEvo www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Quote: " In sum, leader-directed teaching of opaque cooperative norms would be a mutually beneficial strategy, where the costs incurred by influential teachers are, at least partly, outweighed by the long-term benefits of cultivating cooperation within the group."Mosaic plot illustrating the relationship between evidence for teaching and non-teaching social learning, based on a binary researcher-coded measure of teaching. 

"Although instrumental cultural transmission frequently occurs through both teaching and non-teaching social learning, opaque cultural information is predominantly transmitted through teaching, with relatively fewer instances of non-teaching social learning."
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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Game theory is endlessly fascinating, and @lionelpage.bsky.social can bring its insights to life like none other. His latest (very timely!) post explains why having more power is not necessarily a good thing—The paradox of power: buff.ly/4hXE0kB
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
📣 Deadline to apply this great summer school is in a week (14 Feb)! 🧠 ⚖️ The Human Mind and the Open Society: Political Intuitions July 7–11, 2025, @weareceu.bsky.social Budapest campus
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Back to curating playlists after a short break. I picked songs for Yael van der Wouden’s terrific debut novel, The Safekeep: open.substack.com/pub/headphon...
open.substack.com
Songs for The Safekeep
15 songs, 1h28m. Featuring Michael Kiwanuka, Dexter Gordon, Lady Blackbird, Micah Thomas, and more.
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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Research by @moralsmyers.bsky.social and @jimaceverett.bsky.social finds people… •trust AI moral advisors less than human moral advisors, even for the same advice •particularly distrust utilitarian advisors •expect artificial moral advisors to make more utilitarian decisions buff.ly/41zlt9i
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
📣 Call for PhD applications! The Dept of Cognitive Science at CEU has 4-year funding available for multiple incoming students. 📣 Application deadline: 4 Feb 2025 📣 Join us for a Virtual Open House on Monday to learn more! cognitivescience.ceu.edu/article/2024... @weareceu.bsky.social
cognitivescience.ceu.edu
Join us for the CEU Virtual Open Day - Monday, December 16, 2024 | Department of Cognitive Science
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Highly recommend this new essay by @lionelpage.bsky.social! I like the framing that psychology is an exercise in reverse engineering. www.optimallyirrational.com/p/why-we-sho...
optimallyirrational.com
Why we should look for the good reasons behind our behaviour
We are not here by random luck
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Have this playlist on repeat and shuffle throughout the festive season 🌟🥂 headphoneson.substack.com/p/a-happy-oc...
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Very important article by @engber.bsky.social. Many things to be disappointed about sadly: Eg "Her RAs on the project may have caused the problem; Schroeder wonders if they got confused". Disgraceful to try to shift blame on underpaid RAs. It's the PIs responsibility to train & supervise them!!!
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Daniel Engber @engber.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
But their audit appears to have done just the opposite. (3/3) My story for The Atlantic on this unspooling crisis: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
theatlantic.com
The Fraudulent Science of Success
Business schools are in the grips of a scandal that threatens to undermine their most influential research—and the credibility of an entire field.
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I had the great pleasure to be on The Dissenter podcast! We talked about some of my research on ownership, cognition and society, and the mental health issues many PhD students deal with. Check it out here👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QJt...
youtube.com
#1019 Réka Blazsek: Social Norms, Institutions, Ownership, and the Mental Health of PhD Students
YouTube video by The Dissenter
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Thom Scott-Phillips @thomscottphillips.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Getting back to my Substack! "How jazz embodies the state" Drums, bass & piano as the tripartite division of power open.substack.com/pub/thomscot...
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Simon Columbus @simoncolumbus.bsky.social · 30/09/2024
Cooperation Colloquium this week: Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social Just desert: Compensatory computations explain moralistic punishment October 4, 15:00 UTC+2 / 9 am ET Sign-up here: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 13/08/2024
Taylorism is a management philosophy based on using scientific optimization to maximize labor productivity and economic efficiency. Here's the result of making the false Taylorist assumption that the output of scientific research is scientific papers—the more, faster, and cheaper, the better.
The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated
Open-Ended Scientific Discovery
Chris Lu1,2,*, Cong Lu3,4,*, Robert Tjarko Lange1,*, Jakob Foerster2,†, Jeff Clune3,4,5,† and David Ha1,†
*Equal Contribution, 1Sakana AI, 2FLAIR, University of Oxford, 3University of British Columbia, 4Vector Institute, 5Canada CIFAR
AI Chair, †Equal Advising
One of the grand challenges of artificial general intelligence is developing agents capable of conducting
scientific research and discovering new knowledge. While frontier models have already been used as aids
to human scientists, e.g. for brainstorming ideas, writing code, or prediction tasks, they still conduct
only a small part of the scientific process. This paper presents the first comprehensive framework for
fully automatic scientific discovery, enabling frontier large language models (LLMs) to perform research
independently and communicate their findings. We introduce The AI Scientist, which generates
novel research ideas, writes code....
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Reka Blazsek @rekablazsek.bsky.social · 09/04/2024
A bit over 7 years ago, lexCEU was passed, making it difficult for CEU to legally operate in Hungary. CEU relocated to Vienna in late 2019. What remains today of CEU in Budapest is a mostly empty campus building.
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