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Raunak Pillai

@rmpillai.bsky.social
178 followers 108 following 15 posts

Social Psychology Postdoc, NYU Incoming Assistant Professor, Cognitive Science, Stony Brook University ('26) rmpillai.com

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Reposted by Raunak Pillai
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
This study shows that disinformation spreads, not as “false facts”, but as narratives. Compare that to how mis- and disinformation are often operationalized in the big-N quantitative and experimental research in the Nature/Science journals — that’s a major weakness in the field.
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Raunak Pillai @rmpillai.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
New preprint with @jayvanbavel.bsky.social: Novel social identities shape belief in true and false information In 3 exps (N = 1,459) we randomly assigned people to one of two novel groups. People trusted (and then believed claims more from) their in-group osf.io/preprints/ps... Thread 🧵
osf.io
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Raunak Pillai @rmpillai.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
I'll be starting as an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Stony Brook in Fall '26! My lab will take a social cognitive approach to studying how we form/update our beliefs and why we disagree about what is true vs false I'll also be reviewing grad apps! See below for more info
Photo of me next to a bronze statue of Wolfie the Seawolf, Stony Brook's mascot
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Reposted by Raunak Pillai
Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
"Vanderbilt is failing in its moral responsibility to push back against rising authoritarianism and political coercion." My effort to convince Vanderbilt (and all universities) to take a stand for the rule of law, the Constitution, and our democracy. www.tennessean.com/story/opinio...
tennessean.com
Here's why Vanderbilt's response to the Trump higher ed 'compact' is not enough | Opinion
With the deadline looming for colleges to sign Trump's "compact," Vanderbilt must resist, says one university professor.
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Reposted by Raunak Pillai
Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
I'm excited to finally have a preprint of this paper up, a few years in the making. In it we argue that industry-driven manipulation of social media research is well underway and that norms and institutions in the field are ill-prepared to resist tech's influence. arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
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Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
New from me and @brendannyhan.bsky.social Why Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence" is a devil's bargain and should be rejected in all forms www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
msnbc.com
Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
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Raunak Pillai @rmpillai.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
New preprint: From vaccinations to masking, politics predicts health behaviors. In this review we discuss these differences in light of classic psychological theories of group identity and behavioral decision-making. We welcome any feedback on this working paper! osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io
OSF
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Reposted by Raunak Pillai
Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 26/02/2025
🚨 10 Days Until Stand Up for Science, and some HUGE NEWS! - Take Action With Us! 🚨 We’re excited to announce 32 official Stand Up for Science events happening across the country on March 7th! 🧵⬇️
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Reposted by Raunak Pillai
Maddy Jalbert @maddyjalbert.bsky.social · 19/10/2024
In a new article now out in Collabora: Psychology, @rmpillai.bsky.social and I find that the mere repetition of information increases estimates of its consensus, a finding we refer to as an “illusory consensus effect.”
online.ucpress.edu
An Illusory Consensus Effect: The Mere Repetition of Information Increases Estimates That Others Would Believe or Already Know It
How do people estimate the prevalence of beliefs and knowledge among others? Here, we examine the hypothesis that mere repetition of information increases such perceptions of consensus — an “illusory ...
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Reposted by Raunak Pillai
Fade Eadeh, Ph.D. @feadeh.bsky.social · 28/04/2024
S+P Psychologists, Michael Kraus put together an excellent letter calling on social and personality psychologists to meet the moment re protecting students' rights to free speech. He would love faculty signatures! If you're a PhD Student, please send this around! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Social and Personality Psychologists on Student Protests for Justice in Palestine
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