iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Kudos to Christopher Petsko, who was one of our reviewers. I have rarely experienced such an enthusiastic and curious response from someone who is essentially being critiqued. Christopher was supportive and constructive throughout, gaining him the award for how science should work! 👏

static.klipy.com

Stephen Boss Clapping on World of Dance

ALT: Stephen Boss Clapping on World of Dance

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

In 3 experiments, we introduced additional statements unrelated to the debate to test whether people actually "wear a lens" or whether they merely engaged in reconstructive category guessing. Results suggest that lion's share of the original effect is best explained by reconstructive guessing.

static.klipy.com

Scar and Zazu: I got the lions share

ALT: Scar and Zazu: I got the lions share

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When re-allocating statements to speakers, within-category confusion (the measure of social categorisation) is not necessarily the result of lumping speakers into a category at encoding (and hence confusing them later) but could just be inferred from the statement itself.

static.klipy.com

Stephen Curry Woah

ALT: Stephen Curry Woah

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The effect size made us skeptical, as it was almost an order of magnitude larger than typical WSW effects. We also reasoned that the confounding of categorical information with position in the debate not only increased comparative fit but also allowed for reconstructive category guessing.

static.klipy.com

Badnewsbaron Reacts: Sounded Too Good To Be True

ALT: Badnewsbaron Reacts: Sounded Too Good To Be True

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Petsko et al. (2022) presented a Who-Said-What paradigm in which comparative fit was manipulated by whether positions in a debate were confounded with one categorical belonging. As predicted, people showed greater confusion of who said what along the confounded dimension.

static.klipy.com

RTTV Wellz, Pat, and Rob Debate

ALT: RTTV Wellz, Pat, and Rob Debate

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Christopher Petsko's lens model is an influential idea to predict which of these options prevails as a function of affordances of the information ecology (category distinctiveness, comparative fit) as well as perceiver characteristics (category accessibility, perceiver goals) .

static.klipy.com

Mogcoin Memecoin

ALT: Mogcoin Memecoin

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When people enter a social setting, relying on social categories is one way to parsimoniously represent the information ecology and make sense of it. They have almost infinite ways to lump and split humans around them into exemplars of categories: children and adults, men and women,...

static.klipy.com

This Fits In The Kind Of Weird Unique Strange Category - Dan Markham

ALT: This Fits In The Kind Of Weird Unique Strange Category - Dan Markham

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

🚨 New #openaccess Paper 🚨 Imhoff, R., & Heidrich, V. (2027). Reevaluating the empirical support for a lens-based account: dissecting comparative fit and reconstructive category guessing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 128, 105021. doi.org/10.1016/j.je... @jexpsocpsych.bsky.social

doi.org

Redirecting

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Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz @unimainz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Neue DFG-Forschungsgruppe untersucht #Verschwörungstheorien: rund vier Millionen Euro für von der #UniMainz geleitetes Verbundprojekt in #Psychologie und #Kommunikationswissenschaft 👉 presse.uni-mainz.de/dfg-forschung… @dfg.de

presse.uni-mainz.de

DFG-Forschungsgruppe untersucht Verschwörungstheorien aus neuer Perspektive | Presse & Medien

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DFG-funded Research Unit "Beyond Crazy" @beyond-crazy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

We are delighted (and soooooo happy) that the DFG will fund the first four years of our Research Unit “𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀”. We will seek 8 Ph.D. candidates and a postdoctoral coordinator to start in Spring 2027.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

🥳Ladies, gentlemen and everybody in between and beyond: Our brandnew Research Unit on integrating benefits into the analysis of conspiracy theories!

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Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz @unimainz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Der 11. September 2001 beschäftigt auch 25 Jahre später die Forschung – so auch Sozialpsychologe Prof. Roland Imhoff von der #UniMainz, der u.a. zu Verschwörungstheorien und -mentalitäten forscht. Mehr dazu bei #3sat nano unter 👉 www.3sat.de/wissen/nano/2… (ab Min. 09:40)

3sat.de

9/11 im Kopf: Wie Traumata unser Gedächtnis verändern | NANO

Viele Menschen erinnern sich, wo sie waren, als sie von den Anschlägen erfuhren. Warum bleiben außergewöhnliche Ereignisse tief in unsem Gedächtnis?

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The paper, amazingly led by Tisa Bertlich as part of her dissertation is openly available for 50 days, so download now, read later: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103126001162?dgcid=coauthor

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

In a Registered Report, we then ran an experiment manipulating both conspiracy worldview and thinking style. Results strongly support the idea that intuitive thinking reduces support for democratic principles, while conspiracy worldview itself had no significant effect.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Across three correlational studies, people who endorsed unwarranted (but not warranted) conspiracy theories supported democratic principles less. Support was positively linked to cognitive reflection and negatively linked to bullshit receptivity and intuitive thinking.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

We entertain a third possibility: Low cognitive sophistication may be tied to weaker pro-democratic attitudes, making the link with conspiracy beliefs a confound — partly because most research uses unwarranted, epistemically questionable conspiracy theories to measure beliefs.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The relationship between conspiracy beliefs and support for democracy is a tricky one. Some portray conspiracy beliefs as a threat to democracy, undermining common ground and promoting political violence. Others argue conspiracy believers defend democracy by exposing illegitimate secret plots.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

🚨 New Registered Report🚨 Bertlich, T., Flade, F., & Imhoff, R. (2026). Registered Report Stage II: Defending or defying democracy? Investigating the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and support for democratic principles. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 127, Article 104986.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Wir hoffen, eine Diskussion in Gang zu setzen, die auch auf der @dgps.bsky.social Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGPs) e.V. -Tagung in Luxembourg weitergeführt wird.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Gemeinsam haben wir als "Expert_innengremium familienfreundliche Wissenschaft" (mit Alexandra Bendixen, Jens Lange, Marie-Ann Sengewald, Alexander Strobel, und Carolin Strobl) überlegt, wie echte Teilzeit im Wissenschaftssystem umsetzbar ist und was momentane Hürden sind.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Diese Vorstellung wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens ist schädlich, weil sie WissenschaftlerInnen unter Druck setzt, Careverantwortung zu meiden, den Beruf unattraktiver macht und kluge Köpfe abschreckt, die Erwartung voller Arbeit auf Teilzeitstellen gesetzeswidrig.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

🚨 Neuer Artikel - unpaywalled 🚨 Das Stereotyp von WissenschaftlerInnen ist dass sie 24/7 arbeiten - egal ob sie auf 50% oder 100%-Stellen beschäftigt sind, weil sie so unglaublich motiviert sind, dass Care, Hobbies oder Erholungszeiten für sie irrelevant sind. econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10....

econtent.hogrefe.com

Echte Teilzeit im Wissenschaftssystem: Warum wir ein Umdenken brauchen | Psychologische Rundschau

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Die Folge "Warum glauben wir an Verschwörungstheorien?" des Wissenschaftspodcasts "Aha! Zehn Minuten Alltagswissen" ist leider fast 15 Minuten lang geworden... 🙃 Bei Spotify hier: open.spotify.com/episode/57mZ... Bei Apple Podcast hier: podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/w...

open.spotify.com

Warum glauben wir an Verschwörungstheorien?

Aha! Zehn Minuten Alltags-Wissen · Episode

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Im allertiefsten Sommerloch ausgestrahlt, durfte ich neben dem stets geschätzten Michael Butter als Interviewpartner für eine Terra-X-Folge des @zdfde.bsky.social fungieren. Sendung und umfangreiches Kommentarkino unter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLiO...

youtube.com

Die großen Verschwörungstheorien der Geschichte | Terra X

YouTube video by Terra X History

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Afraid of heat at @easp2026.bsky.social ?? Worry no more, we have awesome prospects....

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Meet our EASP Editors at the upcoming @easp2026.bsky.social and ask them any question (or submit them online in advance): www.easp.eu/news/itm/mee...

static.klipy.com

Ellen DeGeneres: Ask Me Anything

ALT: Ellen DeGeneres: Ask Me Anything

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Look at you. Worrying about the gay agenda. Meanwhile this entire time your car has had a trans mission.

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Sascha Dickel @saschadickel.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Wie stellt sich Ungleichheit identitätspolitisch dar? Spannender Vortrag im Rahmen unseres Mainzer SFB Humandifferenzierung am kommenden Montag, 18-20.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Beg to disagree here. You can decide on the appropriate way how to analyze these data best without running danger of being biased by the data itself. Preregistered analyses are the same except you then have to run the analyses by yourself...

except.you

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

As my Latin schoolbook mentioned on its first page: " spes saepe fallit"...

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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I went peepee in the potty today. Aced it. There was a sink and a tub and a trash can but I didn’t peepee in any of those. I used the potty. The part where you should lift the seat cover first is very easy. They say “which part do you pee in?” And I say “the water part.”

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Gordon Hodson @gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

#AcademicSky #PsychSciSky New paper by Miculka & @rolandimhoff.bsky.social Longitudinal couples (dyads). Couples are similar, but that doesn't predict relationship satisfaction. Similarity is more about assortative matching than merging attitudes. Cool study rips-irsp.com/articles/10....

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

🚨Postdoc Position (Research Fellow; 100%; for 3 years)🚨 Join our labgroup "Social and Legal Psychology" at @unimainz.bsky.social, and become part of the next friendly team picture (see below). Deadline is June 15th, 2026. More information: www.psychjob.eu/de/job/resea... Feel free to share!

Social and Legal Psychology (University of Mainz) lab group photo with part of the current members.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Two studies test whether romantic dyads a) show similarity in conspiracy mentality, RWA, SDO, b) whether their degree of similarity relates to relationship satisfaction, and c) whether they become more similar over time. We also find robust support for the former and discuss potential explanations.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

🚨 New Paper Alert 🚨 Miculka, A., & Imhoff, R. (2026). Dyadic Dynamic in Generalized Political Attitudes: Homophily, Relationship Satisfaction, and Convergence. International Review of Social Psychology, 39(1): 5, 1–15. DOI: doi.org/10.5334/irsp...

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Jetzt ist die Zeit zu handeln, sich einzumischen und Strukturen demokratischer Resilienz zu stärken. Die Abschlusserklärung kann gerne verbreitet und von Weiteren gezeichnet werden. tally.so/r/kdW61Z

tally.so

Verantwortung – Wirkmächtigkeit – Ausbildung – Gefahr – Solidarität

Erstellt mit Tally - die einfachste Art, Formulare zu erstellen.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Ende März haben sich ca. 80 Psycholog*innen für einen Austausch zur Rolle der Psychologie in politischen Diskursen getroffen. Schnell wurde klar, dass nicht nur der Wunsch nach einer stärker evidenzinformierten Politik eint, sondern auch die Sorge vor zunehmender antidemokratischen Tendenzen.

tally.so

Verantwortung – Wirkmächtigkeit – Ausbildung – Gefahr – Solidarität

Erstellt mit Tally - die einfachste Art, Formulare zu erstellen.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

The evidence for a main effect of conspiracy mentality was overall there but weakly so (and not consistent in all studies). Kudos to Tisa for leading this project and wirting such a convincing theoretical delineation of hypotheses. Mail me if you hit a paywall but want a copy of the pdf.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Curiously, this was not moderated at all by conspiracy mentality (specifically, the data was over 14 times more likely under a model excluding the interaction effect than under a model including the interaction effect providing strong evidence for the absence of moderation).

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

People thought asking people directly was a better idea when they perceived the majority on their side. Importantly, this was true independent of conspiracy mentality: everybody loves referenda when they (think they) are winning.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

To test this, we manipulated across several experiments what recent opinion polls allegedly suggested about the distribution of support for certain positions. Across all studies, we found strong support for an instrumental approach to direct democracy:

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Conspiracy believers support direct democracy (h/t @myrtop.bsky.social). While this contradicts their portrayal as undemocratic extremists, their support might not be as idealistic as it seems. They might simply overestimate support for their position and see referanda as instrumental for winning.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

🚨New paper alert🚨 Celebrate the fabulous Tisa Bertlich and her paper “Just a means to an end? Individuals support direct democracy instrumentally, irrespective of conspiracy mentality” with @zakfio.bsky.social and me just published in @jexpsocpsych.bsky.social: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

authors.elsevier.com

ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

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Roland Imhoff @rolandimhoff.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Diese Woche hatte ich das große Vergnügen, den AbiturientInnen des www.rama-mainz.de im Rahmen des Kleinen Studium Generale etwas über kognitive Humandifferenzierung zu erzählen. Tolles Publikum, spannende Rückfragen. @sortingpeople.bsky.social

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Bildungstanke @bildungstanke.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Mein #ikonographischesGedächtnis hat wieder einen seltsamen Bezug hergestellt:

American Gothic ist ein Gemälde (Öl auf Spanplatte, 76 cm × 63,3 cm), das 1930 von Grant Wood (1891–1942) gemalt wurde. Das realistisch gemalte Bild zeigt einen Mann, der eine Heugabel hält, und – je nach Interpretation – seine Ehefrau oder seine unverheiratete Tochter, vor einem neugotischen Holzhaus. Der Mann schaut mit strenger Miene den Betrachter direkt an, die ebenfalls ernste Frau blickt an Betrachter und Mann vorbei. Das Bild hängt heute im Art Institute of Chicago.

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lukas-fock.bsky.social @lukas-fock.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Pre-Print When are citizens able to discern plausible from implausible conspiracy theories? We @rolandimhoff.bsky.social @lpummerer.bsky.social @stephanwinter.bsky.social address this question in two large scale studies (in Germany and the UK). Blinded by the Lies or Lifting the Blinds osf.io/daz2q

osf.io

OSF

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