So excited that I’ll be joining @jesssalerno.bsky.social and Nick Schweitzer as a postdoc at Cornell starting this fall! Stay tuned for work on how people assign causal and moral responsibility in legal contexts!

A bit late but I had so much fun at CDS! Sophie Varela presented our work with @tanialombrozo.bsky.social and @rebeccaperetzlange.bsky.social on how moral obligation and causal impact drive kids’ collective action decisions!

Are you a grad student who wants to give a talk at Princeton’s psychology department (in-person or on Zoom)? Nominate yourself or someone you know: forms.gle/WN2ybYMuZiW3... Priority given to non-Ivy and URM students. International applicants welcome. Deadline is this Friday (Feb 6)!

Emerging Scholars in Psychological Science Speaker Nominations

Nominate yourself or another late-stage PhD student to speak at Princeton's Department of Psychology this academic semester (Spring 2026). The Emerging Scholars in Psychological Science (ESPS) talk ...

forms.gle

I am thrilled to announce that this framework is out! Who is responsible for inequality? @tanialombrozo.bsky.social and I show that answers depend on whether people are judging causes or obligations, and the past vs the future. doi.org/10.1177/1745...

Congratulations, Dr. Francisco Cruz (@cruzf.bsky.social), on on an incredibly clear and comprehensive PhD dissertation on "The psychology of lay beliefs about science" as well as an engaging and thoughtful defense. And thank you for inviting me to be on your jury; I learned so much from your work!

I'll be at SPSSI in Portland this week presenting our latest work on voting behavior. Come say hi!

Across 9 experiments (+6600 participants), we explored a paradox: How do non-experts judge scientific explanations they can’t fully understand? We found that scientific jargon can increase people’s satisfaction with explanations, even though it makes them less comprehensible. 2/9

A special thanks to @tanialombrozo.bsky.social, my advisor, without whom this wouldn't be possible, for all the guidance and all she taught me! And shout-out to my lab mates @keremoktar.bsky.social @caseylewry.bsky.social Read more here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 9/9

How laypeople evaluate scientific explanations containing jargon - Nature Human Behaviour

Cruz and Lombrozo examine how laypeople make sense of scientific explanations and find that although jargon reduces understanding, for short explanations, jargon makes the explanation more satisfying.

nature.com

🎊 New preprint 🎊 w/ Tania Lombrozo Why do people engage in collective actions, even when they believe their actions won't make a difference? Based on evidence from the 2024 election and a hypothetical election, we find that *moral* responsibility, not causal, drives voting osf.io/preprints/ps...

Related work: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Lay Theories of Moral Progress

Many consider the world to be morally better today than it was in the past and expect moral improvement to continue. How do people explain what drives this change? In this paper, we identify two ways...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Thanks @caseylewry.bsky.social for sharing your work with us on how "Moral responsibility, not causal responsibility, drives voting: Evidence from the 2024 US presidential election". Casey finds that people who believe that moral progress is caused by human actions were more likely to vote.

Do you want there to be more funding to do research related to climate action? 🌎 I'm working with XPRIZE to make this happen - fill out this survey so we can figure out how to help researchers like you (and enter to win a $50 gift card) princetonsurvey.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...