Jon Freeman

@freemanjb.bsky.social

associate professor of psychology and social neuroscientist at columbia | person perception and social cognition | data equity | 🏳️‍🌈

The Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (@fabbs.org) is searching for a short-term technology policy fellow. Great opportunity for a new PhD interested in policy, maybe before a research postdoc or faculty position: fabbs.org/news/2025/08...

We’re Hiring: Technology Policy Fellow – FABBS

Location: Washington, D.C. (hybrid) Salary: Approximately $7,000 per month Start Date: September 15, 2025 Duration: 3 months, with potential for longer Position

fabbs.org

Paper in @pnas.org in which @d-melnikoff.bsky.social and I provide evidence for model-based effects on automatic evaluation. This was a super fun “adversarial” collaboration with 0 adversariality. It may have been nice to be right, but getting it right is nearly as nice: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

pnas.org

David Melnikoff@d-melnikoff.bsky.social · last yr.

A key takeaway from 20+ years of computational RL is: model-free=automatic, model-based=deliberate. My new paper w/ @benedek.bsky.social challenges this view, suggesting that MB algos are more ubiquitous, & automatic processing more sophisticated, than currently thought: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

In a TiCS paper, @chujunlin.bsky.social & I propose a high-dimensional model of social impressions. Existing models focus on 2–4 latent dimensions (e.g. trustworthy/warm), but they often fall apart across different contexts, cultures, & perceivers. We need a paradigm shift. shorturl.at/7GD1n (1/8)

A high-dimensional model of social impressions

People form social impressions from visual cues such as faces, which are argued by various models to arise from some limited set of fixed dimensions (e.g., trustworthiness and dominance). We argue tha...

cell.com

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

Thanks to scienceimpacts.org for mapping the impacts of cutting NIH indirect costs & making it easy for local news to focus on the impacts to their community Thanks to @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social for helping researchers write op-eds for their hometown newspapers about the impacts on science 4/

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research

Developed by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide

scienceimpacts.org

🧪 Tip: You have the right to contest a grant termination, even though NSF says you don't. 🧵 On Friday, NSF terminated 402 grants (per Musk's DOGE). The notification letters had one of the most egregious violations of fed regulations I've seen so far in these cases: "not subject to appeal"

Megan Zahneis@mzahneis.bsky.social · last yr.

Here's a copy of an NSF grant termination notice that went out today. "NSF is issuing this termination to protect the interests of the government pursuant...on the basis that they no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities." Not subject to appeal. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

Text of email: Dear [redacted],

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has undertaken a review of its award portfolio. Each award was carefully and individually reviewed, and the agency has determined that termination of certain awards is necessary because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities. Effective immediately, the following are terminated: [redacted]

NSF is issuing this termination to protect the interests of the government pursuant to NSF Grant General Conditions (GC-1) term and condition entitled Termination and Enforcement; on the basis that they no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities. This is the final agency decision and not subject to appeal. Costs incurred as a result of this termination may be reimbursed, provided such costs would otherwise be allowable under the terms of the award and the governing cost principles. In accordance with your award terms and conditions, you have 30 days from the termination date to furnish a summary of progress under the award and an itemized accounting of allowable costs incurred prior to the termination date. 

Sincerely, [redacted] Division Director 
Office of Budget Finance and Award Management (BFA) 
Division of Grants and Agreements (DGA)

Job alert 🚨 We’re hiring a full-time research staff assistant at Columbia starting Fall 2025! The position will focus on several topics in the lab, including the cognitive & neural mechanisms underlying dynamic social perception using fMRI & natural language processing. Link: freemanlab.org/ra2025

Bild

As expected, NSF is cutting gender and sexual orientation data on U.S. STEM workforce surveys (on shaky legal ground). I'm grateful that following my request (shorturl.at/9rFMW) OMB required NSF to post an official rationale, which will be crucial to how we'll restore these questions in the future.

David Malakoff@davidmalakoff.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: Sexual orientation, gender options cut from U.S. Ph.D. graduate survey | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...