Mind blown. Just like us humans, bacteria have an innate sense of fairness and punish group members who don't play by the rules. (According to Damasio in The Strange Order of Things.)

This result reminds me of the thesis of Stealth Democracy (Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2002): voters don't always want to have to weigh in on *every* decision. kansasreflector.com/2026/08/04/k...

Kansas voters reject constitutional amendment on judicial selection by wide margin • Kansas Reflector

Kansas voters were set to evaluate a proposed constitutional amendment that would spike a 68-year-old system for selecting justices for the highest court

kansasreflector.com

What's better than a review article? A review of review articles! This one is on interventions for cyberbullying and other online harms. journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Am late in finding this 2025 study showing that prompting Instagram users to share in others' positive emotions while scrolling had a significant impact on their wellbeing (d=0.25). As much as watching a 10 min video about dam-building beavers. :-) static1.squarespace.com/static/550b0...

Very cool. Substack now let's now lets creators and orgs create their own "reply rules", letting communities set the norms for how discussions should go on their posts. Every platform should be doing this. on.substack.com/p/introducin...

Introducing Reply Rules

Creators can now set the rules for their own community, in their own words.

on.substack.com

Great new collaborative tool to assess the impact of LLMs. impactbench.media.mit.edu

Why are bridging conversations effective at reducing toxic polarization? One theory is that they break down our stereotypes by defying our expectations of what a typical counter-partisan believes. A new preprint - cleverly using chatbots - lends evidence that is the case. arxiv.org/pdf/2606.15901

I used to feel slightly lazy and needy each time I insisted on speaking to a *human* customer service agent. Now it feels like I'm doing my bit to preserve humanity.

I learned so much in this talk - about what users value in their subreddits, the spectrum of rules mods use and, most fascinatingly, what rules are connected to healthier communities. If you missed, this is a great write-up, but @galenweld.bsky.social is so fun to listen to it's worth the watch.

Prosocial Design Network@prosocialdesign.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Does it matter HOW you write community rules? Research across thousands of subreddits suggests yes. "Be nice" beats "don't be mean" for community sentiment. But there's no one-size-fits-all approach. New Pro-Social recap with @galenweld.bsky.social: www.prosocialdesign.org/blog/the-rig...

Someone studied the landscape of Bridge-building initiatives in the U.S., including @listenfirstproject.bsky.social's coalition of 400+ organizations, and created a map.

I love a research review. This one looks at studies of interventions designed to mitigate the negative effects of digitally-modified images on teen and adult body-image. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Pretty hurts. A scoping review of interventions targeting digitally manipulated images

This scoping review synthesizes 59 empirical studies examining interventions addressing psychological and behavioral responses to exposure to idealize…

sciencedirect.com

Prediction markets - Kalshi and Polymarket - now have their money (just slightly) on the Dems taking the Senate. That was a far-fetched dream six months ago.

The most dangerous AI on record may get into the hands most inept administration in history. If you weren't already terrified enough. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Anthropic CEO Meets Trump Administration Officials as Feud Thaws

The Friday meeting comes as the White House races to prepare for Anthropic’s latest AI model, Mythos, which the firm says could pose cybersecurity risks.

wsj.com

Love a review article. This one is of studies from 2020-2025 looking at AI's ability to detect cyber-bullying. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A positive sign from new study: In survey experiments, participants were less likely to engage with content when they knew it was AI generated. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Just learned about this inspiring letter and vision for a New Civic Future - founded on agency, connection and empowered communities. (And not surprised to see @thevillagesquare.bsky.social's Liz Joyner as an author.) Gives me hope that we're witnessing a civic renewal. www.newcivicfuture.org/letter

We've reached the point when more than twice as many Americans Strongly Disapprove of Trump as Strongly Approve.

I'm so grateful to people like Erica Dhawan for articulating why I can't bring myself to use ChapGPT. ericadhawan.substack.com/p/your-brain...

@juliaminson.bsky.social is one of the most thoughtful and passionate scholars I've been fortunate to meet - so I assume her book will be equally smart and on point. On a topic dear to my heart. Looking forward to my copy arriving in the mail. disagreeingbetter.com/order/the-book

Torn between arguing or staying silent? Consider a different path that gets results.

Harvard behavioral scientist Julia Minson reveals why persuasion backfires, and the counterintuitive approach that actually gets you what you want while improving your decisions and strengthening your...

disagreeingbetter.com

There are more global users of Whatsapp than Facebook, but fewer than 5% of studies on digital media and politics looked at Whatsapp. A new paper makes the case for why that needs to change. www.ojcmt.net/article/soci...

New study & promising approach to *keeping* college students open-minded. www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Someone did a mapping of the US Bridgebuilding field. Cool. @listenfirstproject.bsky.social @civichealthproject.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

In this systematic review and meta-analysis of up to 153 longitudinal studies: Social media use was associated with higher depression, behavioral problems, self-injury, and substance use, and lower self-perception and academic achievement tinyurl.com/47z3anym

New study: Researchers in Germany tested a version of "correcting misperceptions" to see if it could mitigate hostile attitudes between the far left and far right. I could. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

New study: AI chatbots can be effective at reducing polarizing attitudes - especially when directed to exhibit receptiveness and active listening. www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark...

🔮 How can we empower online communities to design AI agents tailored to their unique needs and norms? In our #CHI2026 paper, we introduce #Botender, a system that enables collaborative design of AI agents through 🔥case-based provocation🔥

So thankful for federalism - and the NGA. A reminder that it may be the governors who get us through this mess. thehill.com/homenews/adm...

I have officially joined the Luddite community. buttondown.com/nycofftech

NYC OFF TECH

NYC events to transcend extractive tech

buttondown.com

An AI-enhanced discussion tool (www.swaybeta.ai) is gaining traction across campuses and, according to professors using it their courses, helping students have more productive conversations on hard topics with those they disagree with. That's good news. www.chronicle.com/article/can-...

Can an AI Tool Help Students Disagree Better?

A chat platform developed by two scholars aims to encourage productive discussion among students. Some professors who have used it sing its praises.

chronicle.com

Great review from @emilykubin.bsky.social and @vaparker.bsky.social on the challenges of researching what effectively reduces polarization - including knowing if and when reducing polarization should be something we want to do. www.researchgate.net/profile/Emil...