Friends! Josh Knobe & Ivar Hannikainen, dear colleagues & mentors to many of us, are running a v. short study seeking *philosophers* as participants, to see about your intuitions about various famous cases. If you are a philosopher, please take their 5 min survey! moralsciencelab.com/intuitions/

People are really excited about the benefits of intellectual humility. But, even if IH leads to good thinking, is it good *for* you? After all, an inflated sense of self feels good! It turns out that the answer may depend on what precisely "intellectual humility" refers to.

Lots of people think philosophy is an "armchair" discipline in which empirical evidence is largely irrelevant. But, humorously, this idea is contradicted by the empirical data. Looking at records from prestigous, generalist philosophy journals, I found something striking.

This IHE article discusses my recent work with @mvazquez.bsky.social about how students' politics change during college. Simply put, independently of political *beliefs* students seem to adopt an "educated liberal" *identity.*

Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 4mo ago

Opinion | The Real ‘Diploma Divide’ Is About Identity, Not Beliefs The familiar narrative that colleges are fueling a growing divide in political beliefs is not backed up by the data. But something else consequential has changed. By Michael Vazquez and Michael Prinzing. https://bit.ly/4uQcSeM

Intuitively, it seems like bringing people together to discuss complex ethical and political issues should help them to be more intellectually humble about those issues—at least if the conversations are rigorous yet respectful. But, empirically, doesn't seem to work that way.

Does going to college make people more liberal? Probably yes, but it’s complicated… For decades, US adults with degrees have held more left-leaning views on social issues, but not on economic ones. And, until the 2010s, grads did not *identify* as more liberal than non-grads.

Is virtue good for you? Or is it just good for others or society at large? Theories as old as Plato make opposing claims. My coauthors and I tested their predictions in two intensive, longitudinal studies (N = 43,164 obs. from 1,218 participants), focusing on 3 seemingly unpleasant virtues.

I've seen many criticisms of "silicon samples," but always thought it was a bogeyman—like, nobody actually thinks AI participants are a good idea. But now Qualtrics offers "synthetic samples," so at least some people must think this is a reasonable approach. What are the arguments in its favor?

I had a great chat about how studying philosophy can make people better thinkers with @mvazquez.bsky.social, @markalfano.bsky.social, Deborah Mower, and Heather Battaly. Thanks to @apaphilosophy.bsky.social for hosting and making the recording available! www.apaonline.org/mpage/benefi...

Benefits of Studying Philosophy | APA On DemandAPA Mission - The American Philosophical Association

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apaonline.org

Turns out studying philosophy is actually valuable. Philosophy majors don’t just argue well, they actually become better thinkers and do better on tests. Data from 600k students shows they outscore every other major on reasoning, curiosity and open-mindedness.

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads

Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.

buff.ly

Join us for an APA Live event: The Benefits of Studying Philosophy Wednesday, August 27, 2025 6 p.m Eastern / 3 p.m. Pacific Register here: tinyurl.com/4773k45a

American Philosophical Association

The panelists for this event are as follows:

apaonline.org

A popular and very old argument for the value of philosophy claims that studying philosophy cultivates important intellectual abilities and dispositions. But empirical evidence for that claim has been hard to come by. Until now! 1/4