www.bps.org.uk/research-dig...

Do people really believe the conspiracy theories they say they do? | BPS

A recent paper looks more closely at suspiciously high research estimates of conspiracy endorsement.

bps.org.uk

Great work by @robert-m-ross.bsky.social: Do People Sincerely Believe Conspiracy Theories That They Endorse? Raccoon pink/yellow (highly bizarre army conspiracy) is a yes/no sincerity check; green/orange is self-report if they answered sincerely. online.ucpress.edu/collabra/art...

If you had to guess, what proportion of social/personality psych articles include a claim that the findings can be applied in the real world?

Every wonder whether people *really* believe in magic? @neillevy.bsky.social, Ryan McKay, and I have the carefully reviewed the literature and can provide you with the definitive answer: sometimes. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

cc @wchiggins.bsky.social

Prof Neil Martin@thatneilmartin.bsky.social · last mo.

And here's a spotlight I wrote for the next edition of Psychology cc @robert-m-ross.bsky.social

And here's a spotlight I wrote for the next edition of Psychology cc @robert-m-ross.bsky.social

A propos nothing very much at all, here's a review of the Reading The Mind In The Eyes test which was based on, well, some unusual data and practices. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38232573/

Construct validity evidence reporting practices for the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test: A systematic scoping review - PubMed

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is one of the most influential measures of social cognitive ability, and it has been used extensively in clinical populations. However, questions have been...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Eric Michael Garcia@ericmgarcia.bsky.social · last mo.

Wow!! Simon Baron-Cohen, the Cambridge Professor who coined the term “extreme male brain theory” now says the term is “unhelpful.” “There’s a kind of myth that autistic people lack empathy.” www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

It's alive! 🎉 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁'𝘀 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 is out -- an introduction to causal inference in practice. The first two chapters are available for free here: theissbendixen.com/dag-book/ More below 👇

if you're really curious about the true state of reality, click below for the latest from @matthewmatix.bsky.social @scicomguy.bsky.social @srhastraea.bsky.social @lingtax.bsky.social @robert-m-ross.bsky.social @eddieclarke.bsky.social, Martin, and me reported in the @aunz.theconversation.com

Conspiracy theories: do 300,000 Kiwis really believe Canada is building an army of mutant super-raccoons?

Surveys may overestimate belief in conspiracy theories because of trolls and jokers – but genuine believers can still cause real-world harm.

theconversation.com

Glad to see this finally out! Grateful to have been part of such a large collaborative effort: ✨️ Effects of Psychological Distance on Mental Abstraction: A Registered Report of Four Tests of Construal-Level Theory 📚 Out now in AMPPS journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

You ever try the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes test' and wonder, how is that any of them?!

We have a new preprint that underscores some key claims here: even if one *can* design an agent that gets through a survey fine, it doesn't follow that such agents are undetectable or common. We find that they are far from common! Preprint link in thread👇

Association for Psychological Science@psychscience.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Psychological scientists are determined to figure out the best practices for online surveys, who—or what—is behind bad data, and how to best protect surveys from the new and emerging threat of #AI. @justinsulik.bsky.social

Three concrete recommendations that we make in our manuscript (osf.io/preprints/me...) on Acknowledgment sections: 1. Include ORCID numbers in parentheses after names of individuals in Acknowledgments. This will disambiguate their identities so that scholarly databases can index them.

Important reminder why survey results examining the % of people who believe in conspiracies should not directly be interpreted as the % of people who believe in conspiracies. Respondents don't all answer seriously, so the news that 12 million people believe in lizard people is not accurate.

Robert Ross@robert-m-ross.bsky.social · 4mo ago

In a new study my collaborators and I focus on this alternative hypothesis. We asked participants if this statement is true or false: “The Canadian Armed Forces have been secretly developing an elite army of genetically engineered, super intelligent, giant raccoons to invade nearby countries”.

Survey research is often interpreted as showing that belief in conspiracy theories can be surprisingly widespread, including belief in conspiracy theories that would be astonishing if true. For example, in The Atlantic we learn that “12 million Americans believe lizard people run our country”

Curious about how psychological theories are built, tested, and refined in practice? This summer, the Theory Methods Society is launching the very first edition of the summer school Theory Building in Psychology at the University of Amsterdam (July 6–10, 2026). theorymethodssociety.org

My book is now published! 🌏🎶🧪
 You can download it for free at academic.oup.com/book/62353 - I’d be grateful if you do! I also published an accessible summary with audio/video today in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/d41... Try reading that first, then give the whole book a read if you like it!

📢 Post-doc position – Toulouse (France) 🇫🇷 A post-doctoral position (12 months) is open at CNRS in Toulouse to work with me on the relationship between signal detection theory, conspiracy beliefs, and perceptions of corruption... 🔗 emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U... Feel free to share!

Thrilled to share our new paper introducing “validity potential” versus “realised validity” as a key distinction for psychological measurement, with @davidmkaplanx.bsky.social, Alexander Gillett, @suttonprofessor.bsky.social, and @robert-m-ross.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Rethinking psychological measurement: Validity potential versus realised validity

We propose a concept of validity with a novel feature that we argue can facilitate improved measurement validation practices in the psychological scie…

sciencedirect.com

Published today: One of the biggest #science #communication studies to date. We asked 71,922 people in 68 countries how they #engage with information about #science and combined the data with several country-level factors: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #OpenAccess

In a new paper, my colleagues and I set out to demonstrate how method biases can create spurious findings in relationship science, by using a seemingly meaningless scale (e.g., "My relationship has very good Saturn") to predict relationship outcomes. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Pseudo Effects: How Method Biases Can Produce Spurious Findings About Close Relationships - Samantha Joel, John K. Sakaluk, James J. Kim, Devinder Khera, Helena Yuchen Qin, Sarah C. E. Stanton, 2025

Research on interpersonal relationships frequently relies on accurate self-reporting across various relationship facets (e.g., conflict, trust, appreciation). Y...

journals.sagepub.com

My collaborator Alessandro Sparacio is leading a new multisite study examining the effectiveness of self-administered mindfulness meditation for stress reduction. More details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/alessa...

Research Scientist | Alessandro Sparacio

🤝 Join Our Global Study on Mindfulness & Mental Health! 🌍 We are seeking international collaborators for a funded, multi-site study: "Building Resilience Across Socioeconomic Contexts." This projec...

linkedin.com

Those experiencing delusions were more likely to jump to conclusions on certain tasks. 🤔 But the *strength* of delusional beliefs did not correlate with propensity to jump to conclusions. Open access link below. #logic #psychiatry #criticalThinking #cogSci #decisionScience

Robert Ross@robert-m-ross.bsky.social · last yr.

Is there a relationship between delusional ideation and a jumping to conclusions cognitive bias? Our new meta-analysis led by Rose Doherty (wisely not on social media) syntheses evidence from 42 studies and finds... nothing! First publication from her PhD research 🎉

APS's journal AMPPS has accepted its first manuscript through a collaboration with a nonprofit that offers decentralized, community-driven peer review. @dsbarra.bsky.social 

AMPPS Accepts First Manuscript From Innovative Peer Review System

The APS journal Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science has accepted its first manuscript through a collaboration with a nonprofit that offers decentralized, community-driven peer review.

psychologicalscience.org

oh wow! lovely to see people engaging with my research 😃 www.bps.org.uk/research-dig...

The ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test’ may be less robust than we thought | BPS

A new paper assesses the widely-used tool.

bps.org.uk

Is there a relationship between delusional ideation and a jumping to conclusions cognitive bias? Our new meta-analysis led by Rose Doherty (wisely not on social media) syntheses evidence from 42 studies and finds... nothing! First publication from her PhD research 🎉

Our recently published paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review on #reasoning styles and #belief in God is now featured by @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social! Thanks, Jonathan Caballero, for the interesting article. 📄 Read the paper here: doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Reflective thinking predicts disbelief in God across 19 countries - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

In the present study, we tested three hypotheses about relationships between reflective thinking, intuitive thinking (both measured using the Cognitive Reflection Test; CRT), and belief in God or gods...

doi.org

Psychonomic Society@psychonomicsociety.bsky.social · last yr.

Mysterious ways our reasoning styles relate to belief in God. #psynomPBR paper by @omidghasemi.bsky.social @onurcanyilmaz.bsky.social @jennyterry.bsky.social @robert-m-ross.bsky.social. Post by J Caballero

Mysterious ways our reasoning styles relate to belief in God. #psynomPBR paper by @omidghasemi.bsky.social @onurcanyilmaz.bsky.social @jennyterry.bsky.social @robert-m-ross.bsky.social. Post by J Caballero

Reflecting on godly matters … and on cognitive reasoning styles

Our world is incredibly vast and culturally diverse. One of the evident ways in which cultures differ includes their religious beliefs, creating a rich array of expressions and practices. Wandering…

wp.me

I had hoped AI could unlock the secrets of the universe. Sadly, I was wrong...

Why do scientists disagree with each other? This new study from @justinsulik.bsky.social et al. surveys psychologists to find that scientific divides are associated with differences in researcher cognitive traits. @mi3lab.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Differences in psychologists’ cognitive traits are associated with scientific divides - Nature Human Behaviour

Scientific disagreements are not just a matter of using different methods or having conflicting data. Sulik et al. surveyed psychological scientists and found that disagreements are also associated wi...

nature.com