gordpennycook.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I won an APS rising star award! I remember going to APS in my first year of graduate school and seeing one of our new faculty -- who I really admired -- giving a rising star lecture. I was very excited for him. It's been 8 years; time flies, wow!

submitted 22 hours ago • 7 comments

Do you know (or are you) a senior scientist in the USA who might like to move to Canada in the near future? The 2026 call for CERCs (Canada Excellence Research Chairs) was posted last month: 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 🇨🇦

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

New Bright Line Watch report brightlinewatch.org/accelerated-... -Expert ratings of US democracy at post-2016 low -55% of Trump-aligned Rs approve of "strong leader who does not have to bother w/Congress" -Jan 6 pardons, exec branch firings, Musk influence rated as grave threats 🧵 of results below

submitted 4 days ago • 7 comments

I like it here but there are some accounts that act as left-wing hysteria mongers in a way that reminds me of how big right wing influencers on x whip up their bases remember: a good journalist will make it clear how they source claims (no, there are not only 3 staffers at yosemite right now)

submitted 4 days ago • 54 comments

Out in @naturehumbehav.bsky.social Can people tell true from false news? Yes! Our meta-analysis shows that people rate true news as more accurate than false news (d = 1.12) and were better at spotting false news than at recognizing true news (d = 0.32). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 7 days ago • 6 comments

Very interesting perspective from @katestarbird.bsky.social on our recent preprint 👇

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Last year, we published a paper showing that AI models can "debunk" conspiracy theories via personalized conversations. That paper raised a major question: WHY are the human<>AI convos so effective? In a new working paper, we have some answers. TLDR: facts osf.io/preprints/ps...

submitted 9 days ago • 19 comments

I really enjoyed this conversation - quite a bit more personal (and, hopefully, funny) than one might expect from a behavioral science podcast!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

New episode! I talked to @gordpennycook.bsky.social about his path from Carrot River to becoming a scientist, reducing misinformation & conspiracy beliefs, exploring vs exploiting research topics, the unmatched creativity of Canadian town names & much more. Thanks Gord for being a guest! 1/3

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

As usual on point from @garymarcus.bsky.social . AI as a persuasion agent is a dangerous tool (Gary gives our work as an example, but there's a lot more, see thread) and our best guess should be that the recent Trump Executive Order on AI Bias does not intend to fix it (or fix AI Bias). Thread 1/

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Has anybody seen any self-reflection from the people who said that identity politics was the biggest threat in American life even as authoritarianism was on the rise?

submitted 11 days ago • 33 comments

This is a critical point. The Trumpists (and other successful movements at the moment) understand the “social construction of reality” as a strategy, not just a descriptive theory.

submitted 14 days ago • 9 comments

the gulf of America? oh, you mean the distance between who we are as a nation and who we could be?

submitted 14 days ago • 4 comments

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..." Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up. I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

submitted 15 days ago • 522 comments

Remember when U.S. political conservatism was opposed to drastic institutional change? Good times, good times.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

NEW @nature.com article w/Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Liz Spelke + fantastic team! ☑️Children working can use arithmetic to solve problems in their shops, but struggle with abstract math ☑️Children in school can do abstract math, but cannot apply it www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 22 days ago • 9 comments

Critical comms about climate change is increasingly happening on social media. But it is challenging to study climate comms on popular social media platforms, so researchers often rely on survey research. How much do survey responses tell us how things will play out on social media? Thread 🧵

submitted 22 days ago • 6 comments

"Do online conspiracy theories have any impact? Do disinformation campaigns work?"

submitted 22 days ago • 40 comments

ALL OF THIS. Trump and Musk “are trying to instantiate an anti-constitutional theory of executive power that would make the president supreme over all other branches of government.…And the longer Congress stands by, the more this is fixed in place.” @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/o...

submitted 23 days ago • 18 comments

My colleagues at Cornell simulated various tariff and retaliation scenarios proposed by Trump on China, Canada, Mexico, and the rest of the world, analyzing impacts on trade flows, sectoral output, real GDP, etc. paper link➡️ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

There will be a protest on SUNDAY Feb. 2 at 3:00 p.m. outside the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) bldg., where Musk & his cyber-thugs have seized control of the government's computers. 1900 E Street NW (corner of E and 19th Sts.), Wash. DC. Spread the word to DC area folks!

submitted 26 days ago • 43 comments

Trump is openly violating the law on a vast and unprecedented scale and everyone is acting like it's normal. NPR had a long story about finding a rare shrew. NYT said he was disregarding "legal niceties." This is an attack on the Constitution as profound as the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

submitted 27 days ago • 279 comments

Some really smart conversation. Thanks @pauldechene.bsky.social @gordpennycook.bsky.social and Tyler Babiy. Fave was a call from a SK tech leader who quit socials. youtu.be/8pbyHGGgl1M

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

It seems to me that mainstream journalism has limited protections against political elites who simply lie directly to their faces. Something has to change

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

🚨New WP🚨 Remember Musk+Zuck+Trump+Jordan etc crying fact-checker bias b/c Reps were flagged more than Dems? We analyzed Community Notes on Musk's X and guess what: posts flagged as "misleading" are 67% more likely to be written by Reps! The issue is Reps, not fact-checkers... osf.io/preprints/ps...

submitted 28 days ago • 6 comments

If any Early Career Researchers are interested in applying for a British Academy Fellowship scheme that would support them coming to my lab working on moral psychology and AI, please do reach out :) www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/inte...

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Oh and look at this: 4(!) clinical psych positions at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon (where I did undergrad): universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

I knew it was coming but I was still totally not mentally prepared for there to be something completely outrageous from the Trump admin literally every day. It has to slow down eventually, right? Like, take a break and go golfing or something. Get out of D.C. and let us catch our breath here

submitted 28 days ago • 5 comments

🚨OpEd+data: Meta is out of step with public opinion🚨 Zuck cut moderation b/c he said people no longer want it. But he's wrong! We polled 1k Americans and most people, including majority of Reps: i) want content moderation ii) don't want Community Notes w/o fact-checkers thehill.com/opinion/tech...

submitted 30 days ago • 6 comments

In a functioning democracy, a president who -tries to seize Congress's constitutional spending powers -attempts to rewrite the Constitution unilaterally -pardons violent insurrectionists who attacked the government -fires the Inspectors General and DOJ prosecutors would face immediate impeachment

submitted 30 days ago • 78 comments

Apropos of everything: My old position at the U of Regina (Canada) is open for applications (asst prof in organizational behaviour)! universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?... They pay really well and the cost of living is low. In a few years, I was able to pay off my student loans and even buy a house!

submitted 31 days ago • 2 comments

Beginning to doubt that wokeness is the biggest threat to higher education

submitted 31 days ago • 22 comments

Very cool work by two very cool people! @dorsaamir.bsky.social @chazfirestone.bsky.social

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):

submitted 33 days ago • 31 comments

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

Over the 2020 US and NZ elections, antidemocratic attitudes preceded conspiracy beliefs, rather than conspiracy beliefs fostering antidemocratic attitudes by @lindaskitka.bsky.social & many others in @ispp-pops.bsky.social #socpsych #polisky #polpsych onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

When a gesture is so specific, the chance of landing in it by awkwardness is very small.

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

We've had a paper reviewed by ERROR, which has concluded we had a "major error that affects a core conclusion" Few comments on the conclusion and the process in general 1/n

submitted 38 days ago • 4 comments

Our global study on the state of trust in scientists is now out in Nature Human Behaviour! 🥳 With a team of 241 researchers, we surveyed 71,922 people in 68 countries, providing the largest dataset on trust in scientists post-pandemic 👇🧵https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02090-5

submitted 39 days ago • 24 comments