OK, we may have a problem. Here, in this, our fourth attempt at a final episode, we welcome our friends from the excellent Nullius In Verba podcast Daniël Lakens and Smriti Mehta (yes THAT Smriti Mehta) to discuss why psychology is worthless. Or whether psychology is worthless. Something like that. Anyway, enjoy! This is the last one for sure...…

Rachel had a baby! Paul left academia! It is all happening and we have the world exclusive scoop for you dear listeners in this ultra special super secret extra extra final episode of MOACTAQ.By Paul Connor

Super top secret bonus episode because Paul misses Rachel and because we can do what we want you're not the boss of us.By Paul Connor

Rachel is leaving academia, and Paul is moving on to a new career stage, so we've decided to put the pod to rest. In this, our last pod, we make some final comments and send out some final thankyous as we cast MOACTAQ gently down the river. Be well, everyone. If you'd like to keep in touch you can contact us at: [email protected], Twitter: @…

Like almost everyone else, we are impressed and a little freaked out by recent advances in AI, particularly in the context of large language models like ChatGPT, so we invited our most AI-obsessed friends and family members (Luke Hartman from Tumult Labs Alex Kogan of Scholar Exchange) on the pod to talk about it. If you missed Alex's back story he…

We chatted with Professor Daniël Lakens from TU Eindhoven about his recent proposal for universities to require scientists to submit their proposed research to methodological review boards before data collection. Read Daniël's proposal here And check out the recent PNAS on the surprising generalizability of results from non-representative samples h…

In this episode we were joined by Steve Rathje, a postdoc at NYU, to discuss his research on how intergroup animosity drives virality on social media. Read Steve's work here, Facebook's response here, and Steve's response to the response here.By Paul Connor

We were joined by Annalisa Myer, a grad student from CUNY graduate center, and Carlos Rebollar, lab manager of the Deepest Beliefs lab at UNC, to discuss mixing activism and science, and whether Carlos should go to grad school. The 80,000 hours website Rachel mentioned is here Jennifer Eberhart's book 'Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That S…

We chatted with Professor Stuart Ritchie from Kings College London about the Queen's passing and the journal Nature Human Behaviour's plans to protect the world from harmful scientific findings. Follow Stuart on his substack or twitter Read about Nature Human Behaviour's new ethical guidelines hereBy Paul Connor

In this episode we discuss academic Twitter's enfant terrible Tim Gill, and wade into some complex questions considering the Safe Faculty Project and student loan forgiveness. Follow Professor Gill (at your own risk) here: https://twitter.com/timgill924 Check out the Safe Faculty Project here: https://www.safefacultyproject.org/about…

We were joined by Professor Chris Ferguson of Stetson University to discuss his upcoming new book 'Catastrophe!: How Psychology Explains Why Good People Make Bad Situations Worse' and whether Paul can join his Dungeons and Dragons game. Thankfully we (mostly) avoided discussing *that* Qualitative Research paper.…

We welcome University of Miami postdoc Shane Littrell on the pod to discuss his research on bullshitting, Paul's pretentious website, and Thomas Chatterton Williams' bad week online. Find out more about Shane's research on his website hereBy Paul Connor

In this episode we welcome marketing graduate student and TikTok celebrity Ethan Milne onto the podcast to talk about his social media fame, his research, an interesting incident at his Western University, the concept of 'elite capture,' and more. Follow Ethan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SEthanMilne and on TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@ta…

We discuss gun violence and mass shootings in the USA, as well as the debate around 'Great Replacement Theory.' Links: Cloud Research's Innovations in Online Research Conference: link Tweet thread from Professor Geoffrey Miller on gun controlBy Paul Connor

We discuss the moral philosophy of abortion, and make a few comments about the public reaction to the leaked Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision. Here's some data on the stability of public attitudes toward abortion since the 70s: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx And here's some data about the relative prevalence of bi-sexuality and ho…

In this episode we are joined by famous podcaster Yoel Inbar (who we also found out is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto) to discuss a recent controversy surrounding this paper in PNAS, and the ethics of training machine learning models to judge and modify facial images in ways consistent with the stereotypical impressions of h…

We were joined by Cory Clark, director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss her research on ideological bias in science, adversarial collaboration, cheerleading, powerpoint, and more. Follow Cory on twitter here: https://twitter.com/ImHardcory Check out the Adversarial Collabora…

We chatted with Aaron Moss, senior researcher at Cloud Research, about his recent paper on the ethics of using MTurk for behavioral research, conflicts of interest, global capitalism, and Will Smith. Read Aaron's paper here https://psyarxiv.com/jbc9d/ Check out Cloud Research here https://www.cloudresearch.com/…

We were joined by journalist and podcaster Katie Herzog to discuss her recent piece about an academic #metoo scandal that was not what it seemed. You can read Katie's piece here: https://reason.com/2022/03/14/how-an-academic-grudge-turned-into-a-metoo-panic/ and listen to the BARpod episode about it here: https://www.blockedandreported.org/p/episod…

In this episode we are joined by Sinan Alper, a professor of Psychology at Yaşar University in Turkey, to discuss psychological research in non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) contexts, and his work on the antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Follow Sinan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sinan…

In this episode we respond to a disgruntled listener's critiques of our previous Rittenhouse-gate! episode, and discuss a controversial proposal on the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) listserv to form a group of non-oppressed oppression researchers. Links: Statement by graduate students of color at UNC concerning the pervasiven…

In this episode we are joined by Paul Cernasov, a graduate student of clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina, to discuss a controversy within the UNC psychology department following an official email sent out to the department regarding the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. Here is the study Paul mentioned with regard to anti-Asian ra…

In this episode we talked with Professor Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist from the University of Chicago whose views on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) led to the cancellation of a public lecture he was scheduled to give at MIT this autumn. We discuss how Professor Abbot gradually became concerned enough about what he saw happening at his instit…

On this episode we are joined by Thomas Costello, a PhD candidate at Emory University, to discuss his work on the fascinating but under-studied construct of Left-Wing Authoritarianism. You can find Tom on twitter at https://twitter.com/tomstello_ and read more about his work at https://www.thcostello.com/…

In this episode we are joined by air force veteran and 'professor in exile' Dave Porter to discuss the series of events that culminated in his termination from Berea College, Kentucky, and his ongoing lawsuit against the college alleging that Berea violated his and his students' academic freedom. Some more background on Dave's story can be found he…

It's been a big week on psych twitter! Friend of the pod Nicole Barbaro returns to help us unpack all the drama surrounding the launch of Substack U (aka the University of Austin), as well as the fifty-ninth wave of the Great Tone Debate™ Here is the University of Austin's website: https://www.uaustin.org/ And here is the paper at the center of the…

In this episode we are joined by Steven Zhou, a graduate student in I-O Psychology at George Mason University, to discuss personality types. good and bad science communication, and what a healthy skepticism of academic research looks like.By Paul Connor

In this episode, we try to unpack the notion of offensiveness, and discuss recent controversies at Yale and Netflix. What does it mean to find something offensive, and how should institutions handle situations in which individuals invoke the notion of offensiveness?By Paul Connor

In this episode we muse about one of the least popular opinions possible for an academic to have: is it possible that grad students are actually not underpaid?By Paul Connor

In this episode a microphone-less Paul and brand new co-host Rachel Hartman discuss the general weirdness that pervades academic mentorship and scientific training, and ask 'is there such a thing as a bad grad student?' Link to Project SHORT event 'Pre-Grad School - Finding the Right Program and Advisor Panel': https://www.eventbrite.com/e/project-…

On this episode I'm joined by Felix Cheung from the University of Toronto to discuss his research on population-level determinants of human well-being, why Hong Kong residents are so unhappy, and thew social scientific investigation of economic inequality. Find and follow Felix on twitter at https://twitter.com/felixckc?lang=en…

Nicole Barbaro of WGU Labs and Utah Valley University joins the pod to dispel all my erroneous beliefs and misunderstandings about Attachment Theory Check out Nicole's website here https://nicolebarbaro.com/ , follow her on Twitter here https://twitter.com/NicoleBarbaro?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor , and subscribe to her s…

In which I welcome back Rachel Ernstoff and Manuel Galvan from the University of North Carolina to discuss what everyone else seems to be discussing: Critical Race Theory (CRT), and Republicans' efforts to ban it from schools and workplaces. You can read about Raj Chetty's work on social mobility across racial and gender groups here: https://voxeu.…

I chat with Professor Lee Jussim of Rutgers University about ideological bias in science, academic freedom, social science as activism vs social science as truth seeking, and tennis.By Paul Connor

I invite the amazing, intelligent, insightful Rachel Ernstoff back onto the pod to discuss 'Med-Gate,' - the court case concerning whether the University of Virginia violated the first amendment rights of expelled former UVA medical student Kieran Bhattacharya, and some more general discussion about how we should think about freedom of speech. Oh a…

In this episode I talk with my friend Alex Kogan (formerly Alex Spectre), the former professor of psychology from Cambridge University who was embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. If you want to know what really happened with Cambridge Analytica, or if you've ever wondered how a happy-go-lucky pro-sociality researcher could end up …

Journalist, author, and podcaster Jesse Singal joins the pod to discuss his new book 'The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills.' We also discuss some of the controversy around his work on youth gender dysphoria. Order the book online here. You can also find Jesse on the 'Blocked and Reported' podcast, the 'Singal Minded' substac…

This week, we chat with fellow podcaster and social psychologist Mickey Inzlicht, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and co-host of Two Psychologists Four Beer (with Yoel Inbar). We talk about the advisor-graduate student dynamic, the past and future of social psychology, the replication crisis, and discuss some of the recent Psy…

This week, we talk to Christopher Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University. We talk about his new book, How Madness Shaped History, American politics, cancel culture, and political polarization. Ferguson, C. J. (2020). How madness shaped history: An eccentric array of maniacal rulers, raving narcissists, and psychotic visionaries. …

This week, we had to cut our conversation short with a fellow social psychologist-philosopher, Barry Schwartz, professor emeritus of psychology at Swarthmore College, and a visiting professor at Haas School of Business. We discuss Barry's recent paper Science, scholarship, and intellectual virtues. Schwartz, B. (2020). Science, scholarship, and int…

This week, we chat with Don Moore, a professor in the Management of Organization group at the Haas School of Business, and author of Perfectly Confident. We talk about confidence, overconfidence, perseverance, the tall poppy syndrome, and share our favorite dad jokes. Don's book, Perfectly Confident: https://perfectlyconfident.com/…

In our first episode of the new year, we're joined by Rachel Ernstoff, a social psychology graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill studying intergroup relations and political polarization. In this episode, Rachel shares her fascinating background with us, after which we discuss political polarization and the research around it, the recent attack the Ca…

This week, we talk to Rob Chavez, an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. We discuss what social neuroscience is, how social psychology can inform neuroscience, and whether our understanding of the brain can have broader impacts on society. This is your Brain on Psychology – This is your Psychology on Bra…

This week, we have an in-depth conversation with Kat (Kathryn) McCabe, a social ecologist and antiracism educator, about the modern antiracist movement and its potential impact on race relations. The Change Agency: https://www.thechangeagency.ie Short story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron…

This week, we discuss the recent controversy surrounding a Nature Communications paper that looks at informal mentorship, the gender of mentee/mentors, and subsequent scientific impact of the mentees. There has a been a call from the Twitter science community for the retraction of the paper. Edit: Smriti mentions that someone had tweeted and asked …

This week, we talk about the different responses to the election from the left, and what can be done to heal the growing political divide in this country. Greater Good Science Center, "Bridging Differences Playbook": https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Bridging_Differences_Playbook-Final.pdf Derek Thompson, "The Most Important Divide in…

This week, we talk to our friend Manuel (Manny) Galvan, a graduate student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about the election, political polarization in America, the excesses of the left, cancel culture, BLM/Defund the Police, and Manny's vision of a way forward. You can find Manny on Twitter @MGalvanPsych; his blog, The Science of …

Last week, we spoke to our very own faculty advisor, Serena Chen! Serena's the first Asian-American chair of UC Berkeley's Department of Psychology, and one of the most refreshingly candid academics out there. We discuss the recent paper on the future of women in psychological science, on which Serena is a co-author, along with many other female fa…

This week, we talk to Anne Scheel, a doctoral candidate at the Eindhoven University of Technology, about her upcoming paper Why Hypothesis Testers Should Spend Less Time Testing Hypotheses. Scheel, A.M., Tiokhin L., Isager, P.M., & Lakens, D. (in press). Why hypothesis testers should spend less time testing hypotheses. Perspectives on Psychological…

This week, we talk about the controversy over a blog by an anonymous person on Twitter, AlvaroDeMenard, about participating in "Replication Markets, a part of DARPA's SCORE program, whose goal is to evaluate the reliability of social science research." The thread about this on Twitter elicited a response from an editor at Science, Tage Rai, and con…