Civic Solitude

Our recent PSPB paper showing that liberals and conservatives have different perceptions of victimhood (AoVs) is generating quite a bit of discussion on r/science. Short summary of the results (and 🔗 ) below 🧵

The line-up for the forthcoming @CritRevJournal symposium on CIVIC SOLITUDE... a fabulous collection of critics

Check out the Aeon philosophy prize for early career researchers - offers the chance of intensive mentoring in writing public philosophy aeon.co/philosophy-pri…

Wrapping up my contribution to a symposium forthcoming in Critical Review on my *Civic Solitude*....

Unsolicited Writing Advice It helps to keep in mind that writing typically isn't the process of turning your thoughts into sentences on a page. It's rather the process of figuring out what your thoughts are by writing sentences on a page and then deleting most of them

RIP Susan Haack. I got to know her early in my career, mainly due to our shared interest in CS Peirce. Like most philosophers, she could be prickly; but unlike many, she was always genuine. news.miami.edu/as/stories/202…

The more active users are on social media, the more polarized they are! The opinions of the these extreme users are filling your newsfeed, but they are not representative of most citizens or even most social media users--which are far less polarized! #page=27.11" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">arxiv.org/pdf/2603.02102… This creates false perceptions of social norms and stereotypes sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Big congrats to my colleague @JacobAriBarrett on the publication of this fantastic book, a state-of-the-art assessment of the ideal/non-ideal theory debate(s). cambridge.org/core/elements/…

People significantly overestimate the social costs of changing their beliefs. Partisans self censor and suppress dissent to avoid appearing disloyal and facing social punishment. But reminding them of prior group loyalty can erase this misperception and open them to changing their beliefs pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41627338/

People form beliefs not only as individual agents, but as members of social groups. A new paper finds that children (4-6 years old) who belonged to a group were more convinced by evidence that supported their ingroup’s belief (and were less convinced by evidence that opposed their ingroup): nature.com/articles/s4146… This is exciting evidence that the Identity-based Model of Belief extends to young kid and novel groups! All kinds of identities shape our beliefs about the world. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

I'm at Georgetown this Friday for a @GUcstpubliclife event exploring Pope Francis' responses to our democratic crisis. If you're around, stop by and say hi berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/events/democra…

THIS FRIDAY in Washington, D.C.: Commonweal is thrilled to be co-sponsoring an event @GUcstpubliclife exploring Pope Francis's call for a culture of encounter amid democratic crisis. Feat: @RobertTalisse, @nadiau87, and @Paul_R_Elie. RSVP today! berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/events/democra…

Overall social media use has declined, with the youngest and oldest Americans increasingly abstaining from social media altogether. Across social media platforms, political posting remains tightly linked to affective polarization--the most extreme users post the most content. As polarized partisans increasingly dominate the conversation, casual users disengage and the online public sphere grows smaller, sharper, and more extreme. arxiv.org/html/2510.2541…

Spent the morning reading 5 fabulous critical essays about my CIVIC SOLITUDE that'll be coming out as a symposium issue of @CritRevJournal. Critics are Diana Mutz, Eduardo Martinez, Emerson Bodde, Julia Maskivker, & Molly Scudder. Working on my responses...

OPINION WEEKEND What your news diet says about your politics | Recent polling on the US and Venezuela | Public opinion and healthcare reform | The plot to redraw America | Trump's efforts to shape US culture | Americans' book-reading habits... & much more: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/260104

No one supports a war in Venezuela btw

OPINION TODAY (free issue) Distrust of elites, experts, and the establishment is widespread | Economic expectations of better things hit a low | How retirements and redistricting could impact the midterms | 4 big things Congress did in 2025... & much more: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/251231

The Blog of the APA @apa_blog has just published this piece I wrote a month ago about philosophy and polarization! blog.apaonline.org/2025/12/29/phi…

OPINION TODAY (free issue) Trump's job approval falls, reversing recent gains | Americans want all Epstein files released | Scant support for military action against Venezuela | Consumer confidence falls again | Americans’ New Year’s resolutions... & more: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/251224-free

OPINION TODAY Just 33% approve of how Trump is handling the economy | Few want Trump to attempt to serve another term | More Americans oppose than support proposal to increase vetting for tourists | Majority plan to spend less on holiday gifts ... & more: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/251217-topli…