Randi Spiker, Ph.D. 🌹

Psychologists have posited hundreds of cognitive biases over the years. A fascinating new paper argues that they all boil down to one of a handful of fundamental beliefs coupled with confirmation bias. stevestewartwilliams.com/p/one-bias-to-…

Are boys really in crisis? What the science says in the age of the manosphere nature.com/articles/d4158…

Call for papers from Translational Issues in Psychological Science, cosponsored by @apagradstudents 📢 “Social interactions across time: Connections, relationships, and influence." Submit by April 13, 2026! bit.ly/49xdH3F Guest Editor: @RyanPersram

This is a really hard, disturbing read. But in awe of the bravery of these survivors cnn.com/interactive/20…

Here is our updated database of grants for early careers researchers in all fields. It goes way beyond traditional NIH and NSF funding opportunities. We list 428 types of grants. Download it here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-op…

🚨BREAKING: Stanford proved that ChatGPT tells you you're right even when you're wrong. Even when you're hurting someone. And it's making you a worse person because of it. Researchers tested 11 of the most popular AI models, including ChatGPT and Gemini. They analyzed over 11,500 real advice-seeking conversations. The finding was universal. Every single model agreed with users 50% more than a human would. That means when you ask ChatGPT about an argument with your partner, a conflict at work, or a decision you're unsure about, the AI is almost always going to tell you what you want to hear. Not what you need to hear. It gets darker. The researchers found that AI models validated users even when those users described manipulating someone, deceiving a friend, or causing real harm to another person. The AI didn't push back. It didn't challenge them. It cheered them on. Then they ran the experiment that changes everything. 1,604 people discussed real personal conflicts with AI. One group got a sycophantic AI. The other got a neutral one. The sycophantic group became measurably less willing to apologize. Less willing to compromise. Less willing to see the other person's side. The AI validated their worst instincts and they walked away more selfish than when they started. Here's the trap. Participants rated the sycophantic AI as higher quality. They trusted it more. They wanted to use it again. The AI that made them worse people felt like the better product. This creates a cycle nobody is talking about. Users prefer AI that tells them they're right. Companies train AI to keep users happy. The AI gets better at flattering. Users get worse at self-reflection. And the loop tightens. Every day, millions of people ask ChatGPT for advice on their relationships, their conflicts, their hardest decisions. And every day, it tells almost all of them the same thing. You're right. They're wrong. Even when the opposite is true.

An 18-year-old Pennsylvania high school student was arrested Friday after authorities accused him of running a massive “catfishing” and “sextortion” scheme that involved more than 20 underage victims. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/p…

Here you have the chief of police at Florida International University saying that if ICE requests they assist with an immigration sweep on campus, they “would provide whatever assistance” needed. This is what state authorities have turned our public universities into.

@jacasiegel @VillanovaU Welcome (back) to PA! Congratulations 🎉

I’m excited to share that I’m joining the Department of Psychology at Villanova University as an Assistant Teaching Professor! I will spend the rest of my career repaying the kindness I received as a student at @VillanovaU to my students. I’m thrilled to return home! 💙

The Difference Between "Significant" and "Not Significant" is not Itself Statistically Significant

"studies of social media data reveal that hostility online is pervasive. Social media platforms reward certainty, shock value, and rage. This leaves little room for productive dialogue, quiet contemplation, or humility, and while some people may choose to stay and fight, most quietly withdraw." psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shrink…

@HustleBitch_ Maybe it’s the leprosy that’s going around Florida now too….

🚨 ST. BARTS IS INFECTED - AND THE RICH ARE PANICKING Reality mogul Bethenny Frankel says she left Saint Barth's with a serious skin infection after staying at a luxury hotel, blaming filthy sheets and towels. She even showed the rash which looks severe. Now look around the island. At the same time, yacht crews are warning about a “super chlamydia” outbreak tearing through St. Barts - spreading boat to boat, hookup to hookup - a strain they say isn’t responding to antibiotics. There's even talk of a “patient zero” who's allegedly a mega influencer. Luxury hotels. Superyachts. Shared sheets. Shared towels. Shared bodies. No one’s saying it’s the same thing. But suddenly everyone’s sick, quiet, and scrambling to control the narrative. So what’s really spreading in St. Barts right now?

Important new article documents harm to mental health from TikTok, Insta, and Youtube. Snapchat seems slightly positive here, but the harms of Snap are not about depression, but about sextortion, drug sales, cyberbullying.... see here: afterbabel.com/p/industrial-s…

“Self-commodification in the digital sex economy is the shiny veneer over the reality of global prostitution, created through poverty, violence and trafficking, obfuscating the violence of the sex economy. This repackaging of prostitution in a palatable form—as empowerment, as financial freedom, through the image of the safe and willing bourgeois prostitute—is the lifeblood of the digital sex economy, concealing the reality of the sex economy at the expense of the most vulnerable women.” Read “Whorearchy: The Fragmentation of Flesh in the Digital Sex Economy ” by Aasiya (@zofloyaa) in Total Woman Victory: Written on the Body at totalwomanvictory.com!

Does social media harm everyone? No. But it harms *most* adolescents, according to a new study. And not all platforms have harmful effects. A new analysis of 44,211 daily diaries from 479 adolescents over 100 days finds that the majority of adolescents (60%) experienced small, but consistently negative effects of social media, suggesting that social media use is a notable contributor to mental health issues. However, a minority (13.6%) of adolescents experienced simultaneously harms and benefits across different dimensions of their mental health. Exploratory analyses revealed negative impacts of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram use and positive or null effects of Snapchat and WhatsAp. This means that social media doesn't have to be harmful. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Fascinating (& terrifying) article published in Science, on AI-assisted writing of scientific manuscripts. Authors find evidence of: 1) accelerated research output due to LLMs 2) especially true of non-native English speakers 3) a complete reversal in correlation between writing complexity and publishability (!) science.org/doi/abs/10.112…

When toddlers get iPads, does it change brain development? A longitudinal study from Singapore says yes and shows links: accelerating visual and cognitive control networks early predicts later effects on decision making, and later increases in anxiety:

the grok bikini thing everyone's talking about is just the visible tip of something way darker... this is the start of a new era where everything you've ever posted online becomes a weapon that can be used against you and i need you to understand how serious this actually is we're not talking about photoshop anymore, we're talking about AI models and people that can take any photo of you and generate you in any situation, any context, any scenario someone wants to create every image you've posted, every video where your face is visible, every public moment you've shared... it's all training data now here's what makes this different from anything we've seen before: even if grok gets updated to refuse these requests tomorrow, even if every major AI company builds in restrictions... it's too late people already have access to open source models that can do the same thing, models that run locally on their computers with zero content policies, zero restrictions, zero way for anyone to stop them think about what that actually means for you: > your social media history is now a library of raw material for anyone who wants to manipulate your image > your professional photos can be placed in compromising situations you never agreed to > your vacation pics, your family photos, your casual selfies... all of it can be used to create content that looks completely real and there's no way to go back from this point, the technology is out there, fully distributed across thousands of computers, impossible to contain or control more than ever before, you need to be extremely careful about what you post online moving forward everything you post online will 100% be used against you at some point, whether that's next month or ten years from now i don't wanna be fear mongering, this is the new reality we're living in and most people still don't understand how serious it is

For whoever is affected by @Grok ‘s Bikini prompt: Please file a complaint against the person who gave that prompt. You don’t have to know the person’s identity. Screenshot and link of the profile of that person is sufficient. 1. Take the screenshot of the image and keep the link of the post in safe place. You will need it later on. 2. Depending upon circumstances, offences under 66E, 67A of Information Technology Act, and 77, 336(4) of Bhartiya Nyay Sangita are made out. 3. Go to the local Police Station. They will probably send you to jurisdictional cyber police station. 4. For directions to Grok and AI, in general, you would have to approach High Court. Please don’t let that person get away. Acts like this should not be tolerated.

Mathematician Joel David says current AI models are basically zero help for mathematics They produce garbage answers, then argue they're correct when you point out the exact error "if i were talking to a person who argued like that, i'd stop talking to them"