Thomas Talhelm

“The idea with disgust that separates it from many of our other emotions is that it spreads through contagion — through contamination.’” Disgust is a strong emotion. It’s designed by evolution to protect us from danger and diseases. But disgust also spills into other areas of our lives, influencing our morals, our intuitions about right and wrong, even our politics. This week, we talk with psychologist @peez about the power of disgust, its historical use as a tool to persuade and divide, and why it remains such a potent force in public life today. Then, in our latest installment of “Your Questions Answered,” Huggy Rao returns to respond to listeners’ thoughts and questions about why big ideas fail. hiddenbrain.org/podcast/yuck-t…

I wrote a little blog post about my new study creating a collectivism index for regions in China (and why I think it's neat!). communities.springernature.com/posts/new-coll… @NaturePortfolio @SpringerNature

First @SPSPnews symposium in the books! 🎉 Grateful to team "Lifecycle of Norms" @UgurMertYasar (co🤝chair), @tsudaka & @FanYangUChicago, for such a rich conversation advancing culture * norm psych... and for taking our group pic in the most iconic direction possible!

Thanks to everyone who helped make the culture pre-conference a “successful failure!” We didn’t make the main pre-conference time, but we had a packed house and a great time. #SPSP2026