Michael Barlev

Is the NYT rationalizing today's terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue? We show that when antisemitism is justified by disapproval of Israel, liberals tolerate it more. eprints.soton.ac.uk/508855/ (forthcoming, American Psychologist)

What did they realize in B that they hadn’t realized in A? Vote in the poll in the next tweet 👇 (1) they realized others saw they were together (2) they realized they weren’t living up to their ideal selves

Do you want to date someone *willing* to protect you? Someone *strong* enough to protect? Both? Michael Barlev and colleagues test this. Based on a lot of work in evolutionary psychology, you might think that both would matter about equally. Nope!

"Discovering that someone is willing to protect you from physical harm makes them vastly more attractive. Conversely, discovering that someone is unwilling to protect you turns them into a hideous troll." stevestewartwilliams.com/p/the-most-att…

I'm hiring a postdoc, to be based at Arizona State University, to research the PSYCHOLOGY OF ANTISEMITISM. Start date as early as Jan-12-25. Email for questions. Details: apply.interfolio.com/177756

@SpeciesTypical @GreenPlusAnE Yes. In several experiments (date, friend) we manipulated physical strength (weak, ave, strong) and willingness to protect (unwilling, no-info, willing). Clearest effects in the no-info conditions: Stronger people--both men and women--were thought to be more willing to protect.

@GreenPlusAnE Hey @michael_barlev (author of paper above), do you know if it has been shown that physical strength predicts (specifically) the willingness to protect friends, family, etc?

This thread on physical strength research doesn’t seem to consider the possibility that the strong might defend and provide for others.

Academics are wonderfully creative. Reviewers start using AI, authors start inserting hidden text into their papers instructing AI to give positive reviews japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/0…

🚨New in @BBSJournal: "Ecological Affordances across Life Stages: An Affordance Management Framework" is out as a target article & now open for commentary proposals! Ever wonder why an environment once full of promise 🥰 can later feel constraining 😮‍💨? doi.org/10.1017/S01405… 🧵

Are you a student or professor in psychology -- or any of the social sciences? If so, you've definitely seen this mistake before. It's all over the textbooks and journal articles. You might have seen it formulated in any of these ways: - Is that behavior evolved or learned? - Innate or acquired? - Biological or environmental? - Evolutionary or sociocultural? This is 100% the wrong way to think about it. My newest publication (out now in American Psychologist, @APA_Journals) shows exactly why this is wrong and suggests a better, more accurate alternative: laithalshawaf.com/uploads/1/3/5/… Pls consider RTing for greater spread. Thanks! 🙏

@ed_hagen Thanks, Ed, this is great. I've really appreciated your always informative and even-keeled threads here over the years.

I was curious if I could create a webpage listing all the threads I've posted since joining twitter 6-7 years ago. Here it is: blog.edhagen.net/posts/Threads/ The next tweet is a blogpost with the #rstats code I used to do it...

Psychologists: if you want to complain about how our field lacks a theoretical paradigm, try looking for one in evolution—the thing that actually made the human psyche. Seems like a good place to start, no? At least give that a try before throwing up your hands in despair.

1. The Santa Barbara school of evolutionary psychology holds that a universal set of complex psychological adaptations evolved in Pleistocene Africa. In no particular order, here are few folks on here doing research in this tradition, highlighting one paper/thread each:🧵

@Pearson_HI Congratulations, Dr. Pearson!!!

Dissertation Dedication: “I wrote a song for all those nice little Jewish kids who don't get to hear any Chanukah songs” Adam Sandler, Chanukah song, Saturday Night Live December 3, 1994

Congratulations to Leda Cosmides on being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science! news.ucsb.edu/2025/021817/em…

SO love this post from @paulbloomatyale! Real-world effects are awesome when you can get them, but psychologists run experiments in controlled environments "for the same reason that chemists keep their test tubes clean". YES! smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/its-fine-if-…

@joshtybur Fantastic news! Congratulations, Josh!!!

I'm happy to share that I've received an NWO (Dutch Science Organization) Vici grant. The five-year project aims to better understand how disgust relates to morality. A brief description and some highlights:

@sjmermelstein @MackenMurphy 100%. I'm surprised so many critics of EP misunderstand this. (e.g., See this for the same misunderstanding link.springer.com/article/10.100…)

@MackenMurphy Evolutionary psychologists don't test "assumptions about the evolution of the human mind" -- We study the design of the mind using hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory. Subtle but highly meaningful difference

Two starkly different views on evolutionary psychology's place in the world. Any thoughts?

Great obituary of the first great pioneer of evolutionary psychology - Don Symons - by @sapinker Sage of Sex and Psyche quillette.com/2025/02/04/sag…

🚨 Laws about bodily damage originate from shared intuitions about the value of body parts science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… New research by the great @YunsuhW, with @JaimieKrems & me, in @ScienceAdvances 🧵

@lenajbrandt @Besample_app @Econ_AI Congratulations, Elena! What a journey!

Officially a PhD in social psychology! 🎓🎉 It's been a wild ride: I started grad school as a new immigrant with a kid and graduated as a mom of four and CEO of @Besample_app Grateful to everyone who supported me on this journey, especially my incredible husband @Econ_AI