Kyle Fiore Law, PhD

The team: @stysyropoulos.bsky.social, Bren O’Connor, @amormino.bsky.social, @drcharlie.bsky.social, Brock Bastian, Abigail Marsh & @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social

@seoyeonbae211.bsky.social and I spoke with @drjimdavies.bsky.social about our new preprint on altruistic motivation.

Grateful for his thoughtful write-up in @nautil.us and the outstanding team behind this work (see below)!

@lianeleeyoung.bsky.social @stysyropoulos.bsky.social @amormino.bsky.social @drcharlie.bsky.social @realmoralitylab.bsky.social

Excited to share
@seoyeonbae211.bsky.social's first preprint—an ambitious global study of human motivation!

Using data from 900,000+ people in 100+ countries, we find altruistic motives consistently outweigh egoistic ones across cultures.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

We asked over 8,700 people in 6 countries to think about future generations in decision-making, and this is what we found When people reflect on how their actions shape the future, they are more likely to support solutions to present-day issues like poverty and inequality.

We asked over 8,700 people in 6 countries to think about future generations in decision-making, and this is what we found theconversation.com/we-asked-ove... @stysyropoulos.bsky.social

Across 3 studies, we find that valuing future lives equally—regardless of their distance in time—predicts stronger interest in long-term oriented, high-impact careers.

Preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

@stysyropoulos.bsky.social @amormino.bsky.social @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social

Asking participants to roleplay as a leader of a committee protecting future generations & having them partake in a philosophical thought exercise emphasizing reduction of intergenerational harm increased moral concern felt towards future generations. @kyleflaw.com

doi.org/10.1111/bjso...

Mapping the Moral Architecture of Effective and Extraordinary Altruism While global challenges demand both impartiality and effectiveness, people often prioritize those nearby and overlook the impact of their prosocial actions. Here, we examined what moral values…

PsyArXiv Preprints | Mapping the Moral Architecture of Effective and Extraordinary Altruism

<em>British Journal of Social Psychology</em> | Wiley Online Library In three studies (N = 8775) including two pre-registered experiments and a pre-registered cross-national replication across five countries, we tested whether intergenerational appeals that emphasize ...

Hey y’all! New paper with @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social & @stysyropoulos.bsky.social is out in BJSP!

We test ways to expand moral concern to future generations, with spillover benefits for distant others today.

#socialpsych #PsychSciSky #psychology

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🚨 New preprint! What drives truly selfless giving?

Led by @kyleflaw.bsky.social! We studied effective altruists (EAs) and organ donors to strangers (ODs) comparing them to controls.

EAs & ODs ⬆️ moral expansiveness
EAs ⬆️utilitarianism

Notably, loyalty isn’t always parochial. 👀
🔗 in comments!

Thanks, Daryl. This helps.

Where you can donate Here is a brief list of some of the places you could donate. GiveWell – A nonprofit that identifies and recommends some of the most cost-effective, evidence-based charities in global health. In response to the aid cuts, they’ve prioritized filling urgent funding gaps in malaria prevention, HIV testing, and healthcare worker training. Project Resource Optimization – A team of researchers and cost-effectiveness analysts who built a live list of high-impact USAID-funded programs affected by the aid freeze. They’re talking regularly with implementing partners to identify the most urgent and cost-effective projects at risk of shutting down. On their ‘funding opportunities’ page, you can find programs directly affected and donate to them directly, or contact the research team for more information. Foreign Aid Bridge Fund – An emergency philanthropic fund created to support lifesaving programs suddenly defunded by the foreign aid freeze. It focuses on bridging short-term gaps to prevent program collapse, such as HIV clinics in Kenya and Zimbabwe, health programs in Ethiopia, and disaster-resilient housing in Nepal. Rapid Response Fund – Another emergency philanthropic fund launched by Founders Pledge and The Life You Can Save to quickly support top-rated global health and poverty programs facing sudden shortfalls. It provides emergency funding to keep high-impact interventions running during the aid cuts. Gavi – A public-private global health partnership that provides vaccines to millions of children in low-income countries. The US, their largest donor (12%), withdrew all their funding for Gavi, putting global vaccination campaigns at risk.

I've added a list at the bottom of the post linking to some places you could donate to help programs affected by the foreign aid cuts.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/i/161097332/...

@stysyropoulos.bsky.social @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social @amormino.bsky.social

New preprint! Do people who care about future generations actually do less to help others today?
Across 3 studies—including both deceased and non-directed living organ donors—we find the opposite:
Concern for the distant future predicts altruism now. 🌍🫀
👉 tinyurl.com/23r4cakh

At the national and individual level, increased poverty was related to lower intergenerational concern and less support for farsighted policies @kyleflaw.bsky.social

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Figure 2: A ggplot-generated graph depicting social discounting’s hyperbolic decline using behavioral data from the classic Social Discounting Task (slightly higher blue trend line) and the short form Social Discounting Task (slightly lower red line). Proportion of $ willing to forgo (y-axis) decreases as social distance (x-axis) increases.

New paper w Georgetown’s Abigail Marsh & Wharton’s Annie Wilson. We develop & validate a short form of the Social Discounting Task—a behavioral measure of generosity that reliably tracks w other forms of altruism. Perfect for tight surveys or large-scale studies
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

📢New preprint: shorturl.at/M77Bb

We surveyed 1,798 psychology PhD students. Marginalized students and students experiencing financial strain report disparities in mental health, worse program satisfaction and poorer academic experiences.

Funding & support are crucial to build a fairer academia!

New preprint: shorturl.at/BZacg; with a team of 31 researchers!

Low concern for infection + low political trust = less compliance with COVID-19 measures.

Using data from 18 countries (N = 18k), we show how distrustful complacency undermines public health especially when leaders oppose science.

📣 Across the U.S., cuts to federal funding for health research are projected to cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. How will YOUR area be impacted?

Excited to share SCIMaP, a website that our team has created to communicate the impact of funding cuts. #PsychSciSky #MedicalSky

scienceimpacts.org

New paper by @amormino.bsky.social and colleagues! They develop and validate a short form of the Social Discounting Task—a fast, reliable measure of how altruism declines with social distance. Perfect for tight surveys or large-scale studies.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

Now officially out in @pnas.org with @greggsparkman.bsky.social! Almost 90% of Christian religious leaders believe in anthropogenic climate change. American congregants underestimate this consensus. Communicating this has important consequences for norms and beliefs!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

More evidence from the US showing that endorsements of political candidates by scientific journals decreases trust in science @stysyropoulos.bsky.social @kyleflaw.bsky.social

osf.io/preprints/ps...

The Trump tax plan only works by cutting public services.

This incredible visualization combines the potential tax cuts (which mostly go to the rich) and loss of services (mostly borne by the poor).

It is a giant wealth transfer from the poorest to the richest. budgetlab.yale.edu/news/250319/...

📢 New Preprint: Who cares about the future? We examine how age, ideology, SES, and other sociodemographic factors shape future-oriented thinking across 37,000+ participants worldwide.

Check it out here: tinyurl.com/4et62tek

@lianeleeyoung.bsky.social
@stysyropoulos.bsky.social

New Preprint: Social Discounting reliably predicts prosociality in meta-analysis & replication. Increased relational mobility (but not Ind-Col) predicts generosity toward distant others. All undergrads from our replication course are co-authors:

tinyurl.com/4acvnbrb
@kendraseaman.bsky.social

New Preprint! How do scientific journal endorsements of political candidates impact trust in science? We find declines in trust, especially among moderates & conservatives, supporting research on motivated reasoning.

Link: shorturl.at/76W4G

#psychology

How do we keep Standing Up for Science? A heartfelt thank you for everyone that Stood Up for Science with us on March 7th—whether it be volunteering, donating, sharing, or attending in event, we're forever indebted to people like you who ca...

But our work is far from done—science is still under attack.

We’ve got ideas, but we want to hear from you. What’s worrying you most? What should we do next? How can we grow this movement together?

Fill out this quick form to share your thoughts & stay connected: forms.gle/QAxH4wD4Y3sg...

How well do people understand the #climate impact of #behavior?🌱

In a new paper, we examine people’s climate-impact perceptions of different behaviors and lifestyles and whether these are linked to behavior and support for behavior-regulating climate policies 🧵

#GreenSky
osf.io/preprints/ps...

🚨 Arizonans: Science fuels jobs, innovation, & huge returns—every $1 in federal research brings >$4 back to the economy! In 2023 alone, AZ’s biotech industry drove >$40B impact & >40K jobs. Contact your reps & stand up for science!

Thanks @lanishiota.bsky.social for organizing! #StandUpForScience

Amazing work organizing this, @lanishiota.bsky.social !