Uri Hertz

📣 New publication 📣

Very excited to share our new paper "A neural signature of adaptive mentalization" out now in Nature Neuroscience (the project started all the way back in 2018!); with
@niklasbuergi.bsky.social
@drgokhanaydogan.bsky.social
@christianruff.bsky.social

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New preprint! Where we used multiplayer games to track brain activity underlying the sustained intergroup bias. Led by @oritn.bsky.social . "Group-dependent learning and decision neural signals underlie the persistence of intergroup bias" doi.org/10.31234/osf... 👇

and here is the link again: osf.io/preprints/ps...

and underlying the decision to harm out-groups and in-groups.

Here we used our learning models and task and found group-dependent activity tracking in-group and out-group players' behavior.

Asymmetric cognitive learning mechanisms underlying the persistence of intergroup bias - Communications Psychology In a minimal group design in which players can zap each other, human participants showed intergroup bias, as participants were more likely to zap outgroup players and less likely to learn about outgro...

This project builds on our previous behavioral findings, looking at "Asymmetric cognitive learning mechanisms underlying the persistence of intergroup bias" www.nature.com/articles/s44...

New preprint! Where we used multiplayer games to track brain activity underlying the sustained intergroup bias. Led by @oritn.bsky.social . "Group-dependent learning and decision neural signals underlie the persistence of intergroup bias" doi.org/10.31234/osf... 👇

Public Opinion in Authoritarian Regimes AbstractDespite lacking competitive elections and strong protections for political freedoms, politics in authoritarian regimes is still influenced by the o

How do everyday people in authoritarian regimes think about politics? And how do the public's attitudes shape the way autocrats govern? Tony Zirui Yang and I have a new chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Authoritarian Politics that reviews academic research on these questions: doi.org/10.1093/oxfo...

Thanks Arthur Le Pargneux (arthurlepargneux.wixsite.com/arthurleparg...) for your talk "Contractualist moral cognition: From fair divisions to the emergence of rules via implicit agreements". A novel take on morality backed by clever experiments + elegant models 👍

📃 psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Screenshot of our papers title.

Screenshot of the beginning of the faq section. Go to https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0305440326000154-mmc1.docx for the whole supplement, the faq section is near the end.

For our recent paper - on naive humans reinventing how to shape early stone tools - we did sth unusual and sth (hopefully) useful:

We included an FAQ section in the supplementary material

New methods may benefit from such FAQ's being included.

[available at ars.els-cdn.com/content/imag... ]

How does social influence shape collective outcomes? When does it lead to lock-in on inferior options?

In our 🚨 new preprint 📝 osf.io/preprints/so... we make three contributions

w/ @alexgelas.bsky.social Alex Jochim @leostnbrk.bsky.social Peter Steiglechner & @pantelispa.bsky.social

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Research by Bursztyn et al, one of the coolest ever studies on incentives to motivate behaviour—the Luftwaffe’s “rat race” of hierarchical, tiered, expanding status-based incentives for German WWII pilots.

The performance profiles say it all:

buff.ly/o1kye9h

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Frontiers | Pupil size response within direct and random exploration and exploitation behaviors selectively reflects value of control BackgroundBalancing exploration and exploitation is central to adaptive decision-making and is thought to depend on interactions between arousal-related neur...

New paper - "Pupil size response within direct and random exploration and exploitation behaviors selectively reflects value of control" Gili Baraky (collab w Shai Gabay) used pupillometry in the horizon task to test control-mode theories' predictions. www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

Our new short piece in TiCS on intuitive theories of truth: how people judge whether statements could be true, whether statements are true, and whether to assert them as true. A great collab with @keremoktar.bsky.social
@ihandleyminer.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com @lianeleeyoung.bsky.social

The inferred value of unchosen options spreads to related items in memory Counterfactual thinking — considering what could have come of choosing the other path — can facilitate inference. Previous studies have demonstrated t…

📢New paper out today in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social!

Does the value of an unchosen option — inferred through counterfactual reasoning — spread to related items in memory, similar to how the value of a chosen option — acquired through direct experience — does?

In short, yes!

New paper: The origins of meaning: From pragmatic control signals to semantic representations
philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

How do you measure a threat in the air? Testing the universal, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of social identity threat Using the SITC Inventory, social identity threat is shown to be dynamic, multifaceted, and nearly universal.

New paper out in Science Advances! I'm really (really) proud of this one. Let's get into it. doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Do our social interactions influence what we become aware of?

In our❗new preprint❗@danieljamesyon.bsky.social and I delve into this question: asking whether joint decision making in a detection task can bias awareness reports.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

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The Journal of Neuroscience: 46 (8)

Very excited to share a Special Collection at the Journal of Neuroscience (@sfnjournals.bsky.social) - Central Questions for Social Neuroscience Research. This issue includes some of the latest perspectives on social neuroscience research. Please check it out!👇

www.jneurosci.org/content/46/8

Against frictionless AI - Communications Psychology AI’s greatest strength—removing friction from work and relationships—is also a liability. Prioritizing outcome over process, it eliminates desirable difficulties that drive growth. By subtracting effo...

1/ New paper in Communications Psychology: Against Frictionless AI. Led by my student Emily Zohar and @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social.

The argument: AI's greatest selling point is also its problem.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

A new paper dropped out on "Humans 40,000 y ago developed a system of conventional signs" www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Understanding the evolution of human semiotic behavior is a crucial (basic) scientific enterprise & really difficult, so kudos!
I have thoughts: 1/

A new preprint, co-authored with @johnwkrakauer.bsky.social:

The Deliberation Taboo

Cognitive science is, nominally, the science of thinking. We argue that the field has no theory of what thinking is and, even worse, that the topic has largely dropped out of focus. 1/

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Changes in political attitudes are associated with changes in neural responses to political content - Communications Psychology This study tracked neural responses to political content over two and a half years using fMRI. Changes in political identity influenced neural plasticity, with significant shifts in the amygdala, hipp...

This study tracked neural responses to political content over 2.5 years using fMRI. Changes in political identity influenced neural plasticity, with significant shifts in the amygdala, hippocampus, caudate, & reward systems, reflecting evolving political affiliations.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

We have a new paper out on how the AI boom is creating a scientific monoculture! Everything AI.

"The task for social science is to ensure that, in navigating this moment, we do not become artificial ourselves."

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Led by the brilliant @cecilietraberg.bsky.social

a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application ALT: a penguin is sticking his head out of a hole next to a job application

🚨 JOB alert: 📢
We are looking for a PhD student to work on our international @wellcometrust.bsky.social project on information gathering in OCD and Schizophrenia!
If you have a background in computational psychiatry / neuroimnaging and speak German, apply here: devcompsy.org/wp-content/u...

Do individuals possess introspective access to their implicit evaluations? Although recent research shows that people can often predict their scores on indirect measures, it remains unclear whether this effect reflects genuine introspection or inferential reasoning. We tested an anchoring-and-adjustment account, proposing that individuals predict implicit evaluations by anchoring on accessible explicit evaluations and then adjusting based on available information, such as cultural knowledge. Across three experiments (N = 3,182), we used a relational evaluative conditioning paradigm with novel nonwords to isolate explicit evaluations as the primary source for inference. Manipulating the align-ment between explicit and implicit evaluations, between or within participants, yielded consistent support for the anchoring-and-adjustment hypothesis. Predictions were accurate only when explicit evaluations provided a valid cue; when the two dissociated, accuracy fell systematically below chance. These findings suggest that knowledge of one’s implicit evaluations is dominantly derived from explicit cues rather than discovered through direct introspection.

Excited to share this preprint with Yahel Nudler and @thatadammorris.bsky.social in which we provide further evidence that people’s awareness of implicit evaluations is shaky at best — when explicit evaluations provide a misleading cue, participants systematically mispredict: osf.io/preprints/ps...

New preprint!!
Culture sets us apart: Cultural evolution as a solution to the challenges of social relationships osf.io/preprints/so...
Where I discuss how chatbots, washing machines, festivals and other cultural innovations offset costs, reduce friction and substitute social relationships.

My Lab at the University of Edinburgh🇬🇧 has funded PhD positions for this cycle!

We study the computational principles of how people learn, reason, and communicate.

It's a new lab, and you will be playing a big role in shaping its culture and foundations.

Spread the words!

This work is a results of enjoyable discussions and chats with @mjcrockett.bsky.social and @natvelali.bsky.social in our cultural evolution reading meetings during my visit to Princeton.

New preprint!!
Culture sets us apart: Cultural evolution as a solution to the challenges of social relationships osf.io/preprints/so...
Where I discuss how chatbots, washing machines, festivals and other cultural innovations offset costs, reduce friction and substitute social relationships.