Colin Tucker Smith

Conditionally accepted at the APSR (w/ @scottclifford.bsky.social & @patrickpliu.bsky.social):

Why does political information so often change beliefs but NOT attitudes? We highlight the role of belief relevance, or the extent to which beliefs bear on attitudes.

Our lab has a new postdoc position that is ideal for someone interested in a career in data science or statistical consulting and an interest in gender diversity / trans health. apply.interfolio.com/182278

The Contribution of Episodic Memory to Social Cognition Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience invites submissions to a collection on “The Contribution of Episodic Memory to Social Cognition”. Making decisions i

I’m excited to announce a special issue I am guest editing at SCAN with Johanna Jarcho and @maureenritchey.bsky.social on the intersection of memory and social cognition. Find more info here: academic.oup.com/scan/pages/c...

Do You Agree? Do You Strongly Agree? The Effect of the Number of Response Categories on Response Processes and Verification of Substantive Hypotheses Abstract. This study investigates how the number and labeling of response categories in survey scales affect respondent behavior, psychometric properties,

This is consistent with earlier psychometric work that suggests 5-7 is the best response scale options, but good to see that the finding holds up in contemporary research. Also, good to see that labeling scales whether anchored or not has little impact on findings. academic.oup.com/ijpor/articl...

Members of the Social Cognition Lab presented 4 exciting posters at #SPSP2026, all of which are now available via OSF:

I recommend checking out Abhay's (@aalaukik.bsky.social) poster at Computational Psych today (2:45) or Saturday morning (8-9). He's making great progress connecting different measures (e.g., implicit, explicit, behavioroid) with their theorized generative processes. #SPSP2026 @spspnews.bsky.social

Eva (@egarciaferres.bsky.social) is doing really interesting work informed by multiple literatures and inspired by the times we're living in. Check her thread for where and when to find her on Thursday and Saturday! #SPSP2026

Excited to share that our lab will be presenting multiple projects at SPSP 2026!

If you’re interested in social perception, race talk, intergroup dynamics, or collective action — come check us out!

#SPSP2026 #SocialPsychology #PersonalityPsychology #AcademicResearch #RaceTalk

Acquiescence Bias and Criterion Validity: Problems and Potential Solutions for Agree-Disagree Scales - Political Behavior Political Behavior - Scholars frequently measure dispositions like populism, conspiracism, racism, and sexism by asking survey respondents whether they agree or disagree with statements...

New w/@scottclifford.bsky.social.

Lots of work uses agree-disagree scales, and a lit review shows these are 1) frequently just measured in one direction (agree = higher trait) and 2) correlated with each other.

This has potentially big issues for conclusions.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Junior faculty- Consider coming to Princeton Psych -all expenses paid- for a few weeks to hang out with my great colleagues! (I can’t host this year, but we have so many great labs to choose from!). Application details below.

Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.

Look, I know it's a small thing, but Duo authentication now requires me to enter a code. Over/under on my university requiring facial recognition for me to log in to Canvas? (Please, do my grading for me hackers).

Postdoc position!

Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026.

Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination

Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad
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About 10 years ago, I set out to better understand the drivers of radicalization and deradicalization into white supremacy. Work from our endeavors is starting to come out, and I am no longer concerned about sharing it.

I want to share the findings from one of these studies, published last March. 🧵

A fundraising thermometer showing that Project Implicit has raised $3,763 of its $50,000 goal to defend scientific integrity and expand access to education

Thank you for supporting Project Implicit. With the additional $3K not included on the landing page, we’ve raised $6,763 or 13.5% of our goal in less than a month.

Please help us protect scientific integrity and expand access to research and education by sharing.

4agc.com/landing/impl...

I am hiring a 4y postdoc for my Leverhulme-funded project on the role of beliefs about what in/outgroup members believe/do about climate change in shaping pro-climate behaviours🌏

Start date: May 2026 at latest
Deadline: Feb 8

Please share it widely!

jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

That's good to know, thanks! It's still possible that the presence of the female targets makes the category different than if it were only male targets. Empirical question of course. Interesting work, glad you ran these experiments!

Oh, very true. I retract Quibble 1! (I got a bit into the weeds on the replication aspect of it and forgot about that when I came back up).

Quibble 3: The Registered Experiment (Exp. 2) deviates from earlier work by including female targets. The authors do note that in the limitations section, but this is a potentially important deviation. I'd love to see follow-up work on this (e.g., do effects replicate with male targets?).

Quibble 2: It’s difficult to assess claims without information about the DV’s reliability (especially when the DV is Evaluative Priming – a particularly “noisily measured individual-level construct” if I've ever seen one)
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Reflections on the Difference Between Implicit Bias and Bias on Implicit Measures Published in Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory (Vol. 33, No. 3, 2022)

Quibble 1: I think it’s important to not refer to “implicit bias” when operationalizing it via a single measure (i.e., Evaluative Priming). For interesting discussion see Gawronski, Ledgerwood, & Eastwick, 2022: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
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This was a nice read this morning, thanks! I have three quibbles that I'd like to raise. Not all that problematic for people engaging directly with the scholarship, but I always worry about the people just flying by the headlines... [1/4]

📣Revised preprint by @cas-goos.bsky.social

Measurement reliability, validity, and reporting in psychology still has a long way to go...

We compared original studies w replications, and where possible recalculated reliability & unidimensionality.

Some findings >

osf.io/preprints/ps...

boygenius source 🦷 on Instagram: "@lucydacus & @_sarahgoldstone_ performing ‘Bread and Roses’ at @zohrankmamdani’s inauguration ceremony today in new york city!" In this moving performance of 'Bread and Roses,' @lucydacus and @sarahgoldstone_ bring to life the powerful lyrics that speak to the human struggle for dignity and equality. The inauguration ceremony ...

www.instagram.com/reels/DS-uIn...

Louise Penny’s books have been my therapy for the past two years!

Course evaluations are in and I got the following comment:

"He gave such wholesome dad vibes."

I have many competing thoughts about this [insert 2025-appropriate indicator of laughter here].

🚨 Postdoc opportunity at Uni of Edinburgh: work with a terrific young PI (Zach Horne) on topics pertaining to partisanship and hostility on social media 👇
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life.

apply.interfolio.com/178796

Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions: How Regional Variation in Implicit Bias Can Inform Public Policy - Heidi A. Vuletich, Maximilian A. Primbs, Ayla Winegar, 2025 Traditional psychological approaches to reduce discrimination typically focus on addressing the biases of people. This paper recommends policies aimed at changi...

New paper out with Heidi Vuletich and Ayla Winegar: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/.... We discuss public policy implications of the Bias of Crowds model: How do environments activate and perpetuate biases and what can we do against it?

Abstract When we empathize with someone going through something, we often draw on our past experiences with the someone and the something. These kinds of experiences ground "thick empathy", a form of empathy that has been largely overlooked in the psychology and neuroscience literature. Consider how a mother, empathizing with her daughter about to give birth, can draw on her own experience of childbirth, and her relationship with her daughter, to deeply grasp what her daughter is going through in a way that others who lack those experiences cannot. I argue that thick empathy deserves more empirical attention because it is associated with well-being and helps us build networks of effective mutual social support. My analysis highlights novel risks and dilemmas posed by "empathy machines" that promise to enhance or even replace human empathy and are becoming increasingly popular as a potential solution to widespread loneliness. Even when empathy machines provide value to individuals, their widespread adoption risks imposing collective emotional and epistemic costs that ultimately make it harder for us to empathize well. Keywords: empathy, understanding, experience, thick description, ethnography, phenomenal knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, chatbots

New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/