Hugo Mercier

Congrats! And ironic given that Pierrick has just been denied tenure...

This parasitic ant tricks workers into committing matricide Newly mated parasitic queen ants invade colonies and spray their victims with a chemical irritant that provokes the workers to kill their mother.

This is such a cool study. A parasitic ant queen tricks worker ants into murdering their own queen, so the parasite can take over the colony.

Postdoc position in individual-level incentives, social
learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz

files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...

The deadline has been extended - there is still time to get your abstracts in to join us in Morocco!

I'm recruiting a grad student! My lab at NYU (psych dept) studies the computational basis of moral cognition and aims to build AI systems that are aligned with human values. Now admitting a PhD student for Fall 2026. Apps due 12/1. sites.google.com/corp/site/sy...

imagine being hit on by gross old Larry Summers when you just wanted professional advice and then finding out he was getting advice on how to hit on you from Jeffrey fucking Epstein

one of the grossest things I’ve ever read

🎉 New preprint: Bayesian Competence Inference guides Knowledge Attribution and Information search

If someone knows that Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise, will they also know what Earth’s only natural satellite is? What about which planets have no moons at all?

Right now, Karoline Leavitt is being coached on how to say “ephebophilia” in the least creepy way possible.

Two postdoctoral opportunities in evolutionary anthropology at Duke - HBES https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30783 Position Description The Pontzer Lab in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University seeks two Postdoctoral Associates for research in h...

Two postdoctoral opportunities in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University!
The Pontzer Lab is hiring for projects on human ecology, energetics, and aging & health.
More info: www.hbes.com/two-postdoct...

Three preregistered experiments with prolific participants (N = 2,254) found no evidence for experimenter demand effects

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Opening for a tenure-track assistant professor in the history of science, with a preferred focus on water issues: 👇 #HistSTM

From Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 2: The Great Orphanage Robbery Mickey holding Pegleg Pete and Sylvester Shyster at gun point. Mickey: Gimme that money you stole from the orphans or you'll never leave this box car alive!

Merci !

Pas né de la dernière pluie de Hugo Mercier

Rarement, un livre m'a autant stimulé intellectuellement !

"Pas né de la dernière pluie", d'Hugo Mercier démonte l'idée reçue que les gens seraient majoritairement stupides et les foules crédules.

J'extrais ici trois arguments très pertinents pour défendre son hypothèse. ⤵️

this is an obvious overcorrection that misleads the polling data and will lead to disaster in the Heartland. the results of tonight show that the Democrats should moderate: adopting two or at most three of the five pillars of Islam

Does the Danish foreign minister just go around giving everyone culturally appropriate lego sets? That has to be the best job.

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

My first paper, out in PsychReview!!

Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro:

Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health?

A 🧵

Postdoctoral Position in Behavioral and Environmental Economics

I am looking for a post-doc working on behavioral/environmental/urban/energy economics to join my group at the University of Copenhagen. Position is 2 years (possibly 3), good salary, free health insurance, one of the most livable cities in the world. Apply here: jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...

Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted:

manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

The (In)Effectiveness of Psychological Targeting: A Meta‐Analytic Review The use of psychological targeting—employing machine learning to predict consumer personality from digital footprints and subsequently tailoring persuasive messages—has emerged as a controversial yet...

"only about 5% of the variance in personality can be
predicted from digital footprints, and personality‐tailored messages show negligible effects on behavior... When design and evaluation flaws are controlled, the combined end‐to‐end effectiveness of psychological targeting approaches zero."

Unearthing the Nature of Knowing Research reveals how people process information, how they acquire—and sometimes reject—knowledge, and how that compares to artificial intelligence systems’ abilities to do the same.

Excited to see our research highlighted in @psychscience.bsky.social Observer!
With @oliviermorin.bsky.social , @hugoreasoning.bsky.social , and Thomas Dheilly, we explored how people infer others’ knowledge: even from a single answer, they can estimate how much someone knows about a topic!

Donald Trump appeared to describe a dementia screening he underwent at Walter Reed Medical Center as a 'very hard' IQ test while speaking with reporters inside Air Force One

The NY Times and WaPo may be lost causes but holy shite look at PEOPLE out here absolutely killing it with 100% unvarnished truths 🌟

Title card for Mindscape episode with Gordon Pennycook.

Mindscape 333 | Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social on Unthinkingness, Conspiracies, and What to Do About Them. #MindscapePodcast

www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...

That’s no ballroom…

Nice to see our research featured on the eHRAF Academic Quarterly!

I also discovered some interesting papers that I missed :)

An aerial photograph of the Tilburg University campus.

I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social.

We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits.

tiu.nu/22989

We're excited to announce that Cognitive Science at Dartmouth is recruiting PhD students to work collaboratively with me, Steven Frankland, and Fred Callaway. Come study the principles and mechanisms that enable us to understand, plan, and act in the world! Info: sites.dartmouth.edu/cogscigrad/

Reminder to anyone considering submitting for #HBES2026 and/or #CES2026 that the abstract submission deadline is November 16th!