Hakan Çakmak

I cannot agree more with this statement, unfortunately.

Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data Applications for European research grants increased in 2025. Scientists say they’re feeling the competition.

A good reading for a reality check
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"Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining — some to single percentage points — as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available."

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Extremism at the center: Uncovering political diversity among midpoint responders on the left–right self‐placement item The midpoint of the left-right self-placement item is hiding important political diversity, and may be conflating moderate responders with populists and other political sub-groups. Survey researchers...

Extremely pleased to see this work published! Thank you so much to my excellent collaborators @fmsmallfield.bsky.social @scicomguy.bsky.social @srhastraea.bsky.social @lingtax.bsky.social @mdmarques.com @matthewmatix.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (3-4 years) (288628) | University of Oslo Job title: Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (3-4 years) (288628), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, November 17, 2025

We are hiring PhDs and postdocs to work on the ERC project GETGOV, where I am the PI.

We will investigate governing elites since 1789. I am sure that it will be a lot of fun and result in great research!

Postdocs: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

PhDs: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Takeaway from PhD years: Publishing good papers doesn’t make someone a solid researcher. Academia has many big names and rising stars, hence plenty of room for disappointment: many talk about making the world a better place but, deep down, care merely about their own prestige through their actions.

What a ‘Spiral of Silence’ Can Do to a Democracy Protests show people they are not alone in caring about an issue.

“The fact that organized protest can break the spiral of silence, and correct our impressions of what other Americans think, is one of the most immediate and important values of protesting in the first place. Scientists have [shown] protests update our impressions of what other citizens believe.”

Perhaps I should've posted this earlier — fundamental attribution error 🥳

Joel Thornton just joined BlueSky! We worked together with Maja Kutlaca on his Master’s project, and he’s now kicking off his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. Very excited to see what he’ll be up to — definitely worth giving him a follow!

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@joel-thornton.bsky.social

Still hunting a postdoc in the wild world of academia. Hundreds of strong applicants even for one-year positions, someone always seems a better fit, and funding is nearly always elusive — but one can dream, at least while it’s still free and less competitive.

Cover page of Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

Table 1 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

Table 2 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

New preprint 🌟 Psychology is core to cognitive science, and so it is vital we preserve it from harmful frames. @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I use our psych and computer science expertise to analyse and craft:

Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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Are universities perceived as left-wing bastions? Are police officers seen as right-wing? And are judges considered impartial?

In a new publication in @ejprjournal.bsky.social, Erika van Elsas, @mauritsmeijers.bsky.social, and I answer these questions ... (1/3)
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

So much of the absurdity in how some elites talk about Charlie Kirk—or navigate the authoritarian politics of this regime—stems from political science’s and the elite class’s fixation on polarization, and the misguided belief that it’s inherently bad and that the “remedy” is civil submission.

Here, @aarslew.bsky.social and I use the well-demonstrated fact that, in issues where people have incentives to withhold socially undesirable behaviours or opinions, the absence of an interviewer facilitates their expression. (4) www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Love it when you 1) do a proper preregistration, 2) find an unexpected finding in the course of examining your preregistered hypotheses, 3) present the unexpected finding as exploratory, and 4) a reviewer HAMMERS you for "undermining the integrity of the preregistration process?" 🫠

Thanks, Chuma! As far as I recall, neither social identification nor variables relating to the socio-structural premises of SIT were measured (only macro-economic inequality indices being used). Perhaps @vukasin.bsky.social, the lead author, could provide a more in-depth answer!

Glad to see that our work comparing national stereotypes across 45 non-Western countries is now out in SPPS!

See Vukašin’s post below for the highlights.
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Pseudo Effects: How Method Biases Can Produce Spurious Findings About Close Relationships - Samantha Joel, John K. Sakaluk, James J. Kim, Devinder Khera, Helena Yuchen Qin, Sarah C. E. Stanton, 2025 Research on interpersonal relationships frequently relies on accurate self-reporting across various relationship facets (e.g., conflict, trust, appreciation). Y...

In a new paper, my colleagues and I set out to demonstrate how method biases can create spurious findings in relationship science, by using a seemingly meaningless scale (e.g., "My relationship has very good Saturn") to predict relationship outcomes. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

We cannot allow this to stand anymore! We have prepared a petition calling for a boycott of the next ISPP 2026 conference in Newcastle, UK, unless the Executive Committee resigns or responds to our concerns. Please read and sign the petition here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

@aycaaksu.bsky.social this piece might interest you!

❗ These double standards reveal serious threats to civil rights, hence carrying societal implications: freedom of speech and assembly appear safeguarded for some groups, but repressed and contested for others.

❗ Political psychology must focus more on elite hypocrisy, political leaders who violate liberal principles, even at the cost of alienating some of their voter base (e.g., the Biden administration), rather than solely on voter asymmetries.

❗ Protest evaluations depend not just on tactics, but on who is using the so-called effective protest tactic and whether they challenge the status quo (in this case, historical dispossession and genocide led by Israel and openly aided by the US, the UK, and the EU).

left-wingers rated the policing as far more unfair, while right-wingers did not.

There are couple of key implications from this research:

The only difference was whether the protest was led by pro-Israel or pro-Palestine Jewish groups. Findings showed that while both left- and right-wingers judged the policing of pro-Israel protests as unfair, polarisation emerged around pro-Palestine protests:

Thus, across two experimental studies, we presented non-Jewish British and American participants with an identical protest scenario: an authorised silent sit-in with the banner “Never Again”, followed by police detainment of protesters.

At the societal level, however, it is less clear whether citizens endorse these discrepancies or whether they depend on ideology.

At the governmental level, repression falls overwhelmingly on pro-Palestine activists, even extending to Jewish-led movements such as Jewish Voice for Peace. E.g., the Biden administration justified police repression of Jewish anti-genocide protesters under the pretext of “combating antisemitism.”

In pro-Israel movements, it highlights the exclusive Jewish victimhood while overlooking historical oppression and Israeli crimes against humanity against Palestinians. In pro-Palestine movements, it is used to draw parallels between the Holocaust and Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians.

This research focuses on double standards in perceptions of police treatment of protests organised by pro-Israel and pro-Palestine Jewish politicised movements in the US and UK, in the context of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Both politicised identity groups use the slogan “Never Again”.

Proud to announce that our paper with Mortada Al-Amine, “Who holds the banner ‘Never Again’? The effects of protesters’ identity and audiences’ ideology on perceived unfairness of police treatment”, has been published in the International Journal of Social Psychology.

Link: doi.org/10.1177/0213...