Josh Rottman

🚨DEADLINE EXTENDED🚨
The extended submission deadline is January 30, 2026. Submit your work here:

On Thanksgiving, Remember That Truth Is a Uniting Force It’s easy to feel pessimistic about political conversations. But new research provides room for optimism, showing that striving for true beliefs is valued across partisan lines.

Happy Thanksgiving, all! www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mora...

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Our 52nd Annual Meeting will be held from June 18–20, 2026 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, with a pre-conference on Mental Control and Agency held at JHU on June 17
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We are currently inviting submissions of papers (talks and posters)!

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...

Challenges to Narrating a Multitudinous Self: Towards a Better Ethics of Code-switching - Topoi We motivate and lay out the broad contours of a research program, namely that of developing a systematic ethics of code-switching. Such an ethics will articulate the values and norms that should gover...

🚨New Paper!🚨

Do you love authenticity? @ledaberio.bsky.social and I argue that maybe you shouldn't!

We think that everything would be better if we all just got over the idea of true selves and were cooler with the fact that we all contain multitudes.

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

Thank you, Gord! 😊 Your AOT-E measure features heavily!

🚨New publication in JEP:G!🚨 We find that, even when a belief serves as a marker of ideological identity, people do not think it is good to engage in partisan motivated reasoning. Instead, people endorse the pursuit of accuracy motives even if these lead to adopting outgroup beliefs. bit.ly/498S8Xk

I’m a. Ana

wow this is super neat.

vision science is so cool.

The Great Implicit Bias Bamboozle Where were you when you first learned about implicit bias?

Major new paper by finds implicit measures like the IAT are no better than asking people directly about their biases. After decades of avoiding self-reports, turns out our sophisticated replacement tools work no better than what we abandoned. New post!

YouTube video by What We'll Never Know Preventing Misinformation @science

Short videos highlighting the science that is not getting done due to federal science cuts:
www.youtube.com/shorts/2J_BW...
Share them!
(Thanks to Timothy Wilson and his collaborators for making these!)

Discussions in my Psychology of Ideology class this week on what it would mean to be "non-ideological" have prompted some fun image creation with ChatGPT 😂 (Thanks to readings by @leorzmigrod.bsky.social & @mjbsp.bsky.social for inspiration)

Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, Tenure Track Department Cognitive Science Vassar College is dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees and welcomes applications from individuals of all backgrounds. Deci...

Vassar College is hiring a tenure track assistant professor in cognitive science. vassar.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Vassar...

I'll be at #CogSci2025 - happy to chat about the position and life at Vassar.

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

Attention philosophers, x-philosophers and moral psychologists - I'm hiring! Two, 3-year research fellowships on an interdisciplinary project in the Philosophical Moral Psychology Lab at the Uehiro Institute, Oxford. Pass it on! For more info and to apply: tinyurl.com/mrwwuyaw

When development constricts our moral circle Nature Human Behaviour - Although many believe our moral circles expand with age, this Perspective discusses an early-emerging tendency to care for others.

🥳🥳 New paper in @nathumbehav.nature.com: “When development constricts our moral circle." Contrary to popular belief, younger kids may start out with broader moral circles than older ones. Check it out here 👉 rdcu.be/eoaSe
w/ @mattiwilks.bsky.social @karrineldner.bsky.social & Lucius Caviola

The Pope Intuitively Understood Aspects of Moral Psychology J.D. Vance has promoted a parochial view of moral obligations. Pope Francis provided a corrective that also receives support from psychological science.

Inspired by research from @mattiwilks.bsky.social @amormino.bsky.social @shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social @eranhalperin75.bsky.social and others: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mora...

This statement from the NSF is insane.

Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.

Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.

A recurring thought over the last few months -- creating something is very hard, and destruction is so much easier.

Honest people don’t lie. Or do they? Liars aren’t honest. Or are they?
One puzzling conundrum in contemporary politics is that politicians who seem to be estranged from facts and evidence are nonetheless considered honest by their followers.
1/n

📰 Interview about The Ideological Brain for The New York Times @nytimes.com just released!

Really enjoyed this conversation with Matt Richtel about ideologies, neuroscience, and our capacity for change

Check it out:
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/s...

Really proud of this new work out @psychscience.bsky.social. Led by the amazing but bluesky-less Amanda Geiser and with @deborahsmall.bsky.social.

We show that when comparing moral wrongs, people are (much) more willing to “scale up” than to “scale down” condemnation and punishment…

2025 Lancaster County General Pennsylvania State Senate 36 Special Election General DOHQ Last Updated: Mar 25, 2025 at 9:57 PM > 95% est. reporting Candidates Party Votes Pct. James Malone DEM 26,518 50.3% Josh Parsons GOP 25,721 48.8% Zachary Moore LIB 473 0.9% Total 52,712 * Incumbent Election Date: 3/25/2025 View Full Results >

uhhhh it looks like Dems just flipped a R+17 Pennsylvania State Senate seat in Amish country…

I'm hiring a lab manager to start this summer/fall, to work on transformative experience, identity change, and empathy in the digital age.

Details here:
www.crockettlab.org/research-spe...

Please share!

The joys of chatting with the Xfinity Virtual Assistant are unparalleled

Against bucket lists This picture shows a line of climbers attempting to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Here's a post I wrote arguing against bucket lists (I think they are simply not useful, contribute to harmful mass tourism without enriching people's experience, encouraging people to put off goals for play and recreation until retirement.

helendecruz.substack.com/p/against-bu...

Society for Philosophy and Psychology 2025 (June 19-21, 2025 at Cornell) is going to be 🔥🔥🔥 and the submission portal is now live! Submit abstracts of 750 words+1 figure by Jan 24, 2025 at 11:59pm EST easychair.org/my/conferenc....