Richard Huskey

And that’s a wrap! Another great (#10!) SoTL Conference @ University of California, Davis ! I appreciated all the thoughtful research and conversations shared by participants. Thank you to everyone who helped make it such an inspiring day!

Tonight’s commute home was epically not bad

Who’s feeling it?

ChatGPT does not replicate human moral judgments: the importance of examining metrics beyond correlation to assess agreement - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - ChatGPT does not replicate human moral judgments: the importance of examining metrics beyond correlation to assess agreement

Out now in Scientific Reports! Despite high correlations, ChatGPT models failed to replicate human moral judgments. We propose tests beyond correlation to compare LLM data and human data.

With @mattgrizz.bsky.social @andyluttrell.bsky.social @chasmonge.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Being Interdisciplinary feels like practicing non-attachment. Different disciplines come in & out of focus in waves, each a whole world. Engaging with philosophy gives access to different ontologies than engaging in neuroscience or AI. This helps us evaluate each field from within & outside itself.

Screenshot of a PNAS research article titled “The potential existential threat of large language models to online survey research.” The article is authored by Sean J. Westwood and edited by James N. Druckman. It notes the submission date (July 9, 2025), acceptance date (September 12, 2025), and publication date (November 20, 2025).

This is going to ruin the tour www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Beyond honored to speak as keynote for the Comm Horizons Conference at UC Davis!! Triple shout-outs to @richardhuskey.bsky.social, Jorge Peña, and @soojongkim.bsky.social Soojong Kim for organizing efforts. Please consider sending your work and attending the conference (+a short visit to Napa! 🍇🍷)

Comm Horizons @ UCD 2026: Communication in the Age of AI and Algorithms

Excited to announce the third annual Comm Horizons @ucdavis.bsky.social Conference:

Communication in the Age of AI and Algorithms

Featuring cutting-edge research and keynotes from Jeff Hancock and @angelhwang.bsky.social

Hope you'll submit and share! communication.ucdavis.edu/horizonconf2...

If you don’t have the means to donate, even a quick share would mean the world to my pup & I. ❤️‍🩹 Ninook lost her ability to walk this weekend, but a simple (yet expensive) surgery can restore it. I got her when I started this PhD program & she motivates me to finish it. Thank you for your help.

Donate to Help Ninook Walk Again: Emergency TPLO Surgery Needed, organized by Rachael Kee Hi friends, family, and animal lovers everywhere. My name is Rachael… Rachael Kee needs your support for Help Ninook Walk Again: Emergency TPLO Surgery Needed

Hi everyone. A grad in my lab (@rachaelkee.bsky.social) could use your help. Her dog needs surgery. If you can, even a little help goes a long way gofund.me/0ebf78a49

Judge indefinitely bars Trump from fining UC over alleged discrimination The Trump administration demanded UCLA pay $1.2 billion to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus.

The Trump administration demanded UCLA pay $1.2 billion to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus. n.pr/4hYa0pY

Woke up to half a dozen e-learning trainings that are either due or overdue and it makes me wonder what awful things I did in some past life to deserve this

The Coming Out of a Transgender Scientist "I know that I am making the right decision because whenever I think about changing my gender role, I am flooded with feelings of relief."

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

This whole thread owes me royalties for all the bad writing of mine they’re plagiarizing.

seeking contributors for an edited volume

Creating Communication and Media Research Labs This book provides insights from lab directors, guiding you through the process of establishing and managing a successful communication research lab.

The entire book is fantastic! Each chapter offers insights I wish I’d had when I was first starting out. Many thanks to the editors @chadedwards.bsky.social, Autumn Edwards, and Patric R. Spence. And, of course, the contributing authors! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Screen shot of part of a chapter, with the section heading "Future Directions and Advice. The chapter text reads: There exists no shortage of excellent advice on how to run a lab, be a good mentor, or succeed as a trainee. Below we share some resources that we’ve found particularly helpful over the years. At the Helm: Leading Your Laboratory (Barker, 2010) provides a comprehensive overview of managing the day-to-day operations of a lab. When new trainees are considering joining the lab, they are often assigned to read our lab manual and expectations documents. They are also encouraged to read Barres’s (2013) reflection on how to pick a graduate advisor. Incidentally, Barres’s article offers great advice on how to be a graduate advisor (Richard re-reads this article every year). In the same way, Raman (2014) offers excellent advice on how to be an advisee. It is also worth noting that what constitutes a good scientific problem changes over time. What is good for a first year graduate student is quite different from that of a postdoc. The same is true for a fledgling lab compared to a well-established one. Thankfully, Alon (2009) offers expert advice on how to pick a good scientific problem. There is always pressure to find efficiencies, but thinking deeply is rarely efficient and lab meetings are imperfect for facilitating deep discussions. Deep thinking that leads to scientific progress flourishes in dyads (Yanai & Lercher, 2024). Therefore, our lab will continue to prioritize (inefficient but essential) one-on-one meetings between PI and trainee, even if that places an upper limit on our lab size. Finally, and drawing on Schwartz (2008), we recognize that science thrives on embracing our “absolute stupidity”—the kind of ignorance that stems from tackling the unknown and asking questions without immediate answers. We will continue to embrace absolute stupidity and wish the same for you, too.

The chapter contains details about day-to-day operations. But my favorite section is the last: "Future Directions and Advice". We point to key articles that guide the lab's organization, and how we think about a life in science. In short:

Deep thinking is rarely efficient. But that’s the point.

We see mentorship as a two-track system:
1. Shared projects where trainees learn by doing
2. Independent research where trainees develop their own scientific voice

The goal isn’t to make clones. It’s to cultivate independent scientists with their own ideas, strengths, and questions.

Our chapter tells the story of a lab with co-creation at the center.
- Lab created and maintained wiki
- Collaboratively written lab manual
- Shared expectations document (updated annually)
- Co-designed meetings that balance structure and creativity

github.com/cogcommscien...

Cover for the book "Creating Communication and Media Research Labs: A Blueprint for Success". Edited by Chad Edwards, Autumn Edwards, and Patric R. Spence. Published by Palgrave Pivot.

🧵 What does it take to build a small, scrappy, and successful communication neuroscience lab? Our lab, @gongxuanjun.bsky.social, @rachaelkee.bsky.social, Allyson Snyder, Ziyu Zhao, and I put out heads together to answer this question. Here's what we came up with: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Fireworks in LA rn

LA Dodgers logo. White “LA” on a blue background

This game is like I got caught smoking a baseball and now I have to smoke a whole pack of baseball

Stylized illustration of the Ship of Theseus in the style of ancient Greek pottery. A black longship with white-and-black striped sails glides across a reddish-brown sea. Rows of oars extend from the hull, and several sleek black fish leap alongside the ship.

Twenty years of edits later, my lasagna barely resembles my mother-in-law’s original. Philosophically speaking, am I still making _her_ lasagna?

This is a great NPR piece for anyone looking for quick, science-based tips on how to build a healthier relationship with media.
Fantastic work by @richardhuskey.bsky.social @aeden.bsky.social and Robin Nabi !
#psychsky #healthymedia

We say we want uplifting media, but our revealed preferences tell another story. We often pick darker, more intense content. This @npr.org piece covers our lab’s research on why, and includes great advice from @aeden.bsky.social on building intentional media habits.

🆕 New open neuroimaging dataset released!

I’m happy to share that our Naturalistic Neuroimaging Database (NNDb3T+) is now publicly available! NNDb3T+ captures rich, multimodal brain activity in a naturalistic setting with 40 participants and over 160 hours of scanning!

You're telling me a DESK rejected this paper?

Tired: mindfulness

Wired:

youtu.be/vxiVYEjp0Ww?...