Sofia Stathi

Online Studies Psychological Science requires that authors who use samples from online data collection include a statement in the Method section explicitly addressing their approach to preventing and detecting automated or AI-generated responses. Rationale As large language models and other generative AI tools become more accessible, the risk of data contamination by non-human respondents has increased dramatically in research. Psychological science (and the social sciences generally) is particularly susceptible to this issue given its growing reliance on online data collection. Preventing automated responses during data collection and detecting them afterward often involve methodological trade-offs. For instance, technical barriers that aim to prevent LLM use (e.g., blocking copy-pasting functionalities) may eliminate behavioral indicators needed for detection (e.g., pasting rather than typing). This policy aims to enhance transparency and reproducibility of reported results by requiring authors to articulate their approach across both prevention and detection dimensions, enabling readers and reviewers to assess the likelihood of reported data being influenced by automated responses. Scope This policy applies to any submission with at least one study that includes data collected online without direct human supervision (e.g., via crowdsourcing platforms, student participants who complete the study online, online recruitment ads, or remote survey distribution tools). Required Reporting Authors must include in the Methods section either: A statement confirming that procedures were in place to prevent and/or detect and exclude automated or AI-generated responses, including a description of those procedures (e.g., explicit participant instructions against LLM use, disabled copy–paste functionality, CAPTCHA use, IP filtering, consistency checks, attention checks, adversarial prompting) as well as the types of automated responses that these procedures are suitable …

Maybe of interest: The submission guidelines of Psychological Science now demand an explicit statement on measures taken to reduce the risk of AI-generated responses for all online studies!

www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

How rightwing rhetoric has risen sharply in the UK parliament – an exclusive visual analysis In the past five years, MPs’ attitudes in the House of Commons towards immigration have swung harder to the right than at almost any other time in the last century

The Guardian/UCL have conducted an in-depth study of all of the immigration debates in parliament over a century. It shows sentiment more mixed, more negative today than in the past. (Though also that parliamentary sentiment historically is more pro than con)
www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...

Quote from man after losing to woman: "She can only beat me if I'm not interested in playing. And subconsciously I wasn't interested today"

#AcademicSky #PrejudiceResearch

Netflix doc The Queen of Chess showcases some Grade A sexism to observe.

(claims women aren't smart enough, don't have "the personality", to win chess!)

But also, male ego-defensiveness par excellence, such as:

🚨 New paper! Think of a place you feel deeply attached to. When you're in that place, do you feel like your life is more meaningful? New work from @ashleykrause.bsky.social suggests you probably do!

Just accepted at Journal of Environmental Psychology, we find places can give our life meaning 🧵

How does cinema shape how we think about migration?

In my new article I analyse 410 films, documentaries & TV series from 1940–2024 to explain how migration is represented on screen.

🧵 1/3

academic.oup.com/migration/ar...

Inspired by The Battle of Lewisham, Y5 have created these powerful collages linked to Art Activism and historical protests. @artteachjess.bsky.social @sophieleach.bsky.social
#PrimaryArt

I couldn’t believe this was a real post from him when I saw it in the news… what a disgrace of a leader.

Last week I had the pleasure to speak at the 2nd International Symposium on Social Legacies of the Games. I presented a social psychological perspective on how to tackle the stigma of disability (and beyond). The discussions with academics, stakeholders and Paralympic athletes were fascinating! 🇮🇹

Greenwich and Kent announce merger to become UK’s first ‘super-university’ Formal approval given for new university group to operate from August, with both institutions keeping their names The universities of Greenwich and Kent have confirmed they have been given formal approval to merge into the UK’s first “super-university”. The merged entity will be the third-largest higher education institution in the UK, the universities said, and is consulting on being named the London and South East University Group. Continue reading...

Greenwich and Kent announce merger to become UK’s first ‘super-university’

Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?

These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.

So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...

UK Culture and Psychology Meeting 2026: Indigenous Knowledges from the Majority World

The meeting will be held on 18-19 June 2026 at the University of Exeter. There is no participation fee. Submission deadline is March 15. More information in the submission link!

exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

You wrote a BA, MA, or PhD thesis in peace psychology, conflict studies, or related fields? Or you know someone who just did?

Consider applying for Gert-Sommer-Preis, an award by the German Peace Psychology association!

Deadline: 31st January, 2026

Details:
www.friedenspsychologie.de?p=1584

Changing Norms Following the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: The Trump Effect on Prejudice Redux Samuel E. Arnold, Jenniffer Wong Chavez, Kelly S. Swanson, and Christian S. Crandall Abstract Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential election of Donald Trump, prejudice toward groups targeted during his campaign (e.g., Asian Americans, Mexicans) become more acceptable. By contrast, both Trump and Clinton voters reported less prejudice of their own. We conducted a 2024 conceptual replication, measuring perceived norms of prejudice and own-prejudice toward 128 groups, both before (N = 362) and after (N = 261) the U.S. election. We separately measured the negativity of Trump's campaign rhetoric toward these groups (N = 188). Levels of prejudice and perceived norms of prejudice acceptability were mostly stable pre-/post-election, but Trump's negative rhetoric predicted an increase in perceived acceptability of prejudice among targeted groups (replicating the 2016 results), and a rise in selt-reported prejudice in the same groups post-election (reversing the 2016 results). Despite changes in the sociopolitical context between elections, the election of a leading politician who campaigned on prejudice was again associated with increases in the acceptability of prejudice.

Did Trump’s 2024 re-election make it okay to be openly prejudiced? New work from @chriscrandall.bsky.social suggests it did. The more negatively Trump spoke about a group, the more okay it became to express prejudice (and the more prejudiced people were) towards that group after the election.

The limits of Brexit prejudice Since the Brexit referendum, two novel political identities, Leaver and Remainer, have gained political salience in the United Kingdom. Some work contends that Leavers and Remainers display great ani....

The paper @florianstoeckel.bsky.social and I wrote showing that Brexit prejudice is a) alive and well and b) manifests in a variety of ways now has a volume and issue number! Open access here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Coming up! iRISE (improving Reproducibility In SciencE) is hosting 3 free virtual train-the-trainer workshops:

2/4: Intro to Reproducibility
🔗 forms.office.com/e/D...

2/18: Preregistration
🔗 forms.office.com/e/r...

3/4: Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in Research
🔗 forms.office.com/e/j...

The Psychology of Crowd Behavior This review describes the social identity approach to crowd behavior. Research based on the social identity approach to crowds has grown significantly in the last 20 years, both quantitatively and qua...

'The Psychology of Crowd Behavior', Annual Review of Psychology

Final, peer-reviewed version now available open access.

Please share.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

TITLE: Privileged representations of peace: Perpetuating systemic violence AUTHORS: Ekin Birdir, Ludwin Molina, canan coşkan ABSTRACT: Privileged representations of peace: Perpetuating systemic violenceEkin Birdir, Ludwin Molina, canan coşkanAbstractSocial psychological research typically focuses on promoting peace between groups in conflict by fostering intergroup harmony through prejudice reduction or advancing social justice through collective action. Unfortunately, these investigations rarely consider the mainstream discursive structures and epistemic engagement that normalize collective ethnic/racial violence. We addressed this gap with two mixed-method (i.e., qualitative and quantitative) studies in two contexts (Turkey and the United States), utilizing decolonial frameworks informed by liberation psychology, critical race theory and privileged ethnic/racial (Turkishness and White racial) contracts. Comparative analysis of meta-representations of peace among Turks (Study 1; N = 116) and White Americans (Study 2; N = 151) exposed the overlapping (i.e., negative peace and reliance on the nation-state order) and divergent (i.e., assimilative inclusion and neoliberal individuality) elements of privileged epistemic engagement with peace that align with Turkishness and White racial contracts, perpetuating collective violence. Furthermore, both Turks' and White Americans' ethnic/racial identity endorsement predicted higher perceptions of the state/military contribution to peace, suggesting the role of racial privilege in maintaining systemic violence. To our knowledge, this work is the first social psychological investigation of the Turkishness contract and the comparative analysis of privileged meta-representations of peace.

📢Fresh article out:

Comparing the White racial contract (Mills) in the U.S. and the Turkishness contract (Ünlü) in Turkey through mixed-methods, Ekin, Ludwin and I exposed how "peace" is used to maintain the status quo rather than achieve justice.

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

“There is a word for this. It is, in my view, fascism.“

Rutger Bregman on Trump and his administration: “It’s really important to understand what this is. Because then we’ll stop being shocked all the time, and we can prepare.”

🧵Women are underrepresented in political leadership worldwide. Why? One contributor: gender gaps in political ambition that emerge in childhood

In new paper, we ask: What predicts kids' political ambition? We studied 367 children (ages 5-11) in the US & China. 1/8

psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/...

Why are Iranian Women Not Being Seen: When Western Feminist Solidarity Becomes Symbolic Silence I am not Iranian. I write from outside the revolution, not over it.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-ir...

Information on public opinion has lasting effects on second-order climate beliefs, but minimal and ephemeral effects on first-order beliefs Across western democracies, pro-climate beliefs are widespread. Yet, vocal minorities contest scientific consensus about global warming. Perhaps as a …

How does information on public opinion on environmental issues shape citizens' opinions? Out and open access with @mbarnfield.bsky.social, @florianstoeckel.bsky.social, @benlyons.bsky.social, @vittoriomerola.bsky.social, and @jasonreifler.bsky.social + others! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Research participants wanted (UK 🇬🇧) I’m recruiting participants for a short online study on perceptions of hate speech, as part of my PhD. ⏱️ Takes around 10 minutes 🎁 Optional prize draw to… | Bor... Research participants wanted (UK 🇬🇧) I’m recruiting participants for a short online study on perceptions of hate speech, as part of my PhD. ⏱️ Takes around 10 minutes 🎁 Optional prize draw to win on...

Please help Bori by participating in her research if you can! Bori needs *British* participants who are 18+, and identify as *non-religious* or *Christian*. Full details on the LinkedIn info below and direct link to the survey 👉 gre.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... www.linkedin.com/posts/borbal...

Research participants wanted (UK 🇬🇧) I’m recruiting participants for a short online study on perceptions of hate speech, as part of my PhD. ⏱️ Takes around 10 minutes 🎁 Optional prize draw to… | Bor... Research participants wanted (UK 🇬🇧) I’m recruiting participants for a short online study on perceptions of hate speech, as part of my PhD. ⏱️ Takes around 10 minutes 🎁 Optional prize draw to win on...

Please help Bori by participating in her research if you can! Bori needs *British* participants who are 18+, and identify as *non-religious* or *Christian*. Full details on the LinkedIn info below and direct link to the survey 👉 gre.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... www.linkedin.com/posts/borbal...

Ahead of 5-year anniversary of Jan. 6, report examines aftermath following Trump's return to office Ahead of the five-year anniversary of Jan. 6, House Democrats are examining the aftermath of the Capitol attack during the first year of President Trump's second term.

According to a new report, 33 of the January 6 rioters Trump pardoned on his first day in office have since been charged, arrested, or convicted of new crimes.

Trump is happy to put criminals back on our streets so long as they are loyal to him.

Alone at Christmas? #joinin is always good.

Every existing problem in survey research is about to look quaint.

As a social psychologist working on intergroup relations, I am very grateful to have the opportunity to explore issues related to (tackling) poverty disadvantage and hostility toward people who are poor. More information about our interdisciplinary EU-funded project 👉 www.gre.ac.uk/articles/pub...

Wow, congratulations Laura!!! What a fantastic achievement!

So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.

Here's what happened:

scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...

Precarious Solidarities: Collective Action during and after disasters Under Authoritarianism or repression | BPS The final instalment of this series, gathering emergency practitioners and researchers in the social psychology field. Time may be subject to change.

The last session in the collective action series hosted by @bps-social-psych.bsky.social and organised by @drselintekin.bsky.social and @merveozturkey.bsky.social is this Thursday 4th Dec 1-3pm GMT.

The webinar is free to attend but registration needed www.bps.org.uk/event/precar...