Oscar Lecuona

we have gone from a world in which we were told not to cite wikipedia because it was unreliable to a world where wikipedia might be the only reliable source left on the internet and we all owe a lot to the pedantic nerds who got us there

Introduction to the ERSP special issue on “Reflections on social-psychological theorizing and the state of our field” Published in European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 36, No. 2, 2025)

"Progress in theorising means treating our theories as works in progress in need of continuous improvement, and this sometimes also means having to kill one’s darlings."

Martijn van Zomeren and @ayseuskul.bsky.social introduce the ERSP special issue on theorizing in social psychology.

#SocialPsyc

screenshot of a The Economist post that reads: "A recent study found that children who transitioned young retained stable gender identities over time. But the fact that nearly a fifth of those in the group did not ought to give advocates of irreversible medical interventions pause". the byline of the linked to article says "a study finds that one in five who switch gender change their mind"

many ppl highlighting flaws in this article. but having fought in the "80% desistance" wars of the mid-2010s, I remember asking anti-trans activists if they'd be ok if 80% of youth were helped by gender-affirming care (flipping their argument). & they *never* answered. b/c they want *zero* trans ppl

Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

2 years ago today

Colleague added an open-access full-text + paper database in the same file, easy access to the full information:

Link here:

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Full text link: iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Open science link: osf.io/75zdr/

Congrats to the team and the enormous amount of work!

Some figures illustrating volume of literature by each strength. Perspective/mindfulness has the strongest ratio of survival, while kindness and gratitude have the most raw volume of RCTs.

Key findings: Yeah, there is some robust evidence on that, for perspective/mindfulness, gratitude, kindness, hope, and humor. The rest do not have enough quality.
In general, literature must improve on methods, well-being needs to be measured more and better (more eudaimonic measurements please)

A synthesis of RCTs on psychological interventions fostering strengths and virtues: Evidence from 21 systematic reviews Research on mental health advocates the cultivation of character strengths to enhance well-being. Existing meta-analyses support positive correlations between strengths and well-being, and an increas...

We got published! We synthesized 21 systematic reviews of RCTs testing of interventions can impact character strengths and well-being. Almost 62k abstracts screened and immense work!
doi.org/10.1111/aphw...

What is replication? What is replication? This Perspective article proposes that the answer shifts the conception of replication from a boring, uncreative, housekeeping activity to an exciting, generative, vital contribut...

The distinction has been around for 5/6 years, along with direct/exact reps and systematic reps. Further reading: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

My take: Balance generalizability and replicability. Conceptuals maximize the first at the cost of the second, exacts do the opposite

What about conceptual replication?

That's the thing, been saying this in mindfulness research a lot. Getting a low/med/high or better/meh/worse is basically mapping a continuous thing obscured as discrete, but people desperately want "person-based" and "personalized" thingies

The peer-review crisis: how to fix an overloaded system Journals and funders are trying to boost the speed and effectiveness of review processes that are under strain.

A wide-ranging Nature News article on developments in peer review. Like we mentioned in our billion-dollar donation article (link.springer.com/article/10.1...), I think peer review should be opened up via more post-publication (preprinting) review and smaller checks, www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Tech fascism, like the tech libertarianism that birthed it, specializes in hijacking left-wing ideals, repackaging them as right-wing ideology, and selling the resulting sludge as “moderate/centrist/common sense.”

The roots of this go very deep. Keep an eye out!

5 Graphics Explain the Climate-Fire Feedback Loop Climate change is making forest fires worse, and vice-versa — creating a vicious "climate-fire feedback loop" that has helped fuel record burns in recent years.

🌲🧯Forest fires are increasing. Does climate change play a role?

The short answer? Yes, it does.

The hotter, drier conditions create the vicious "climate-fire feedback loop," leading to more devastating and frequent fires. Get the long answer👉 go.wri.org/climate-fire-loop-bs

DON'T PANIIKK 😱

A veces desde la psicología no podemos evitar mirar con cierta ternura a los economistas tradicionales, los del Homo economicus, la racionalidad y la maximización del beneficio.
Nosotros sabemos que el ser humano a veces toma decisiones irracionales, o es solidario, o cortoplacista...

Nice to see some commentary on the recent @theguardian.com piece by @iansample.bsky.social on #SciPub #AcademicPublishing #OpenAccess #ACADEMICsky

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Quality of scientific papers questioned as academics ‘overwhelmed’ by the millions published Widespread mockery of AI-generated rat with giant penis in one paper brings problem to public attention

Hanson believes the problem is not open access & APCs per se, but for-profit publishers that seek to publish as many papers as possible... the strain on academic publishing could be substantially alleviated if funding agencies stipulated... work they support must be published in non-profit journals.

Thanks to my colleagues
@guidobcor.bsky.social
@angulobrunet.bsky.social
Eduardo García-Garzón!

Nos publican!

Un artículo divulgativo sobre la crisis de replicación y la revolución de credibilidad, buen material para iniciarse!

doi.org/10.5944/ap.2...

Taking on dissemination of the #credibilityrevolution we created this educational paper for Spanish-speaking audiences

Poder ser =! Es en todo. Tener partes horribles no invalida el conjunto, como en cualquier disciplina humana, el abolicionismo también

Ya que estamos mejor abolir la física por las bombas nucleares, y la genética por la eugenesia. Ah no, que a esos no hay estupidez suficiente para toserles.

Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations Would you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Ad…

Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations
retractionwatch.com/2025/06/30/s...

Alt text: A screenshot of an article excerpt reporting on Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s Evin prison, which killed 79 people and destroyed parts of the facility. The text states that about 100 transgender inmates are missing and presumed dead after their section of the prison was flattened. Reza Shafakhah, a human rights lawyer, says the Iranian government often treats being transgender as a crime. It also mentions the death of the prison’s chief prosecutor, Ali Ghanaatkar, and one of his deputies.

Israel bombed an Evin, an Iranian prison that housed dissidents and political prisoners. They ended up destroying the trans wing and murdering over 100 trans people incarcerated there, many for simply being queer in Iran.

This is unspeakable evil.

archive.ph/PA2n5

Inside the scandal that rocked behavioural science – and paved the way for revolution Five years after a widely revered study was debunked as totally bogus, Helen Coffey asks the experts whether trust in the sexiest branch of science has been irrevocably eroded – and how to discern bet...

Nice, ultimately hopeful, article on the flawed field of behavioural science, with some pretty big clues about why the field has such problems: “A whole strata of academics became akin to rock stars thanks to their ability to explain why humans behaved the way they did”

Glad to announce I hung out with @dtcooper.bsky.social to talk about our little BDSM study (59:49)! Thanks for having me podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...