Jay Van Bavel, PhD

This is what state censorship looks like:

I'm a big fan of embedding pro-social design principles in technology.

We have found that adding a "misleading count" button to a social media platform reduces the likelihood people will share false information by 25%

We could make healthier technology: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Algorithmic content on X increases #polarization

But downranking content that expresses partisan animosity or antidemocratic attitudes significantly reduces affective polarization equivalent "to 3 years of change in United States affective polarization"
www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Everyday wisdom in 30” from @jayvanbavel.bsky.social @davidmcraney.bsky.social
Your attention is your most valuable resource (“pay”) so don’t let others decide how you use it. Scrolling adds up!
No “view from nowhere”, believing is seeing.
Most political content on SM is a tiny minority opinion.

This is bleak.

In countries where students spent a lot of time using devices for leisure during the school day, test scores plummeted between 2012 and 2022. In countries where they spent less time, test scores merely slid. Thus there was a significantly larger decline in scores in the countries where students spent more time using devices for fun during school hours (see Figure 1). 505 500 495 performance mean 490 485 480 475 470 465 460 455 d • Science, less device use • Math, less device use Reading, less device use Science, more device use Reading, more device use Math, more device use 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Figure 1: Scores on standardized tests of math, reading, and science for 15- and 16-year-olds in 36 countries, by low or high use of electronic devices for leisure during the school day. Note: Controlled for GDP per capita. Source: Twenge (2025) using data from PISA.

The global decline in test scores since ~2012 is highly correlated with smartphone penetration

www.generationtechblog.com/p/phones-at-...

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

Check out this recent @nature.com paper reporting a field experiment on X. It shows X's algorithm boosts conservative content and downranks traditional media—shifting users’ views on key issues. Switching to chronological doesn’t reverse the effect. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is abhorrent and repugnant. It’s further evidence of the vile and pernicious nature of these awful platforms. It makes me furious, incendiary with rage. Causes me to fall into deep sadness, melancholy and depression.

More evidence against the idea that misinformation was a moral panic

A social media post from Donald J. Trump on Truth Social, posted 9 minutes ago. The text reads: "Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States:" followed by a link to justthenews.com. Below is a link preview showing the article headline "Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces possible war with U.S." accompanied by a photo from what appears to be an Iranian protest or rally, showing demonstrators holding anti-Trump signs and posters with Persian text.

I am going to need every single person who said that misinformation was a moral panic to feel enough shame and regret that they leave public intellectual life.

Private money cannot replace public funding of science Who should pay for American science? In the current political climate, many are looking to the private sector to compensate for cuts in public funding. At the Harvard School of Public Health—particula...

"Private money cannot replace public funding of science"
Thank you @naomioreskes.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧪 🌊 ⚒️ #scipol

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

The old boys’ club: Epstein and the male scientists around him intentionally shaped the exclusion of women in academia 19thnews.org/2026/02/epst... via @19thnews.org

Martin Nowak gave Epstein "unlimited access", an office, and he visited the campus often, "typically accompanied by young women", after his sex crimes arrest.

Harvard has now placed Nowak on leave pending further investigation. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

I'm getting endless phishing scam emails from fake headhunters.

Is anyone else getting these?

Edward L. Deci, 83, Dies; Found Self-Determination as a Key to Happiness

Edward L. Deci, 83, Dies; Found Self-Determination as a Key to Happiness www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/s...

JOIN us for this year’s Rebecca Morton conference on experimental political science at NYU! March 6-7. We have a great line up of papers and posters!

Program (scroll down) here: wp.nyu.edu/cesspolitica...

Register (no fee) here: nyu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

10 hour study with me at Columbia showing lunch

Her in the library

DHS illegally arrested me please help Text against image of her knees

Columbia student detained today is a day-in-the-life influencer with 100K followers. Her stories right now go from her studying for a Genetics exam in a nicely edited "ten hour study with me at Columbia" video, to a photo of her knees with the caption "dhs illegally arrested me please help"

“Not American Enough" How stereotypes and feelings of status threat can explain why Bad Bunny’s set was so polarizing

“Not American Enough"

We explain why White Americans are seen as "more American" than any other group.

Stereotypes and status threats determine who gets to be seen as truly American. When people feel threatened they shrink the boundaries of inclusion.
www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/bad-bunny-...

Most college students feel a sense of belonging--almost no students feel that they don't belong.

This is true regardless of their politics, race, gender or age group.

But social media and pundits highlight the extreme outliers and make them seem representative. Don't be fooled.
t.co/mrEft32sox

NYU is hiring two postdocs at the Center for Social Media, AI & Politics:
csmapnyu.org/jobs

And a grant manager in Sociology with the Social Science Research Hub:
uscareers-nyu.icims.com/jobs/15327/g...

I'm part of both groups--please share with anyone who is interested!

Excited to see this now published. We unpack how polarization shapes health not just through attitudes, but through group processes and identity-driven decision-making.

Here's a publisher-provided free read-only access link to the paper for those interested: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

More Than Half of Teens Use Chatbots for Schoolwork, Survey Finds

More Than Half of Teens Use Chatbots for Schoolwork

Teenagers think “cheating with A.I. has become a regular feature of student life.”

This is yet another way that technology might be harming the education of young people (or anyone, really)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/t...

🚨🚨 My lab is hiring a Postdoc! 🚨🚨

Postdoc opening in my lab at Harvard Psych (start: Summer/Fall 2026).

We study identity, group dynamics, language, & politics.

Rolling review begins 3/14
Apply: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15806

Please repost + tag folks who might be a good fit! 👇

"If the norms changed so that hiring and promotion hinged on a candidate’s top two or three papers instead, then researchers’ incentives would change and the pressure on peer reviewers would diminish."

People significantly overestimate the social costs of changing their beliefs.

Partisans self censor and suppress dissent to avoid appearing disloyal and facing social punishment.

Reminding them of prior group loyalty can open them to changing their beliefs pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41627338/

"The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life" - Carl Jung

Fair enough. At a minimum it would include "reduced access in the classroom".

But large teacher surveys, at least, report that “strict storage rules,” such as requiring students to leave phones in hallway lockers or Yondr pouches, led to better outcomes. www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

Here are the effects of #smartphone free schools:

There are numerous modest benefits on psychological wellbeing, academic performance, and bullying--especially for low SES students.

Does this make you more or less likely to support removing smartphones from schools?
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The northeast blizzard ain't stopping us!

You won't want to miss the Moral Psychology Pre-conference at @spspnews.bsky.social in Chicago this week! It should be an incredible day of sharing research and networking. Hope to see you there.

We live in the age of self-declared gurus & influencers.

They use obscure language to appear profound, even when they are often just spewing bullshit.

"Even if...statements remain hopelessly opaque, readers may take their very opacity as evidence of their depth."
www.dan.sperber.fr/wp-content/u...