mark brandt

Stop giving them ideas!

Cover page for the manuscript: Morey, R. D., & Davis-Stober, C. P. (2025). On the poor statistical properties of the P-curve meta-analytic procedure. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2025.2544397

Abstract for the paper: The P-curve (Simonsohn, Nelson, & Simmons, 2014; Simonsohn, Simmons, & Nelson, 2015) is a widely-used suite of meta-analytic tests advertised for detecting problems in sets of studies. They are based on nonparametric combinations of p values (e.g., Marden, 1985) across significant (p < .05) studies and are variously claimed to detect “evidential value”, “lack of evidential value”, and “left skew” in p values. We show that these tests do not have the properties ascribed to them. Moreover, they fail basic desiderata for tests, including admissibility and monotonicity. In light of these serious problems, we recommend against the use of the P-curve tests.

Paper drop, for anyone interested in #metascience, #statistics, or #metaanalysis! @clintin.bsky.social and I show in a new paper in JASA that the P-curve, a popular forensic meta-analysis method, has deeply undesirable statistical properties. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/?

As a person trained by psychologists, this sort of rhetorical move seems like a way of talking about psychology without actually needing to engage with psychology

(I’m sure psychologists have their own version of this to avoid engaging with sociology)

I believe that Stapel went from postdoc to full professor

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diederi...

bourdieu reacting to Godard, saying: "How annoying. It's beautiful but I don't understand a thing."

I got inspired by a recent debate in the ASR on "religious habitus," so I'd like to call all fellow cultural sociologists to cancel the word habitus.

Let’s Cancel Habitus Before It Explains Something Else
tkeskinturk.github.io/blog/habitus

Women advocates and men critics: How referees' gender influences candidates' likelihood of receiving a promotion External review letters (ERLs) play a critical role in the promotion and tenure (P&T) process. However, recently, scholars have questioned their valid…

Saw this interesting/ concerning paper on LinkedIn about P&T letters: "we find that - controlling for school, discipline, scholarly productivity, and demographics - candidates with a higher proportion of women letter writers (i.e., lower proportion of men) have more positive P&T outcomes."

The Effects of Voting by Mail on Correct Voting - Political Behavior The share of Americans voting by mail surged in 2020. For those casting a mail-in ballot, their voting experience was different from those who voted in-person. When voting by mail, people can make the...

Just out at @polbehavior.bsky.social w/Carey Stapleton:

Voting by mail has the upside of boosting correct voting.

When people vote by mail rather than in-person, they are more likely to choose the presidential candidate best aligned with their preferences.

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

And Published!!!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The Moral Dilution effect. Including non-diagnostic (irrelevant) information leads to less extreme evaluations of moral character.

I’d even speculate that near distinctions between any of these fields falls down with any kind of scrutiny

🚨Pre-print alert🚨

Research shows citizens in many Western democracies are increasingly affectively polarized––they feel warm toward their own party but quite cold toward opposing parties.

But how does it feel to “feel warmly”?
@katharinalawall.bsky.social, @mtsakiris.bsky.social & I asked.
🧵1/8

salt air...
new issue to explore
i've never needed anything more

the august issue of political psychology is out now featuring ten original articles and a book review. check out the table of contents for more: buff.ly/fwpNtEo

😱gust is here, too soon. If you're teaching a class on racial inequality, policing, and/or institutions, I have a teaching guide on institutional interactions with readings, resources, and a sample syllabus to take the edge off.

Similar vibes for the role of stupidity in scientific research

web.stanford.edu/~fukamit/sch...

JOB ADVERTISEMENT-POSSIBILITÉ D’EMPLOI
#CPSA_ACSPJobs
🔴Assist Prof T🛤️International Politics
⏰Sept 30 2025
👉 conta.cc/3ITElIW
@raulpachecovega.bsky.social
#polisci
@csnrec.bsky.social
#cdnpoli
#PoliSciTwitter
@jonathanmalloy.bsky.social
@emmettmacfarlane.com

that is anti-social behavior...

I guess it's not obvious to me that, beyond .05, there would even be a threshold at this point in the p-distribution unless researchers were well calibrated on p-hacking and readers were well calibrated about getting excited about surprising-yet-p-hacked findings. 🤷

(or whatever that bin width is)

The sharp decrease at .045 makes me think something else is going on. Is online attention so precisely calibrated to p's [.046, .05]? That seems unlikely to me.

The last of our book reviews in our June issue is a piece by Kay Lehman Schlozman. In the article, Schlozman reviews Muirhead & Rosenblum's Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos. Read the full piece online: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

☝️💯

Given Ishmael's interests, a rare event approach might be warranted arxiv.org/html/2309.11...

Faculty (UWOFA) Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

FYI: Western University is hiring three assistant professors from these two ads: www.uwo.ca/facultyrelat...

The second book review from our June issue covers Orla T. Muldoon's The Social Psychology of Trauma. University of Lausanne scholars Eva G.T. Green & Christian Staerklé take a look at how Muldoon's book reframes trauma as a fundamentally social and political process. doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Great work by my friend and colleague, @abbycassario.bsky.social!

Screenshot of study abstract titled “Does threat increase conservatism?” summarizing three large U.S. experiments (Ns = 1000, 889, 843) testing threat effects on ideology. Despite successful threat manipulations, no effects are found on conservatism or personality × threat interactions. Concludes field should move beyond threat-based explanations.

Bar plots from three studies testing effects of threat on ideology. Each plot shows coefficient estimates for two threat conditions vs. control across ideological outcomes. Study 1 shows null effects on global ideology, healthcare, and economic policy. Study 2 adds measures like Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), also showing no threat effects. Study 3 adds race threat and race policy; again, no consistent significant effects.

Two panels of coefficient plots from Studies 2 and 3 showing threat effects on specific policy attitudes (e.g., abortion, immigration, guns). Each dot represents a treatment effect estimate vs. control. Across dozens of items, no consistent ideological shifts emerge in response to unemployment, healthcare, or race threats.

Interaction plots from all three studies testing if personality (openness, conscientiousness) moderates threat effects on ideology. Across economic, global, and healthcare ideology—as well as RWA and SDO—no consistent threat × personality interactions emerge. One weak effect in Study 2 flagged for negative bias, but generally null.

Experimental manipulation of threat exposure has a null effect on ideological conservatism, finds @abbycassario.bsky.social
et al. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Psych Academic Job Market Slack Interest Form

(please share widely!) With the start of August quickly approaching, I wanted to announce that the usual slack for fellow people on the Psych Academic Job Market for the coming cycle has been activated. If you are interested, feel free to fill out this form to join!
forms.gle/2DBgs8S1fktS...

The June 2025 special issue of Social Cognition -- Tutorials on Novel Methods and Analyses in Social Cognition, Part 1 -- was guest edited by Jimmy Calanchini, Juliane Degner, and Colin Smith, with support from Bertram Gawronski.

The introduction is linked here: doi.org/10.1521/soco....

Attending SISSP was an amazing experience! Special thanks to @theklamorgenroth.bsky.social @mjbsp.bsky.social for leading the Politics & Gender course. Also thanks to all of the professors that made this experience possible. I can’t wait to see everyone at @spspnews.bsky.social! <3

We have three book reviews to round out our June issue article spotlight. Up first is Carrie Menkel-Meadow's review of Hope Amidst Conflict by Oded Adomi Leshem. Read for the perspective of the award-winning scholar of alternative dispute resolution on Leshem's book doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Thanks, Michael! Thanks to my co-chair Shige Oishe for help with planning; the SISPP committee @proftracy.bsky.social , @mocraig.bsky.social, Niall Bolger,& Arianne Eason; and of course Rachel Puffer at @spspnews.bsky.social for her leadership! It took a village & years to plan this fantastic event.