Dr. Lotte Pummerer

I can see how this sometimes might save costs (then again not being able to assess one‘s own knowledge of things also comes with costs), but it has nothing to do with going with the crowds. More infos on the design and metacognitive sensitivity included in the paper.

Always wise to do ;) Here is the same page in partly English/partly German (glitch on their side?). Blue left button says accept all, right blue reject all, white button = settings. Page should open even if you reject cookies.

I saw the same page in English (asking for cookies) - maybe differences somehow in browser/location/settings?

I will not miss the train rides to Bremen, but am thankful for the experiences at the social and work psychology lab there with @nadirafaber.bsky.social and team.

Further interesting is the fact that this relation is weaker and not always found regarding conspiracy mentality, suggesting different cognitive underpinnings.

In the studies, we find that belief in conspiracy theories such as Apollo moonlanding or those surrounding vaccinations are related to lower metacognitive sensitivity, thus, a lower ability to assess one's own knowledge - the latter measured with items totally unrelated to conspiracy theories.

“Knowing what I don’t know” – belief in conspiracy theories relates to lower metacognitive sensitivity: a signal detection theoretic approach Beliefs in conspiracy theories are seemingly hard to dispute through facts. Researchers have partly attributed this resistance to certain information processing styles that are associated with cons...

Why are some people more prone to believe in conspiracy theories? Part of the answer may lie in metacognition, i.e., the ability to correctly estimate one's own knowledge about topics.
-> New paper with @kwinter.bsky.social, @kaisassenberg.bsky.social & Helen Fischer
🔗 doi.org/10.1080/2044...

First news is that I just joined the Uni Mannheim, team of Olga Stavrova. Looking forward to the exchange with colleagues (@publavecziga.bsky.social, @janaberkessel.bsky.social) and the nice research environment with @gesis.org (incl @axburg.bsky.social) and the @mzesunimannheim.bsky.social nearby

After a short social media pause, I’m back — will share a few highlights and reflections from the past months within the next weeks.

New article out in the Journal of Environmental Psychology led by @kwinter.bsky.social (with @lpummerer.bsky.social Matthew Hornsey & Timo von Oertzen) showing that conspiracy mentality and wind farm opposition mutually predict each other over time.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

…and really cool advisors ;)

Very proud to be supervising Paula Wessel (a very talented researcher) and the project on conspiracy beliefs and violence

The presenter, a young women with brown hair, stands in front of the presentation screen

Very excited to listen to Paula Wessel presenting the project by @lpummerer.bsky.social, Nadira Faber, Kevin Winter and myself today @ddc-sdu.bsky.social brown bag lunch series!

Unfollowing toxic social media influencers makes people less hostile!
In 2 experiments, we found that unfollowing extreme influencers:
-Reduced partisan animosity by 24%
-Increased satisfaction with X
-Led people to share higher-quality news

Effects lasted for 6+ months.
osf.io/preprints/ps...

6/6 Potential small steps: Get informed & inform others about how science & politics work (don't assume people know or want to polarize!). Resist politicization & the development of mega-identities, cultivate societal dialogue about knowledge structures and norms that bridge (perceived) divides 🌉

Cory Clark, Behavioral Scientist Webpage for Cory Clark, Behavioral Scientist and Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project at University of Pennsylvania. Cory conducts research in political psychology, moral psychology, cogn...

5/6 Yet, people value when institutions stay neutral, even for their own causes (www.coryjclark.com).

4/6 That means, trust in media can decline due to perceptions ab the environment, e.g. through politicization, social media & "mega-identities" (identities merging different aspects of life - @dannagal.bsky.social), independent from fact-checked work of journalists (@jesperstromback.bsky.social).

3/6 Whether knowledge resistance is (ir)rational depends on the epistemic environment, and if reliable information is available or perceived as unreliable (@mbaghramian.bsky.social).

2/6 Many misconceptions seem not due to ill intentions but (missing) exposure to information - whether about policies and how politics work (@emilythorson.bsky.social) elections (@brendannyhan.bsky.social), or health/windfarm (see our work here: doi.org/10.47368/ejh...; doi.org/10.1038/s415...)

1/6 Just coming back from the interdisciplinary conference on "Perspectives on Knowledge Resistance". Cool to see how perspectives from philosophy, pol science, comm science & psychology compliment each other - esp when reaching similar conclusions from different angles 🧵

New paper out, led by Kevin Winter, with @kaisassenberg.bsky.social and Matthew Hornsey on believing misinformation about wind farms. Biggest predictor is not education and science knowledge, but conspiracy mentality. Over 25% of respondents from US, UK, AUS agree with more than half of statements.

#DGPS2024 with another conspiracy panel for me - in the first talk Lukasz Stasielowicz presents a meta-analysis (n = 60 samples) on interventions against conspiracy beliefs. He disentangled the average positive effects of interventions on reducing conspiracy beliefs

Haben Sie Menschen in Ihrem persönlichen Umfeld, die sich als „Reichsbürger*innen“ oder „Selbstverwalter*innen“ bezeichnen?

Die unten aufgeführte Studie (auch in Deutsch möglich) sucht noch Leute mit entsprechenden Erfahrungen, um bessere Hilfs- und Beratungsangebote zu schaffen.

Is partisan animosity a threat to democracy?

We find that political sectarianism (a blend of othering, aversion, and moralization toward opposing partisans), robustly predicts antidemocratic tendencies. In contrast, affective polarization does not! osf.io/preprints/ps...

The Silenced Text: Field Experiments on Gendered Experiences of Political Participation

TABLE 1. Sample Responses and Response Rates by Category

FIGURE 1. Mean Offensiveness Note: The figure shows the average treatment effect by treatment condition with 95% confidence intervals estimated using ordinary least squares. The comparison category is the ambiguous name condition.

FIGURE 2. Mean Silencing Note: The figure shows the average treatment effect by treatment condition with 95% confidence intervals estimated using ordinary least squares. The comparison category is the ambiguous name condition.

When people receive political campaign text messages from female-named volunteers, they are more offensive and silencing, but they are more likely to respond and agree to the ask, finds @alanyan.bsky.social @rivb.bsky.social in a great field experiment doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Dort gibt es auch noch viele weitere gute Artikel über die Psychologie der Klimakrise, z.B. der von @markuskl.bsky.social und Lara Ditrich darüber, wie Emotionen in Bezug auf den Klimawandel wie Sorge, Ärger, Hoffnung und Stolz mit Verhalten zusammenhängen.
de.in-mind.org/article/sorg...

Verschwörungstheorien behindern nicht nur Maßnahmen bei Pandemien, sondern auch die Energiewende. @kwinter.bsky.social und ich haben dazu einen Überblicksartikel im in-mind Magazin (@de.in-mind.org) geschrieben, editiert von @wilhelmhofmann.bsky.social und HLandmann

de.in-mind.org/article/der-...

New work with @rolandimhoff.bsky.social! ✨Victim groups have every right to reject an apology. However, if they do, it may impact their morality & power in the eyes of third parties, which is related to the support they receive. Now accepted at JPSP: IRGP. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Buchcover "Psychologie der Verschwörungstheorien"

Der Band "Psychologie der Verschwörungstheorien" ist fertig und vor einer Woche erschienen - Hurra! Ich als Herausgeber habe Exemplare, von denen ich drei gerne verschenke. Unter allen Reposts lose ich drei aus (wenn es mehr als drei sind) und schicke Euch das Buch per Post. Nur auf bluesky...

Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d)

Postdoc opportunity:
Are you interested in research on bias reduction? Come to work with me in Trier (Germany)! International applications very welcome!!
leibniz-psychology.onlyfy.jobs/job/ki64gegu