@wnmerrell.bsky.social
Postdoc at the Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination (Aarhus University) Psychology of resource management, infectious disease, and social hierarchy Formerly: University of Michigan, Macalester College
π POSTDOC CALL π
Join the experimental-philosophical research project "Paternalism and Discrimination: Moral Dilemmas in Combatting Group Inequalities" funded by Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond.
Application deadline: 1 March 2026
international.au.dk/about/profil...
New paper in @pnas.org: www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Coupling surveys of ~8% of the adult Danish population & results of 123 million covid-tests, we show that psychological feelings of coping lowered infection risk. Feelings of fear did not.
Authorities should empower people, not scare them.
Very happy to see our ice-fishing paper on the cover of @science.org this week! π£π
We tracked large groups of Finnish competitive ice-fishers to study how social foragers use social information when searching for resources. π
Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (contact me for open access)
Help recognize people who have gone above and beyond in communicating and countering misinformation about human evolutionary science by nominating them for the 2026 Evolution in the Public Eye award! Self-nominations allowed too. Deadline extended until February 7th! forms.gle/VXJgczHA1irD...
27.01.2026 21:26 β π 4 π 6 π¬ 0 π 1
How do resource fears (realistic threat) vs. value clashes (symbolic threat) drive war & peace?
We built a virtual society of 25 autonomous agents using the Park et al. (2023) framework to find out, using a "minimal groups" paradigm (Group A vs. B).
But first, we looked under the hood. π§
π¨ 3-Year Postdoc in Political Science at Aarhus University π¨
Iβm seeking to recruit a postdoc for my @erc.europa.eu research project π¬πΈπΌπ°π³π°π©πΉπ°πΌπ΄ on state-citizen interactions.
Link and more information in second post.
Position Start: Fall 2026
Application Deadline: βΌοΈ February 5, 2026, 23:59 CET βΌοΈ
New preprint with @alexgalvezpol.bsky.social, Sohee Park & @mtsakiris.bsky.social :
π osf.io/preprints/ps...
Key takeaways:
π¨ Political emotions create distinct embodied signatures
βοΈ These bodily patterns shift with ideology.
π³οΈ The embodied impact of political emotions predicts participation
I am hiring a postdoc for a DFF-funded project on social influence, and the decision processes that fuel rich-get-richer dynamics in the online/offline world. The position is for up to a year, competitive Danish salary, remote work possible. Interested or know somebody? DM me or share!
01.12.2025 08:29 β π 18 π 24 π¬ 1 π 0
Four (!) three-year postdoc positions available at @au.dk: international.au.dk/about/profil...
Join an incredible team & help understand the psychological & political implications of the clash between high-speed society & slow-speed democracy.
Please share! @tboeggild.bsky.social can help with Qs
iconic scene from Grey's Anatomy. Meredith Grey in scrub telling Derek "so pick me, choose me, love me"
On election day, I wanna announce that I am recruiting social psych PhD students for my lab at UIC. My lab focuses on racial identities (esp Asian, Latino, MENA Americans) and intra-minority conflict/ coalition. So please tell your students to pick me! All details on my website: www.pbandjlab.com
04.11.2025 15:17 β π 48 π 35 π¬ 1 π 1
We think this adds nuance to the relationship between social perception + hierarchy regulation, showing that shared imagery of resource possession exists across ideological lines.
Co-led with Lei Fan, alongside @jsskeffington.bsky.social and Lotte Thomsen.
Full paper here: doi.org/10.1177/0146...
Left panel showing attitudes of egalitarian vs. anti-egalitarian participants towards poor people. Right panel showing evaluations of egalitarian-generated and anti-egalitarian-generated faces from the reverse correlation procedure.
Despite clear ideological differences in stated attitudes toward poor people (left panel), egalitarians and anti-egalitarians generated strikingly similar mental images.
β’ Objectively: high pixel-wise similarity
β’ Subjectively: no difference in evaluations by independent raters (right panel)
Two sets of faces bounded by a green box (left) and a red box (right). Faces in the left, green box were generated by egalitarians, faces in the right, red box were generated by anti-egalitarians
New work on resource possession + hierarchy regulation!
Do the faces on the left and right look different to you?
They were generated using a reverse correlation task by UK ps asked to visualize βpoor peopleβ:
π© Generated by egalitarians (low SDO)
π₯ Generated by anti-egalitarians (high SDO)
Iβm recruiting #PhD students to join my Lab for Infant Learning and Cognition (LILAC) at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social! We study how infants learn about the natural world from others π± If youβre interested in #devpsych, #EvPsych, and #infantstudies, please reach out and apply! More info below (1/2)
27.10.2025 16:22 β π 24 π 15 π¬ 1 π 2
I will be reviewing graduate student applications in the Social Psychology Area at Miami University for the 2025β2026 application cycle (Ph.D. start date: Fall 2026).
Learn more about the Affective Science & Psychophysiology Lab and how to apply on the βJoin Usβ tab at www.darwinguevarra.com
Kicking off #SESP2025 in Lisbon by co-chairing (with Julia Buzan) a symposium bright and early Friday morning!
Come by Roma I at 8:30am to hear about new work on resource ecologies, behavior, and intergroup relations from Julia, @dedreu.bsky.social, Oliver Sng, and me.
π¨New paper led by Lei Fan, with Florian van Leeuwen, @hirotakaimada.bsky.social, and @joshtybur.bsky.social, out in Cognition & Emotion:
π doi.org/10.1080/0269...
In two preregistered studies from Japan π―π΅ , we find that anger relates to confrontation while disgust to gossip and social exclusion.
If you could win a prize by guessing the number on a die π² hidden under a cup, would you want to guess before the die was rolled, or after?
The odds of winning are the same in both, but they can feel different. π§΅
New paper accepted at JEP:G with @sakierahudson.bsky.social, Brandon Kinsler, & former students Ian Davis and Alissa Vandenbark!
Come for the opening Aladdin quote, stay for a developmental perspective on SDO!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
New from @ara-eunkyung.bsky.social + me: social psychologists are often interested in space, but have to choose between abstractions at high levels of geography or images taken with limited geographic scope. We identify a tool to sample space at scale: mapping platforms, such as Google Street View.
07.07.2025 15:42 β π 11 π 6 π¬ 2 π 0
Just found out I can put this gif on my lab website so this is gonna be a game changer π Anyway I will be reviewing PhD applications for UIC social-personality psych area to start in Fall 2026, so please let your students know. More info on my website: www.pbandjlab.com/team
03.07.2025 15:26 β π 40 π 14 π¬ 1 π 0
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:
CEPDISCβ25 Conference on Discrimination
September 24-26, 2025
Horsens, Denmark
The conference brings together researchers working on discrimination from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.
Deadline for abstract submission is 15 May.
See the website for more info:
So, conspicuous experiences may offer "the best of both worlds" when it comes to signaling status and warmth as long as they are seen as intrinsically motivated.
For more info on these studies (and two additional ones), please see the full paper here: doi.org/10.1177/0146... (7/7)
Figure depicting the effect described in the text.
When no motivation was given, conspicuous experiences were assumed to be more intrinsically motivated and judged as warmer (panel A).
But when this flipped (e.g., extrinsically motivated vacations, intrinsically motivated jewelry), the warmth advantage disappeared and even reversed (panel C). (6/7)
Example conspicuous experiential social media profile
Example conspicuous material social media profile
Why does this experiential warmth advantage exist? A key factor was perceived motivation.
In another study, participants saw profiles representing either experiential or material purchases accompanied by intrinsic (βfor meβ) or extrinsic (βto impressβ) purchase motivations (or none at all). (5/7)
Example stimuli including pictures showing a coastal vacation, fancy breakfast, gold watch, and designer sweatshirt.
Figure depicting the effect described in the text.
In one study, we scraped Instagram posts tagged with experiential and material hashtags (see examples below).
Participants saw conspicuous experiential consumers as equally high statusβbut significantly higher warmthβthan conspicuous material consumers. (4/7)
Compared to material goods, experiences have distinct features: they're temporary, harder to compare, and often seen as more intrinsically motivated.
So we asked: do conspicuous experiences provide a similar social signal to material goods, or do they offer distinct costs/benefits? (3/7)
Most research on conspicuous consumptionβspending that signals statusβfocuses on material goods ππβ. These β¬οΈ status perceptions but often β¬οΈ warmth.
But what about conspicuous experiential purchasesβthings like international travelβοΈ, exclusive concertsπ«, and fine diningπ? (2/7)
Screenshotted title and abstract from this paper: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251331658
From fancy cars π to luxury vacations ποΈ, people often show off how they spend their money.
In new work with @joshackman.bsky.social, we find that how this flashy behavior is perceived depends on WHAT purchases are being shown off.
π§΅on conspicuous consumption, experiences, and status signals (1/7)
π¨New articleπ¨
Why does the ethnic majority expect that ethnic minorities "free ride" and contribute less to the collective?
In a new article in @bjpols.bsky.social, I show that negative expectations are driven by the correlates of ethnicity rather than ethnicity itself π§΅π
OA-link: cup.org/4lOX7jN