Andy Luttrell

Yeah, great question. I was holding out hope that I could stick it to Google and its insistence on AI summaries and sucking pageviews from people's work. But Microsoft really isn't any better, so I finally jumped ship and ditched Bing right before I posted this.

I've been using Bing as my default search engine for two years, and it is truly awful.

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Introducing Mind Games - Opinion Science I'm excited to share a preview of a new podcast I think you’d enjoy: Mind Games.What if you could hypnotize yourself into a better you? Or.... secretly hypnotize others into giving you anything you wa...

This week on Opinion Science, I shared a preview of another podcast I think you'd enjoy: Mind Games.

It traces the wild story behind a so-called "persuasion technology" built on hypnosis that's been at the center of all kinds of questionable movements.

opinionscipod.buzzsprout.com/981667/episo...

I so appreciate this point.

"Every little thing we learn doesn't have to be about its utility. We can learn for our own enrichment."

www.instagram.com/reel/DSVo2GH...

Thanks!

They will go about reviewing a manuscript as an exercise. The goal is not necessarily to train them to be reviewers at this stage but to highlight how the process works, let them step into the reviewer's perspective on their own work, and generally foster critical thinking tools for research.

Are there good articles to share with students about doing PEER REVIEW? Like, how to be a good reviewer, what the focus on, how to organize your comments?

I'm leading an MA research seminar, and my students have largely not received journal reviews yet, but I want to prep them.

Are we destroying our window to the cosmos? Satellite trails could make space science nearly impossible, say astronomers | BBC Sky at Night Magazine Projected 560,000 satellites could overwhelm future observatories. Astronomers worry satellite trails will mar every view of the Universe.

Elon Musk et al are totally fucking up the night sky ALREADY and they plan to make it worse 🔭

www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/satelli...

What should my students read about OPEN SCIENCE?

I'm teaching the second methods class in our MA sequence, and I want them to understand current best practices in open science and why they matter.

What readings would you assign?

😖

I often see old suitcase record players at thrift shops. Looks like they also make new ones as a good entry-level turntable.

(I feel like I should cop to slightly editing the quote to fit it into the Bluesky character limit, but don't worry about that and just read the article.)

Stop Meeting Students Where They Are What I learned when I finally started assigning the hard reading again.

"...narratives about the 'end of reading' strike me as self-inflicted, the manifestation of a collective depression... The reaction to declining reading skills, poor comprehension & fragmented attention shouldn't be to...compromise but to double down on the cure"

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

In the last episode of Opinion Science, I said I wrote the teaser on a manual typewriter. I have the receipts!

Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?

These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.

So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...

Is there anything about a new online, AI-powered social landscape that radically changes basic human psychology, or is it the same script on a new stage?

I was struck by how much basic behavioral science still has to contribute to contemporary issues. Chatbots might seem like a new frontier, but the psychology that we've understood from decades of "offline" research still provides compelling accounts of how people navigate these technologies.

This month on Opinion Science, I talk with @steverathje.bsky.social about his research on the "psychology of technology." We cover the predictors of what goes viral online and the allure and influence of agreeable AI chatbots.

A couple of years ago, I made these nerdy romantic cards in my basement print shop. I still have a few left for anyone looking to send a message this Valentine's Day, grounded in behavioral science.

indispensableprints.etsy.com/listing/1781...

Check your email!

Cumulative Lifespan Stress, Inflammation, and Racial Disparities in Mortality This cohort study examines whether greater cumulative lifespan stress exposure and elevated inflammation are associated with increased mortality risk among Black compared with White individuals in the...

Thanks! For anyone else looking, here's the study itself:

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I don't subscribe to WaPo. Can anyone link directly to the study this article covers?

I need to count up the reviews I've done in 2025 for university reporting, so I searched my email for the phrase "late review." Found 'em.

It's genuinely astonishing to me the number of people willing to claim with a straight face that this word association tshotchke that didn't exist a few years ago is absolutely necessary for the conduct of science.

I will absolutely steal the descriptor "Word Association Tshotchke." Thanks for that.

I found an old pack of Starburst in a drawer in my office, so it's been a pretty incredible week.

YouTube video by Bored Panda Art Instrument that produces sound in horror movies

www.youtube.com/shorts/Urukx...

It sounds like the soundtrack in a horror movie trailer.

Does this graph surprise you? I'm actually encouraged by the large percentage of U.S. adults who read at least one book each year.

news.gallup.com/poll/388541/...

h/t @mastroianni.bsky.social's Substack for highlighting it.