Mikey Pasek

Loved reading this!!!

We are a secular democracy. If you don't like the freedom of religion, you are welcome to move somewhere else.

In America, you can be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or anything else. It's written into our Constitution. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Get lost with this garbage.

Nearly 6 hours since a GOP congressman said “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” not a single member of Republican leadership in the House will weigh in.

Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles says Muslims ‘don’t belong’ in America The Tennessee Republican recently introduced legislation banning immigration from some Muslim-majority nations.

There is a growing sickness in the Republican Party that spawns this virulent hatred.

Replace 'Muslims' with any other faith & this man would be run out of Congress.

Their tolerance for this bigotry is a cancer in their ranks. Hate, in all its forms, should find no refuge here.

1. New in-press paper on religion's functions, co-authored with amazing lab manager James Nesbit! Full text here, more info in thread below: columbiasamclab.weebly.com/uploads/5/9/....
#AcademicSky #PsychSciSky #SocialPsyc #DevPsyc #CogPsyc @socphilpsych.bsky.social 🧪

I think this deserves at least as much sustained attention from US media as Claudine Gay's dissertation

How do you measure a threat in the air? Testing the universal, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of social identity threat Using the SITC Inventory, social identity threat is shown to be dynamic, multifaceted, and nearly universal.

New paper out in Science Advances! I'm really (really) proud of this one. Let's get into it. doi.org/10.1126/scia...

How to Measure Public Support for Political Violence Abstract. With low but rising levels of violent political threats and violent acts by civilians in the United States, researchers increasingly want to meas

After nearly a decade measuring American public support for political violence, @nathankalmoe.bsky.social and I have published a somewhat comprehensive guide to measuring these attitudes. This includes historical comparisons and responses to common critiques. doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

This is just bonkers, as evangelicals dominate Republican ranks in every branch of government. It shows that these extreme Christian nationalists don't want to just have a voice, they want Dominion

Our lab has a new postdoc position that is ideal for someone interested in a career in data science or statistical consulting and an interest in gender diversity / trans health. apply.interfolio.com/182278

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Kristi Noem.

We are deeply concerned by reports that military commanders are framing the Iran war as “God’s plan” and invoking Armageddon in official briefings.

Service members swear an oath to the Constitution — not to any religion.

We are reviewing these reports and will demand accountability.

And, quick plug for Elon University undergraduate student Dani Rudd’s poster on a theoretical approach to thinking about authenticity in human-AI relations. This is Dani’s first #SPSP2026. She was in my Careers in Psychology class last Fall and is looking at PhD programs and lab manager positions!

In the #SPSP2026 symposium she chaired, @abbycassario.bsky.social presented work investigating how attitudes get pulled into the moral domain; while prior explanations have focused on emotions and intra-attitudinal features, she suggested researchers should also consider *inter*-attitude structures.

Interesting research presented by Zarnab Zahoor at #SPSP2026 found that across 9 democracies (7 Christian-majority, 1 Hindu-majority, and 1 Jewish-majority), all samples showed a positive association between religious nationalism and conservatism (this effect was especially pronounced in the U.S.).

No justification, no authorization from Congress, and no clear objective.

But none of that matters to Donald Trump — and apparently neither do the safety and lives of American service members.

An official accounting of Trump’s golf and customer service time It remains the case that President Trump doesn't particularly seem to like the White House. During his first time in office, there was reporting to this effect; in 2017, he allegedly told members of h...

If you're curious: Yes, of course Trump is at Mar-a-Lago as his unilateral war kicks off. www.pbump.net/o/an-officia...

In the past, sometimes presidents have said it’s just a military operation or limited airstrikes to skirt Congress. Trump has unilaterally launched major combat operations, declaring war with the goal of regime change. A major violation of the U.S. Constitution, also illegal under international law

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...

“Some have even argued that private funding is superior, maintaining that it is more flexible, less prone to groupthink, and reduces the “burden” on taxpayers. But can the private sector really replace public funding? History suggests not”

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Opinion | Why Trump’s using Charlie Kirk’s legacy to claim Americans are getting more religious Philip Bump: How we know Charlie Kirk didn't spark a religious revival

At SOTU, Trump claimed that young men were becoming more religious because of Charlie Kirk. There's no evidence they are, and certainly not because of him. So why say it?
www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

Congratulations!!!!!

Online opt-in surveys also find recent religious resurgence among U.S. young adults While this analysis focuses on claims of religious revival among young adults in the U.K., some opt-in surveys have pointed to a similar trend in the United States. Barna Group, a research organization serving Christian leaders, has used online opt-in survey data to make claims of rising churchgoing among young adults in the U.S. According to Barna, “Since 2019, both Gen Z and Millennials were the least likely generation to frequently attend church. Today, they are the most engaged.” However, surveys from Pew Research Center using random samples show no clear evidence of a religious revival among young adults. Nor is there clear evidence of religious revival in two other surveys based on random samples conducted by other organizations: the General Social Survey and the American Time Use Survey.

Is there a revival of churchgoing among US young adults? According to
Opt-in online polls: Yes
Surveys using random samples of the population: No
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/01/23/has-there-been-a-christian-revival-among-young-adults-in-the-uk-recent-surveys-may-be-misleading/

How to stop a dictator I spent months studying how authoritarians like Trump lose. The answer is shockingly simple.

I have spent the past several months studying the cutting-edge research on modern democracies that have defeated authoritarian leaders.

I've learned that the conventional wisdom on the topic is wrong — in ways that have clear implications for the US going forward

THREAD www.vox.com/politics/479...

It’s the first year I can remember that I chose not to even try watching the State of the Union.

Attending @spspnews.bsky.social ews.bsky.social in our home city of Chicago this coming week? Be sure to check out the cool work being done by members of our lab, including postdoc @ncaluori.bsky.social, grad students @marykatz.bsky.social & Zarnab Zahoor, and undergrad Yahel Tirosh!

New preprint with @jayvanbavel.bsky.social: Novel social identities shape belief in true and false information

In 3 exps (N = 1,459) we randomly assigned people to one of two novel groups. People trusted (and then believed claims more from) their in-group

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

PRRI new data: 70% of Christian nationalist adherents approve of concentration camps for immigrants can be held until deportation.

Musk advocates white monoculturalism

We must speak plainly about the agenda Elon Musk & other MAGA leaders are pushing. It’s white nationalism.

There’s no room for Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native, Jewish or all other Americans in Musk’s monocultural vision.

Multiculturalism is superior. We can’t allow Musk & others to end it.

Trump and his goons pushed out (or didn't replace) more than 10,000 federal government STEM Ph.D.s since he took office, representing 106,636 years of federal work experience. www.science.org/content/arti...

Anti-vaccine sentiment is going to kill and impoverish quality of life not only in the U.S., but the world.