@mikeypasek.bsky.social
Assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago. I study identity-based division and how to reduce it, with a focus on ethno-religious conflict. Cinnabon enthusiast. michaelhpasek.com
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!
28.02.2026 19:23 — 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0In 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.
02.03.2026 00:54 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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.).
01.03.2026 22:59 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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.
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...
28.02.2026 14:14 — 👍 427 🔁 121 💬 23 📌 5
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
28.02.2026 08:46 — 👍 6570 🔁 2213 💬 256 📌 165
“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/...
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!!!!!
25.02.2026 14:49 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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/
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.
25.02.2026 03:37 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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!
21.02.2026 14:24 — 👍 10 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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.
17.02.2026 19:25 — 👍 25 🔁 12 💬 5 📌 5
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...
14.02.2026 13:48 — 👍 84 🔁 59 💬 5 📌 4Anti-vaccine sentiment is going to kill and impoverish quality of life not only in the U.S., but the world.
13.02.2026 15:32 — 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
📊 Sometimes belonging comes down to a checkbox. Our new paper in PSPB led by Brenda Straka finds that the way Latino identity is formatted on demo forms, especially the traditional two-question census format, can subtly undermine feelings of inclusion and belonging
news.illinois.edu/study-demogr...
(Mic check 1-2-3)
I'm on the job market🚨
I’m a social psychologist building computational models to study social cognition, attitudes, polarization, and how people update beliefs.
Evidence accumulation models, Hierarchical Bayes, Agent-based models, NLP, etc.
Interested in formal theorizing!
Postdoc position!
Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026.
Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination
Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad
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NEW: “CBS Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey sends a bombshell farewell note:
Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”
Note the repeated references to fertility and how all women are to blame for declining fertility “because they are getting educated.” He recommends the be sent to “the breeding gulags.”
www.mediamatters.org/nick-fuentes...
this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me
11.02.2026 19:28 — 👍 6938 🔁 1671 💬 35 📌 37The purpose is to disincentivize investments in vaccine development
10.02.2026 23:34 — 👍 1345 🔁 441 💬 26 📌 12Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude
10.02.2026 22:54 — 👍 27141 🔁 9616 💬 56 📌 358
About 10 years ago, I set out to better understand the drivers of radicalization and deradicalization into white supremacy. Work from our endeavors is starting to come out, and I am no longer concerned about sharing it.
I want to share the findings from one of these studies, published last March. 🧵
Thanks, @jinxungoh.bsky.social :).
10.02.2026 00:47 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
2025 #ThrowBackPaper (open access): In (Western) Europe, #Islamophobia is closely linked to #farright attitudes. But both are unrelated to religiosity 📄🔁📊
09.02.2026 12:35 — 👍 6 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 1Blatantly impeachable offenses.
07.02.2026 20:47 — 👍 69 🔁 17 💬 0 📌 0