Calvin Lai
LightNews LightNews
banner
calvinklai.bsky.social
Calvin Lai
@calvinklai.bsky.social
2.4K followers 440 following 73 posts

Social psychologist & professor at Rutgers University.
Studying how to reduce prejudice and discrimination.
Opinions are my own. he/him
calvinklai.com

Videos
Psychology 28%
Political science 26%
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
calvinklai.bsky.social
Calvin Lai @calvinklai.bsky.social · Sep 9
🚨We're hiring!🚨 The Dept of Psychology at Rutgers is hiring an Assistant Professor in Social Psychology. Review of applications begin on Oct 18. Details here: jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/259...

I'm chairing the search committee and am happy to field questions about the position. 🧵
Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, Tenure-Track
The Department of Psychology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ, plans to hire a tenure-track Assistant Professor in SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, with a start date of September 1, 2026. We seek a candidate...
jobs.rutgers.edu

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai, Michael W. Kraus, Eric Hehman

jackiemchen.bsky.social
Jackie Chen @jackiemchen.bsky.social · 3d
The International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) is pleased to announce Dr. April Bailey as the 2025 winner of the Early Career Award! Dr. Bailey is a Lecturer of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her PhD in 2019 from Yale University.

Reposted by Linda J. Skitka, Calvin K. Lai, Scott Clifford , and 1 more

tagerai.bsky.social
tagerai.bsky.social @tagerai.bsky.social · 5d
A thread on our recent paper (w/Raihan Alam @raihanalam) in PNAS on why punishment often fails and what it means for crime, cooperation, democracy, and the rule of law. I’m super excited for it, it’s the lab’s most extensive experimental work to date. Check it out! 1/
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Brian A. Nosek, Gordon Hodson , and 11 more

reimtime.bsky.social
Nils Reimer @reimtime.bsky.social · 5d
This—on my former university, department, and advisor—is harrowing but required reading for all social psychologists. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Oxford University Has Failed Women Over Harassment Concerns, Staff Say
The university has repeatedly been slow to act against male academics accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, a Bloomberg investigation found.
www.bloomberg.com

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 6d
Just so that we're on the same page: This paper tells us what is *possible* not what is *true*

This is definitely a concern, but (FWIW) I am highly skeptical that typical survey respondents have the technical skills (let alone the inclination) to do all of this.
joshmccrain.bsky.social Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 6d
new paper by Sean Westwood:

With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

Reposted by Marc Lynch, Simon Hix, Ben H. Ansell , and 45 more

joshmccrain.bsky.social
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 6d
new paper by Sean Westwood:

With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

Reposted by Gordon Hodson, Linda J. Skitka, Mark J. Brandt , and 6 more

jinxungoh.bsky.social
Jin X. Goh | 吴晋勋 @jinxungoh.bsky.social · 8d
Starting the week strong with a newly accepted paper in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, co-authored with postdoc @lizsnoland.bsky.social and Sohad Murrar! We merged two largely independent research lines to call for data disaggregation of Asian Americans and MENA Americans
psyarxivbot.bsky.social PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 8d
Unpacking Broad Racial Labels: The Disaggregation of Data on Race and Ethnicity: https://osf.io/eyv7b

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

pierceekstrom.bsky.social
Pierce Ekstrom @pierceekstrom.bsky.social · 11d
New write-up of our political scandal experiments for SPSP's (@spspnews.bsky.social) blog. We find that partisan voters allow politicians to get away with hostile, defensive "explanations" for scandal, esp when the politician is high-status and when party goals are at stake

spsp.org/news/charact...
Do Voters Punish Politicians Who Apologize? | SPSP
Politicians may deny scandals not just for themselves but because voters let them.
spsp.org

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

cmewing.bsky.social
Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 14d
Important—and sobering—findings about the state of the discipline and the academy.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Richard S.J. Tol, Samuel L. Perry , and 16 more

cohodes.bsky.social
Sarah Cohodes @cohodes.bsky.social · 15d
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣

"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
Screenshot of working paper: The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct

Reposted by Stephan Lewandowsky, Mark Rubin, Calvin K. Lai , and 1 more

jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 19d
For each additional moral–emotional word in a social media post, the number of shares increases 13%

Our new meta-analysis finds robust evidence of moral contagion (N=4,821,006)

The moral contagion effect is even stronger in larger, pre-registered studies (17%).
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Lisa W. Fazio, Linda J. Skitka , and 3 more

jinxungoh.bsky.social
Jin X. Goh | 吴晋勋 @jinxungoh.bsky.social · 21d
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
iconic scene from Grey's Anatomy. Meredith Grey in scrub telling Derek "so pick me, choose me, love me"

calvinklai.bsky.social
Calvin Lai @calvinklai.bsky.social · 24d
Our first lab meeting reading this as a preprint is a flashbulb memory. It was such an elegantly argued paper for a phenomenon that was so clearly untrue. Either our methods needed improvement, or we must entertain that psi was true. I wished we had psychic powers! (It would make our jobs so easy)

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

briannosek.bsky.social
Brian Nosek @briannosek.bsky.social · 24d
What “error” has had the most positive consequences for your field this century?

I’ll start:

The editorial decision to accept Bem’s precognition paper at JPSP.
calvinklai.bsky.social Calvin Lai @calvinklai.bsky.social · 25d
We read the (in)famous Bem Feeling the Future JPSP paper for a "spooky" Halloween lab meeting and it was fabulous!! I couldn't get over the wild methodological issue where they type of psychic power he founded depended on what random number generator Bem used 😂

Reposted by Brian A. Nosek

calvinklai.bsky.social
Calvin Lai @calvinklai.bsky.social · 25d
We read the (in)famous Bem Feeling the Future JPSP paper for a "spooky" Halloween lab meeting and it was fabulous!! I couldn't get over the wild methodological issue where they type of psychic power he founded depended on what random number generator Bem used 😂

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

kevinmking.bsky.social
Kevin M. King @kevinmking.bsky.social · 25d
Good threads. We used SESOIs pretty extensively in our recent registered reports (e.g. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...). We found plenty of "significant" effects, but ones that were smaller than our SESOI.

1/4

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Hugo Mercier, Calvin K. Lai

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 25d
"only about 5% of the variance in personality can be
predicted from digital footprints, and personality‐tailored messages show negligible effects on behavior... When design and evaluation flaws are controlled, the combined end‐to‐end effectiveness of psychological targeting approaches zero."
The (In)Effectiveness of Psychological Targeting: A Meta‐Analytic Review
The use of psychological targeting—employing machine learning to predict consumer personality from digital footprints and subsequently tailoring persuasive messages—has emerged as a controversial yet...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 27d
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it”

Willful ignorance is also motivated by social identity concerns--it is driven by ingroup favoritism + outgroup derogation and fuels conspiracy belies.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

erinwestgate.bsky.social
Erin Westgate @erinwestgate.bsky.social · Oct 26
Why do young kids try to climb into tiny toy cars? Remembering Judy DeLoache’s work on how babies learn to understand symbols and symbolic representation 💙

youtu.be/PK_BQjVHZ00?...
Symbolic Representation - Scale Models
YouTube video by Brooke Miller
youtu.be

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai, Robert C. Richards, Scott A. Imberman , and 1 more

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Oct 24
Yikes yikes yikes
elizabethweill.bsky.social Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg 🇵🇸 @elizabethweill.bsky.social · Oct 24
Breaking: The Department of Justice announced it will "monitor polling sites in six jurisdictions [in New Jersey and California] ahead of the upcoming November 4, 2025, general election to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law." www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...
Justice Department to Monitor Polling Sites in California, New Jersey
WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice announced that it will monitor polling sites in six jurisdictions ahead of the upcoming November 4, 2025, general election to ensure transparency, ballot ...
www.justice.gov

Reposted by Alexander Wuttke, Pierre Bataille, Calvin K. Lai

jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Oct 24
A massive study on the effects of social class tested 35 hypotheses in 4 countries (N = 33,536)

Only 50% of findings replicated

Hypotheses based on differences between social class contexts in terms of constraints, uncertainty & status were supported:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai

drmeltemyucel.bsky.social
Meltem Yucel @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social · Oct 24
Heartbroken to share that Judy DeLoache passed away yesterday. She was a brilliant scientist and a fantastic role model.

I met her 10+ years ago as a grad student @uvapsychology.bsky.social. She believed in me at my lowest and inspired me to persevere through the challenges of grad school + life.

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Lisa W. Fazio, Stephan Lewandowsky , and 4 more

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · Oct 23
Public health is under attack by a deluge of misinformation. We offer a consensus report from the American Psychological Association summarizing what we know & what interventions are effective in countering it. We provide 8 concrete recommendations. Open-access - awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Steven S. Smith, Calvin K. Lai , and 3 more

jacobmontgomery.bsky.social
Jacob Montgomery @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social · Oct 21
New editorial from me and @keithschnak.bsky.social.

“Why Washington University must not sign Trump's 'compact'”
Opinion: Why Washington University must not sign Trump's 'compact'
Washington University in St. Louis has built its reputation on a simple ideal: excellence wins. For decades, our researchers have competed for and won federal grants based on the quality
www.stltoday.com

Reposted by Edward Witten, Elizabeth Saunders, Nicholas A. Christakis , and 28 more

nytimes.com
The New York Times @nytimes.com · Oct 21
Breaking News: President Trump wants $230 million from the Justice Department for investigating him, people familiar with the matter say. Any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit. nyti.ms/4hmIi5X

Reposted by Efrén O. Pérez, Calvin K. Lai, Michael W. Kraus , and 1 more

jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · Oct 21
Looks like an important new working paper. The wave of anti-DEI laws since 2021 has had real effects on hiring at public colleges.

ungated: osf.io/preprints/so...

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai, Matthijs Rooduijn

mjbsp.bsky.social
mark brandt @mjbsp.bsky.social · Oct 17
This preprint reports on a project with @j-rock.bsky.social.

We merged a light touch intervention (typical of survey experiments) w/ an intensive intervention (more typical of practitioner efforts) for reducing toxic polarization to see if we could cheaply boost 🚀 the more intensive intervention

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Kai Sassenberg, Mark Rubin , and 6 more

gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social
Gordon Hodson @gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social · Oct 17
#AcademicSky #PrejudiceResearch #PsychSciSky

Our new paper out in American Psychologist.

Led by Meleady, with @debshulman.bsky.social, Kotzur, & Crisp.

Contact "ruptures" (going to university; studying abroad) ==> changes in outgroup attitudes longitudinally

psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

calvinklai.bsky.social
Calvin Lai @calvinklai.bsky.social · Oct 17
Current tally of American social psychologists at SESP in Lisbon saying "here" to refer to the USA: 2 😂

Reposted by David Lazer, Will Jennings, Efrén O. Pérez , and 5 more

tiagoventura.bsky.social
Tiago Ventura @tiagoventura.bsky.social · Oct 7
How common are “survey professionals” - people who take dozens of online surveys for pay - across online panels, and do they harm data quality?

Our paper, FirstView at @politicalanalysis.bsky.social, tackles this question using browsing data from three U.S. samples (Facebook, YouGov, and Lucid):

Reposted by Calvin K. Lai, Nathan P. Kalmoe

neillewisjr.bsky.social
Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · Sep 23
This.

(The entire article is required reading, but I especially appreciate this section)
"Very few of us are moral saints—certainly not me. Unlike everlasting, lofty, abstract principles, we who try feebly to live up to them down in the muck of reality face mucky obstacles: we get tired, impatient, envious, and angry. Our values and principles ask more than most of us are able to give—if they don’t, they are probably too weak to be worth holding. But we don’t have to celebrate our failures or, worse still, confuse them with our successes. This is one valuable function of shame: it reminds us of who we want to be when we fall short, a goalpost that is necessarily anchored to the lofty height that our conduct fell beneath. We also encourage and defend these general social standards when we hold others to them, and not just ourselves."