David Chester

@davidchester.bsky.social

1.5K followers 400 following 580 posts

Associate Prof at VCU. Experimental psychologist. Aggression scientist. Dad.

https://davidchester.weebly.com/

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David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 25d

Check out this new preprint from our lab, led by @brownwt.bsky.social and the Bluesky-less Sydney Kavanaugh. We found that psychopathy, especially its antagonistic and disinhibited facets, is more linked to low self-reported levels of **positive** than negative empathy.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 2h

Fruit pies should only be served cold.

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 2h

Honestly, it's not that terrible if apple is dethroned and exiled to Saint Helena (taking sweet potato with it).

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 7h

Huge congrats Drew!! They're very lucky to have you

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 11h

Social isolation during COVID was linked to a greater likelihood of perpetrating intimate partner violence. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 11h

The fear of being single, the desire to be in a relationship, and satisfaction with your relationship status represent distinct constructs with unique motivational underpinnings. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Pursuing Relationships or Avoiding Singlehood? Differentiating Singles' Fear of Being Single, Desire for a Relationship, and Satisfaction With Relationship Status

Attitudes toward singlehood have been operationally and methodologically framed in different ways, with some focused on desire for relational pursuit, some on satisfaction or contentment with singleh...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 1d

We approve of prosocial liars, who give people false but positive feedback, even when they only lie prosocially to those they deem as vulnerable to negative feedback. bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

<em>British Journal of Social Psychology</em> | Wiley Online Library

In two studies (N = 886), we examined how individuals judge and select feedback providers for those who either handle criticism well or poorly after performing a low-quality task. Prosocial liars who...

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 1d

Antagonistic traits are amenable to valid assessment via informant reports. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 1d

People don't prioritize improving their moral character because they believe they are already paragons of morality and that improvement in other traits (e.g., sociability, energy level, self-control, anxiety) would be more effective at improving their lives. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 1d

A chimpanzee community reaped reproductive benefits after the males killed members of neighboring groups and took their land. Supports a clear evolutionary mechanism underlying warfare. 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 David Chester

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 8d

The 'Dark Triad' may be popular, but more importantly, it is irresponsible, moralizing, trivializing, and ultimately, replaceable: A rejoinder to Borraz-Leon, Rantala, and Jonason (2025): https://osf.io/u86th

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 20d

They're assigned readings in my Personality course!

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 20d

Refusing to forgive, versus inaction, can make people feel empowered, principled, and courageous. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Refusing to forgive can have psychological benefits

Offering forgiveness can confer benefits to victims in terms of enhanced sense of self. In the present research, we argue that refusing to forgive may…

www.sciencedirect.com

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 21d

Analysis of mouse-tracking data reveals support for both dynamic competition and impulse inhibition accounts of self-control, thought inhibition is relatively rare. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 24d

Telling problem drinkers that there's no safe level of alcohol consumption helps them recognize their problem, but it also freaks them out and they dislike the message.

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 25d

Effects of 'No Safe Level' and 'Cutting Down' Alcohol Messages on Problem Recognition, Defensive Processing, and Self-Efficacy in Heavy Drinkers: A Randomized Experimental Study: https://osf.io/jze7p

Reposted by David Chester

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 25d

Effects of 'No Safe Level' and 'Cutting Down' Alcohol Messages on Problem Recognition, Defensive Processing, and Self-Efficacy in Heavy Drinkers: A Randomized Experimental Study: https://osf.io/jze7p

Reposted by David Chester

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 25d

Mouse cursor tracking contributes to the psychological validation of the drift diffusion model: https://osf.io/74rjv

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · 25d

A truly Strong Test™ of attachment theory, longitudinally testing whether infants' early caregiver relationships explain variance in their adult attachments. Fortuitously for our field, they do (though effect sizes are much smaller than I would've imagined). psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

Reposted by David Chester

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · Oct 24

So that is why you don't prompt people once a day for an entire year... #OpenESM - data from openesmdata.org/datasets/001...

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · Oct 23

A neural signature for self-focused thinking. www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...

Reposted by David Chester, Patrick S. Forscher, Matt N Williams , and 4 more David Chester, Patrick S. Forscher, Matt N Williams, Jill A. Jacobson, Matti Vuorre, Gemma C. Sharp, Jan R. Boehnke

Björn Siepe @bsiepe.bsky.social · Oct 22

We built the openESM database:
▶️60 openly available experience sampling datasets (16K+ participants, 740K+ obs.) in one place
▶️Harmonized (meta-)data, fully open-source software
▶️Filter & search all data, simply download via R/Python

Find out more:
🌐 openesmdata.org
📝 doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Reposted by David Chester

Eric Hehman @erichehman.bsky.social · Oct 21

We have a new tutorial out in Social Cog methods issue, a resampling tool we made in R that basically tells you when some average is "stable" and can be used to guide data collection or test hypotheses related to variance. Quick explanation here
1/n

guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/...

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · Oct 17

CANT IMAGINE WHY

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · Oct 17

Perceptions of men seem to have become more negative over the past 50 years.

Meltem Yucel @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social · Oct 17

“Men are still seen as more agentic than women, though ‘equal’ is on the rise” Alice Eagly, SESP Scientific Impact Award recipient.

#SESP2025 #SESP25

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, David Chester

Meltem Yucel @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social · Oct 17

“Men are still seen as more agentic than women, though ‘equal’ is on the rise” Alice Eagly, SESP Scientific Impact Award recipient.

#SESP2025 #SESP25

David Chester @davidchester.bsky.social · Oct 8

Can AI ever become conscious? It will depend on whether consciousness can only arise from the electrochemical processes inherent to biological entities. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...