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Mohammad Atari

@mohammadatari.bsky.social

1.6K followers 250 following 46 posts

Assistant Professor of Psychology at UMass Amherst. Director of the Culture and Morality Lab.

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Psychology 47%

Sociology 13%

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Mohammad Atari

Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 2d

“The idea that humans evolved to be protective & sensitive to harm directed towards women appears increasingly popular in evolutionary psych [but] ethnographic evidence conflict with this perspective, [which seems] rooted in contemporary WEIRD values rather than an evolved psychological mechanism”

Did humans evolve to 'protect' women?

Ethnography complicates a convenient narrative

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Society for Philosophy and Psychology @socphilpsych.bsky.social · 2d

‼️ Recent work by Setayesh Radkani, Joshua Tenenbaum & Rebecca Saxe:

What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model

What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model | PNAS

Authorities, from parents of toddlers to leaders of formal institutions, use punishment to communicate disapproval and enforce social norms. Ideall...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Edouard Machery @edouardmachery.bsky.social · 4d

Join us tomorrow, Tuesday October 7th at 12PM EDT for a talk with former fellow Michael Tomasello!

"Agency and the Organization of Human Experience."

More info and abstract here: ow.ly/usIc50X4wS7

Zoom Link: pitt.zoom.us/j/96906545761

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Abdo Elnakouri @abdoe.bsky.social · 4d

Hi all! Having recently moved to @uh.edu, I’ll be reviewing graduate applications to join the newly minted Worldviews in Motion lab for Fall 2026! Please share with anyone who might be interested 😊

For lab info, check out our (though it’s mostly me atm) website: www.abdoelnakouri.com

WIM Lab

www.abdoelnakouri.com

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Reposted by Brian A. Nosek, John Drury, Mohammad Atari

Eric Shuman @ericmshuman.bsky.social · 4d

I am hoping to recruit a Ph.D. student to join the SPARC (Social Psychology of Activism, Resistance, & Change) Lab at @UVAPsyc in Fall 2026! You can find more info about my research on my website (ericshuman.com), and the program here (psychology.as.virginia.edu/social-psych...).

Home

ericshuman.com

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Reposted by Larry W. Hunter, Mohammad Atari

Myra Cheng @myra.bsky.social · 6d

AI always calling your ideas “fantastic” can feel inauthentic, but what are sycophancy’s deeper harms? We find that in the common use case of seeking AI advice on interpersonal situations—specifically conflicts—sycophancy makes people feel more right & less willing to apologize.

Screenshot of paper title: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Josh Miller @jdmiller.bsky.social · 7d

Apropos of recent open science conversations - this paper is an awesome primer for grad students and faculty who want to learn more: online.ucpress.edu/collabra/art...

Easing Into Open Science: A Guide for Graduate Students and Their Advisors

This article provides a roadmap to assist graduate students and their advisors to engage in open science practices. We suggest eight open science practices that novice graduate students could begin ad...

online.ucpress.edu

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · 8d

New chapter preprint: Is Empathic AI possible?

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Reposted by Mohammad Atari

PNAS Nexus @pnasnexus.org · Sep 2

Although men and boys are more directly and indirectly aggressive than women and girls in most contexts, a study of 24 countries finds one specific context in which this pattern is reversed: the sibling relationship. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

A girl pretends to pull her brother’s ear. Stock photo.

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences @dornsife.usc.edu · Aug 18

Is extreme wealth a moral failure, or a badge of honor? A global study co-led by USC Dornsife reveals what really drives our judgments.

What people really think about ultra-wealthy billionaires

Is extreme wealth a moral failure or a badge of honor? A global study reveals what really drives judgments about the ultra-rich

dornsife.usc.edu

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · Aug 13

Glad this is finally out! Check out @igi.bsky.social ‘s thread!

Thanks to @edouardmachery.bsky.social and team.

Igor Grossmann, PhD @igi.bsky.social · Aug 13

1/10 Finally out in Proceedings B @royalsociety.org ! This took a while—big scope, many hands. We started with a worry: maybe Solomon’s paradox (doi.org/10.1177/0956797614535400) is “too obvious.” If stepping back helps wise choices, surely everyone does it… right?

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Igor Grossmann, PhD @igi.bsky.social · Aug 13

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Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Gordon Pennycook, Hugo Mercier , and 3 more Lisa W. Fazio, Gordon Pennycook, Hugo Mercier, Calvin K. Lai, Erika Franklin Fowler, Mohammad Atari

Manikya Alister @manikyaalister.bsky.social · Aug 10

We know that a consensus of opinions is persuasive, but how reliable is this effect across people and types of consensus, and are there any kinds of claims where people care less about what other people think? This is what we tested in our new(ish) paper in @psychscience.bsky.social

Screenshot of the article "How Convincing Is a Crowd? Quantifying the Persuasiveness of a Consensus for Different Individuals and Types of Claims"

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Reposted by Gordon Hodson, David M. Amodio, Mark J. Brandt , and 3 more Gordon Hodson, David M. Amodio, Mark J. Brandt, Eric Hehman, Sofia Stathi, Mohammad Atari

Jeni Kubota @jenikubota.bsky.social · Jul 15

🎉New paper out @Psychological Review on the neuroscience of intergroup contact🎉

Led by the fantastic @margaretrwelte.bsky.social ‬and Jas Cloutier!

@apajournals.bsky.social @spspnews.bsky.social @sansmeeting.bsky.social #PsychSciSky #SocialPsyc #AcademicSky

psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

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Reposted by Markus Freitag, Olga Onuch, David Lazer , and 5 more Markus Freitag, Olga Onuch, David Lazer, Gordon Hodson, Elizabeth Stokoe, William J. Brady, Liam Delaney, Mohammad Atari

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Jul 13

Only a small % of people engage in toxic activity online, but they’re responsible for a disproportionate share of hostile or misleading content on nearly every platform

Because super-users are so active, they dominate our collective impression of the internet www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Are a few people ruining the internet for the rest of us?

Why does the online world seem so toxic compared with normal life? Our research shows that a small number of divisive accounts could be responsible – and offers a way out

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Mohammad Atari

PNAS Nexus @pnasnexus.org · Jul 9

Most people don’t find excessive wealth immoral when considered separately from economic inequality; however, people in countries with high GDP and high levels of inequality find being too rich more morally wrong than being of average wealth. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

The perceived immorality of too much wealth in 20 nations. Scores are standardized, and whiskers represent the 95% confidence interval.

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · Jul 1

Congratulations, Emma! 🎉

Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · Jun 24

Thanks.

Human Behavior & Evolution Society @humbehevosoc.bsky.social · Jun 23

HBES is happy to recognize the following Rising Stars (<8 years post-PhD) for their research contributions:
Mohammad Atari: mohammadatari.com
Catherine Molho: catherinemolho.github.io
Daniel Redhead: www.rug.nl/staff/d.j.re...
Julia Stern: www.uni-bremen.de/en/pppd/team...

Reposted by Martin Lang, Mohammad Atari

Human Behavior & Evolution Society @humbehevosoc.bsky.social · Jun 23

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Reposted by Linda J. Skitka, Mohammad Atari, Melissa J. Williams

stephen @stephanoplis.bsky.social · Jun 11

I’m looking for a postdoctoral scholar to join me in the Self & Society Laboratory at UC Riverside! Sharing would be much appreciated! aprecruit.ucr.edu/JPF02104

Postdoctoral Scholar in Social/Personality Psychology

University of California, Riverside is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.ucr.edu

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · Jun 10

New preprint! 🔔

We apply computational text analysis to over 2000 years of historical corpora in Classical Chinese. Beyond descriptives, we test the hypothesis that kin-based institutions shape important aspects of socio-cooperative psychology.

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Reposted by David G. Rand, Gordon Pennycook, Hugo Mercier , and 2 more David G. Rand, Gordon Pennycook, Hugo Mercier, Marina Della Giusta, Mohammad Atari

Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · Jun 5

Psychological inoculation is a very popular intervention against online misinfo, but it hasn't been tested using real-world outcomes in realistic scenarios.

In a new paper just published in PNAS Nexus, this is what we did: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Short version: It didn't really work.

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · Jun 3

Thanks, Lisa!

Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · Jun 3

This Perspective by Atari et al argues for psychology to become a historical and geographical science, a transformation they term the chronospatial revolution.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The chronospatial revolution in psychology - Nature Human Behaviour

Psychology’s definition and scope have shifted over the discipline’s short history, yet it has largely remained ahistorical and geographically narrow. This Perspective argues for psychology to become ...

www.nature.com

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · Jun 2

Our new paper is now out in Nature Human Behaviour:

The chronospatial revolution in psychology.

With Joe Henrich & Jonathan Schulz.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Andrew Livingstone, Jeremy Ginges, Mohammad Atari

Nils Reimer @reimtime.bsky.social · May 27

With everything that's going on, I haven't been sharing much about our research. But, today, I'm happy to share that @jennrichler.bsky.social wrote about our papers on "Double Standards in Judging Collective Action" for @natrevpsychol.nature.com! rdcu.be/enhkl

Ideological alignment determines whether protest action is considered acceptable

Nature Reviews Psychology - Ideological alignment determines whether protest action is considered acceptable

urldefense.com

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Mohammad Atari @mohammadatari.bsky.social · May 9

Our new paper, with my amazing PhD student, Aliah Zewail, is published in the European Review of Social Psychology.

We review (and encourage) historical and geographical research on morality from a pluralistic perspective.

Link:

doi.org/10.1080/1046...

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Reposted by Mohammad Atari

Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · May 6

Borrowing data from @mohammadatari.bsky.social; we show that AI reflects very high-HDI nation's culture and values. These gaps are certainly more important that relative performance on coding assays and bar exams.

Digitial divides of decades past embodied in training data and design.

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Reposted by Arvind Narayanan, Mohammad Atari

Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · May 6

I'm excited that I can finally share what I've been working on for the past 9 months:

The United Nations 2025 Human Development Report: "A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI" 🧵

hdr.undp.org/content/huma...

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Reposted by Nathan Nunn, Mohammad Atari

Kylie (Woodman) Falcione @kyliefalcione.bsky.social · Apr 25

@mohammadatari.bsky.social and @markthornton.bsky.social channel their dark sides to battle it out in a debate on AI in research:
Dr. Atari makes the case for “less is more,” while Dr. Thornton champions the potential of neural networks in tackling complex analyses. #SANS2025

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