David Amodio
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davidamodio.bsky.social
David Amodio
@davidamodio.bsky.social

Social Psychology Prof at University of Amsterdam. Prejudice & social cognition using experimental, computational, neuro, & AI approaches.

David Amodio is an American scientist who examines the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying social behavior, with a focus on self-regulation and intergroup relations. Amodio is known for his role in developing the field of social neuroscience and for his neuroscientific approach to social psychology. .. more

Psychology 36%
Neuroscience 26%
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I’m thrilled to share my new paper on impression formation & updating in @natrevpsychol.nature.com!

In it, I argue that impression formation is fundamentally a learning process. And as such, theories of impression formation should be based on mechanisms of learning and memory.

Some key take-aways:
A learning and memory account of impression formation and updating - Nature Reviews Psychology
Impression formation occurs when a perceiver infers another person’s traits, goals and preferences and forms an attitude towards that person. In this Perspective, Amodio describes the unique and inter...
www.nature.com

The moral of this story (yet again): read the fine print.

n/n

Btw, for those interested in the recent replication attempts of dissonance research, see this excellent thread (6/n):

bsky.app/profile/quil...
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence

1/
There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance

Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way

But this is not the only one…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

In any case, "When Prophesy Fails" was never considered an actual empirical study, but an intriguing anecdote and theoretical analysis.

So if the book is now relegated to the fiction aisle, I think we're with fine that 😁

It's the idea that mattered and all the empirical work it inspired

5/n

Not sure what to make of the rest of the paper—i.e., the detailed examples of specific events and whether they matched Festinger et al.'s account. The differences often seem small, nuanced, or irrelevant to the theory.

But the conclusion—my goodness!—it's a bit much (4/n):

I wondered about the author's background/angle: his affiliation is listed as "Independent Scholar, Washington DC"

And in an earlier paper, a letter to the editor in JAMA, as a "Self-employed political consultant, Columbus, Ohio"

So, perhaps not a psychologist. A political consultant? Unclear.

3/n

The paper incorrectly describes the 'New Look' as a leftwing movement that inspired social psychology—New Look actually refers to Bruner's take on motivated perception, or within dissonance, to Cooper's revision of the theory.

It reads like a low-key rightwing takedown of social psychology...

2/n
So, is "When Prophesy Fails"—the foundation of cognitive dissonance theory—debunked?

Unclear. The article making this claim is... odd.

It describes Festinger and Schachter as leftwing radicals, critiques the political slant of their funding, generally refers to their work as failed...

1/n
Wow - debunking “When Prophesy Fails” - the canonical foundation of cognitive dissonance theory onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!

international.au.dk/about/profil...
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Full Professor of Cognitive Science - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University
international.au.dk
Wow - debunking “When Prophesy Fails” - the canonical foundation of cognitive dissonance theory onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence

1/
There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance

Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way

But this is not the only one…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by David M. Amodio

Is unconscious bias real? @davidamodio.bsky.social points out critiques (people are aware of “implicit bias”) rely on semantics. In experiments, people have biased priors, which leads to biased “learning” (noticing stereotype-consistent info)…and. They aren’t aware and can’t suppress it. #PMIG2025

Happy birthday, and CONGRATS on the (very well-deserved) tenure vote!!
New findings from my lab in Nature Communications suggest that racial stereotypes can lead the brain's perceptual system to temporarily "see" weapons where they don't exist.

Led by: @dongwonoh.bsky.social

Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

(1/6)

I had a fantastic time at the Computational Social Cognition Summer School at U of Birmingham!

What an amazing resource & opportunity for students.

Thanks to organizers @drjocutler.bsky.social Lei Zhang and @thepsychologist.bsky.social & the speakers, instructors, and students!
Today's the day we welcome over 80 participants, instructors & keynote speakers from all over the world to @uob-sop.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social for the Computational Social Cognition (CSC) Summer School with @leidenpsychology.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social

#CSC2025
www.compsoccog.com
CSC 2025
www.compsoccog.com
Wow. And this is the kind of study that will likely lose funding in our current moment. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Reposted by David M. Amodio

Today's the day we welcome over 80 participants, instructors & keynote speakers from all over the world to @uob-sop.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social for the Computational Social Cognition (CSC) Summer School with @leidenpsychology.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social

#CSC2025
www.compsoccog.com
CSC 2025
www.compsoccog.com
I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy
Opinion | Jay Bhattacharya: Why the NIH is pivoting away from mRNA vaccines
As a vaccine for broad public use, mRNA technology has failed to earn the public’s trust.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by David M. Amodio

This is perfect.

Reposted by David M. Amodio

A learning and memory account of impression formation and updating

Perspective by David M. Amodio (@davidamodio.bsky.social)

Web: go.nature.com/3YTubx3
PDF: rdcu.be/ejREM

#psychology #psychscisky

Reposted by David M. Amodio

Ozzy Osbourne has passed away at the age of 76
She is far too un-self-promoting to do this herself, so I'm shouting out *THE* Elizabeth Page-Gould (@page-gould.bsky.social) for winning the SESP Career Trajectory Award!

Liz is the reason they had to invent the high-warmth/high competence quadrant. She is such a gem and so damn deserving of this.
Elizabeth Page-Gould recognized with Career Trajectory Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology
The Society for Experimental Social Psychology has recognized Elizabeth Page-Gould with a Career Trajectory Award in recognition of uniquely creative and influential scholarly productivity.
www.psych.utoronto.ca
🎉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-...

RIP Ozzy ✌️

Ozzy was my first real concert when I was 14. My ears are still ringing.
Ozzy Osbourne has passed away at the age of 76

Stephen Colbert is a national treasure!

My career peak was when he devoted a whole segment to our paper on scarcity & race perception on The Colbert Report (!) And of course he nailed it.

Sadly it's not on youtube anymore, but it's on AppleTV (Season 10, Episode 119, on June 16, 2014).

Ah, yes—2014! I'll fix that
I can confirm the PBS Passport is a very good deal for $5/month or $2.50/month if you do yearly.

Thousands of hours of top notch content. NOVA is great. The new Ken Burns doc on Leonardo da Vinci is excellent.

You can sign up at the link below!

www.pbs.org/passport/lea...