ana gantman
@anagantman.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.5K following 61 posts
associate prof of psychology at brooklyn college & cuny grad center, & assoc prof of phil at cuny grad center; interested in moral psych—how people judge what is right and wrong, and what they do with those judgments
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anagantman.bsky.social
We propose that the everyday psychology of rules and 3rd party punishment is at the core of authoritarianism

Our view posits no new constructs, is ideology-agnostic, & considers relevant only interactions w the state

See our new working paper "Authoritarianism in Action" osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
Reposted by ana gantman
jayvanbavel.bsky.social
Why do some ideas spread widely, while others fail to catch on?

Our new review paper on the PSYCHOLOGY OF VIRALITY is now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social (it was led by @steverathje.bsky.social)

Read the full paper here: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
anagantman.bsky.social
But they also refract them, making it possible for people to use state procedures (with all the power and access to legitimized violence this affords) to satisfy their own ends, outside of the rule of law. We argue that this is the key to understanding the psychology of authoritarianism.
anagantman.bsky.social
How? States solve large scale coordination problems, largely with state rules and third-party punishments. State rules and state punishments codify everyday human desires for norms and rules, and third-party punishment
anagantman.bsky.social
We propose that the everyday psychology of rules and 3rd party punishment is at the core of authoritarianism

Our view posits no new constructs, is ideology-agnostic, & considers relevant only interactions w the state

See our new working paper "Authoritarianism in Action" osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
Reposted by ana gantman
jamiecummins.bsky.social
Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

THREAD 🧵
The threat of analytic flexibility in using large language models to simulate human data: A call to attention
Social scientists are now using large language models to create "silicon samples" - synthetic datasets intended to stand in for human respondents, aimed at revolutionising human subjects research. How...
arxiv.org
Reposted by ana gantman
tobigerstenberg.bsky.social
🚨 NEW PREPRINT: Multimodal inference through mental simulation.

We examine how people figure out what happened by combining visual and auditory evidence through mental simulation.

Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Code: github.com/cicl-stanfor...
Reposted by ana gantman
xphilosopher.bsky.social
One common view in moral psychology is “the primacy of the moral” - the view that people think your moral traits are what’s most fundamental about you

These new studies challenge that view, suggesting that people sometimes see artistic creation as just as fundamental as morality
anagantman.bsky.social
you're having a sliding doors moment--you can either become a great artist or a great philanthropist. what path will make you feel like you've found your true self? @jowylie.bsky.social & @mattlindauer.bsky.social and i find that arts provide a unique one static1.squarespace.com/static/679ee...
anagantman.bsky.social
indeed we find that the idea that aesthetic pursuits provide unique access to autonomy, rule-breaking, and authenticity, is partly how they provide us a feeling of nearness to our true selves. they provide an escape from the principles, rules, and conventions that define the moral domain
anagantman.bsky.social
and when asked to imagine the very same person, at a crossroads in life, contributing moral or artistic value to society, we find that sometimes people judge those who take the aesthetic path to have found greater feelings of nearness to their true selves & freedom from rules and conventions
anagantman.bsky.social
despite much research pointing to a "moral primacy" view where pursuing moral goodness will bring people closest to feelings of nearness to the true self, and win you friends and a good reputation--people want to see a plurality of values in an ideal society and an ideal life
anagantman.bsky.social
you're having a sliding doors moment--you can either become a great artist or a great philanthropist. what path will make you feel like you've found your true self? @jowylie.bsky.social & @mattlindauer.bsky.social and i find that arts provide a unique one static1.squarespace.com/static/679ee...
Reposted by ana gantman
mjbsp.bsky.social
Large Language Models Do Not Simulate Human Psychology

arxiv.org/pdf/2508.06950
Reposted by ana gantman
floresophize.bsky.social
In this finally out (!) paper, I argue no—and cognitive science backs this up. We can keep the orthodox rationalist view of belief *and* recognize the difficulties in changing minds. The key is thinking of belief as requiring a *capacity* (not a reliable disposition) to respond to evidence.
Resistant Beliefs, Responsive Believers - Volume 122, Issue 4, April 2025
Beliefs can be resistant to evidence. Nonetheless, the orthodox view in epistemology analyzes beliefs as evidence-responsive attitudes. I address this tension by deploying analytical tools on capaciti...
www.pdcnet.org
anagantman.bsky.social
🥂 officially promoted to associate prof of psych at brooklyn college & the CUNY grad center--and appointed in the philosophy department at the grad center 🥂
Reposted by ana gantman
jayvanbavel.bsky.social
I have a new paper on "The Psychology of Virality" with @steverathje.bsky.social

We explain how similar psychological processes (eg preferential attention to negativity, social motives, etc.) drive the spread of information across online and offline contexts: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by ana gantman
xphilosopher.bsky.social
A now-classic experiment from Kevin Tobia found an effect of morality (becoming morally worse vs. becoming morally better) on intuitions about personal identity

A new study now looks at that effect across a variety of different cultures

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Reposted by ana gantman
mattlindauer.bsky.social
Now out in paperback! Advances in Experimental Political Philosophy. Very glad to have put together such a stellar lineup of contributors. #philsky
Paperback version of Advances in Experimental Political Philosophy. Table of contents for the volume.
anagantman.bsky.social
people would be more likely to say that the boss is more responsible than the employee, willed the actions of the employee, AND participants also say that the actions of the boss are teleological (like most human action) but the actions of the employee are mechanistic!
anagantman.bsky.social
so for example, when we experience our thought preceding our action like a little preview, we are more likely to feel like the experience of conscious will, or the feeling of action authorship. we thought similarly if the orders of the boss directly precede the actions of the their employee
anagantman.bsky.social
we used Wegner's Theory of Conscious Will to help us think about cases where we are more and less likely to think that the mind (or for us, the boss) wills the body (or for us, an employee or the workforce) and we expected it would be exactly in these cases that the metaphor would be most apt
anagantman.bsky.social
we tend to see the "head" or leader of the company as responsible when the company does something bad, the more the corporation-body metaphor is apt