Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Diego Reinero, Ph.D. @diegoreinero.bsky.social · 1d

🚨Excited to announce the full-day Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2026!

We sold out last year, and with this year’s incredible speaker lineup, we expect the same.

Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23! spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2026-p... There’s a best poster award!

1 10 27

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · 23d

Will be sure to share the results as they become available!

1

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · 23d

Very astute piece by @anniekarni.bsky.social on how Democrats are embracing working-class candidates.

My research lab has multiple ongoing projects on this very idea, so stay tuned for some empirical data coming soon!

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

In the Battle for Congress, Working-Class Democrats Try a Hardscrabble Pitch

www.nytimes.com

1 3

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

The paper is now out, and you can read it here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lhYz51f8w...

This is joint work with Zak Tormala and Christian Wheeler at Stanford.

6

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

We see the DV of choice of extreme candidates as an understudied one in psychology. I hope we see more research on it.

We also think that studying how people assess whether a candidate is extreme or moderate would be an exciting future direction.

1 3

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

This effect was robust to …
different descriptions of extreme candidates
👉different issues
👉controlling for other attitude dimensions (e.g., certainty, importance, moralization, knowledge).
👉Different methods (e.g., conjoint, vignettes, human-LLM interactions)

1 1

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

Is this just about group identity? Unlikely.

In another study, we used LLMs. They either prompted Ps to reflect on their views, or to connect those views to their identity.

When views were tied to identity, attitudes grew more extreme and so did support for extreme candidates.

1 1

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

The effect held even on issues people knew nothing about.

Saying John has a view on abortion doesn’t tell you if he’s pro-life or -choice.

So we made up an issue (“Prop DW”). Party had/no stance. That alone made it feel identity-relevant, pushing ppl to more extreme candidates.

1 2

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

In a Conjoint study, we had people choose between different candidates (different ages, backgrounds, views on social issues).

We measured people’s identity relevance.

As identity relevance increased, people became more likely to choose the candidate who is extreme.

1 2

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

Across six studies, we find that as people’s opinions on political issues become more part of their identity, they are drawn to extreme (vs. moderate) candidates.

1 3

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

What is identity relevance?

It’s the degree to which your view on an issue feels like a reflection of who you are.

For some, views on climate change are core to identity.

For others, they may have strong views, but those views don’t define them.

2 2

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

Past work has focused on structural factors (e.g., primary elections, changes in supply of candidates).

In a new paper, we shift the conversation to *psychological* factors.

We test if the *identity relevance* of people’s attitudes cause them to choose extreme candidates.

1 2

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Sep 1

🚨New Paper🚨

Elected officials are increasingly extreme.

E.g., a recent analysis of 84,000 state-level candidates found that extreme candidates are now winning at the highest rates in 30 years.

Why are people increasingly drawn to extreme candidates?

7 8 35

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

mark brandt @mjbsp.bsky.social · Aug 18

Large Language Models Do Not Simulate Human Psychology

arxiv.org/pdf/2508.06950

9 69 190

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · Aug 3

The annoying spam texts destroying the Democratic brand:

$678M raised through those spam tactics

$282M to one consulting firm: Mothership Strategies.

$11M to actual campaigns (1.6%)

The party isn’t just treating donors like marks—it’s being fleeced itself yet continues to back Mothership.

The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine

How a single consulting firm extracted $282 million from a network of spam PACs while delivering just $11 million to actual campaigns.

open.substack.com

400 3.1K 7.9K

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Brett Hollenbeck @bretthollenbeck.com · Jul 11

🚨Free data alert!! 🚨 Please share.

Large new dataset of Amazon product reviews, including full text and photos and product characteristics, with individual *reviews labeled as fake reviews*.

I believe this is the first publicly available data of this kind.

github.com/bretthollenb...

1 43 130

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

David Kusterer @davidkstrr.bsky.social · Jul 12

A big obstacle of studying fake reviews is that the ground truth is missing. Which review is fake and which is organic?

Brett and coauthors provide a dataset that contains the ground truth for individual reviews using a novel method developed over several papers. A really valuable resource!

Brett Hollenbeck @bretthollenbeck.com · Jul 11

🚨Free data alert!! 🚨 Please share.

Large new dataset of Amazon product reviews, including full text and photos and product characteristics, with individual *reviews labeled as fake reviews*.

I believe this is the first publicly available data of this kind.

github.com/bretthollenb...

1 5

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Eric Shuman @ericmshuman.bsky.social · Apr 16

I am looking to recruit a postdoc to join my lab next fall, & work on 2 projects focused on online mobilization with social media datasets. If anyone knows of someone with computational skills (network analysis, NLP, etc.) who is looking for a postdoc- have them reach out to me.

1 9 8

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Peter Luca Versteegen @versteegenluca.bsky.social · Jun 24

🚨Preprint alert🚨

How does affective polarization change democracy? Lots of pubs study how AP affects trust, democratic norms, inter-partisan attitudes, and participation.

We (w/ @polpsychjoe.bsky.social, @lilymasonphd.bsky.social) examine a vital assumption this research seems to rely on:
1/6🧵

2 24 54

Mohamed A. Hussein @mhusseinlab.bsky.social · Jun 24

What a great read. Thanks for sharing!

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Andy Luttrell @andyluttrell.bsky.social · Jun 24

In TIME today, Jake Teeny and I share our take on AI-driven persuasion that uses your personal data to craft messages built just for you.

time.com/7296719/ai-p...

The Dangers of AI Personalization

If AI can master what we call “deep tailoring,” it can begin to slip unnoticed into our online worlds.

time.com

2 2 8

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Danbischof @danbischof.bsky.social · May 16

🚨 working paper (w. @morganlcj.bsky.social @markuswagner.bsky.social): Protesters are not judged equally - even if tactics of groups are similar.

We ran an experiment in 🇩🇪 testing how people react to farmers vs. climate activists blocking roads.

What we find is disturbing:

osf.io/preprints/os...

10 150 360

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Uri Simonsohn @urisohn.bsky.social · May 20

At the CredibilityLab (currently hosting Aspredicted and Researchbox) we have a new platform in the works, AsCollected, that will help with this. We welcome input from experienced parties.

Signup for alpha or beta testing or announcement of release at AsCollected.Org

AsCollected - Coming Soon

AsCollected.Org

3 12

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · May 19

A Tinder Test of Democratic Norms💋

New paper in @thejop.bsky.social with @bertous.bsky.social

We rely on a visual conjoint experiment, cross-sectional data, & panel data to show that affective polarization drives the normalisation of the far right among the centre-right 🇬🇧🇪🇸
doi.org/10.1086/736698

10 120 280

Reposted by Mohamed A. Hussein

Kristian Frederiksen @kristianvsf.bsky.social · May 14

🛎️New WP with @morganlcj.bsky.social @timallinger.bsky.social and @danbischof.bsky.social

Against the surge of conjoints and other hypothetical experiments in relation to democratic backsliding, we study the consequences of using hypotheticals versus real-world scenarios.

osf.io/preprints/os...

1 19 54