Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · 7d

Yes 🙈 didn’t know I am not a proper researcher because of this fml

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 22d

Our need to belong
increases our dependence on social media feedback.

Brandon C Davidson @bcdavidson.bsky.social · 22d

In a preregistered study of 535 US Twitter users, we found that people learn more from social rewards during periods of high isolation. That is, when isolated, they weigh 'Likes' more heavily in deciding how often to post.

Figure showing a significant difference between 'habit weight' in high and low social isolation. Habit weight is a component of the RL model that weights a model-free RL posting policy and a habitual posting policy.

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 22d

Check out @bcdavidson.bsky.social's preprint (w/ @georgiaturner.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social @livia-tomova.bsky.social and co.) about the (computational) consequences of social isolation in social media use during covid!

Brandon C Davidson @bcdavidson.bsky.social · 22d

🚨 New Preprint 🚨

Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media.

🧵

Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited?

It turns out, yes!

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · 22d

So excited this is now out!

Brandon C Davidson @bcdavidson.bsky.social · 22d

🚨 New Preprint 🚨

Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media.

🧵

Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited?

It turns out, yes!

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Reposted by Amy Orben

ReproducibiliTea @reproducibilitea.org · Aug 28

Are you a potential, current, or past ReproducibiliTea organizer? ✨

Join our upcoming networking event!

📅 October 2, 2025 (16:00 CEST) on Zoom
👉 Register for the Zoom link: forms.gle/iH6sHt3dB4Wf...

Everyone is welcome!

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Aug 27

Great time in London watching intern @sineadcleary.bsky.social and research assistant Brandon Davidson give a fantastic presentation to the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology - what superstars I get to work with!

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Aug 18

Congratulations!! ❤️❤️❤️

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Daniel Lakens @lakens.bsky.social · Aug 15

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Aug 5

Oh wow! Well glad to be of help in spotting those students 😅

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Aug 1

I know right 😅😅 full story below

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Aug 1

Weather was mixed, but not too bad! But I had a wonderful time. We will need to share stories next time we meet 😊

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Aug 1

Can confirm it was a fantastic 250+km across 10 islands ... when I was not miserable with wet feet, knee deep in bog, or waking up with 50+ seed ticks invading my tent 😅! Disturbed by only one Radio 4 Today interview and a phone call with a senior govt official.

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Jul 19

BRB solo hiking the Outer Hebrides (south ➡️ north) over the next 2 weeks. 👋 No big news when I am away please, thanks.

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Jul 17

The rest of 2025 promises to be exceptionally important for advancing social media data access for UK researchers.

📣 UK social media researchers! Join us at the event below to hear directly from Ofcom and UK government on current ideas, next steps, and to also share your own perspectives ⬇️

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Tom Metherell @tommetherell.com · Jul 14

We have a ✨NEW PREPRINT✨! Using data from the @clscohorts.bsky.social Millennium Cohort Study and linked healthcare records, we tested the association between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses in secondary care in young people in England. This is still a work in progress - feedback welcome!

PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · Jul 8

Characterising the longitudinal relationship between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses in secondary care in adolescents in England: https://osf.io/87cze

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Jul 16

Job 2+: still being finalised (opening: late summer, closing date: autumn, starting date: ~early 2026). If you have delivered exciting research in relevant areas, and do not fit the role above, please feel free to get in touch directly with your CV and overview of background/interests to discuss.

Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Jul 16

I'm hiring 2+ 2.5-year postdocs over the next few months.

Job 1: looking for someone with deep expertise in computational modelling (reinforcement learning, agent based modelling) on real-world/complex data (closing: 18 August, starting: October-December), www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52059/

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Jul 15

Now I’m jealous

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · Jul 15

Crazy coincidence how often [thing that will fix science of all of its ailments] coincides with [thing the speaker considers themselves an expert in]. Makes you think

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Amira Skeggs @amiraskeggs.bsky.social · Jun 24

🚨New preprint 🚨

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬: 𝐀 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞-𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨-𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲

osf.io/preprints/ps...

🧵

Using a novel micro-narrative method, we collected ~ 900 first-person accounts of social media harms from young people across the UK and US.

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Jun 14

Thanks for inviting me Anna, and the rest of the History and Philosophy of Science department 🙏

Anna Alexandrova @annaalexandrova.bsky.social · Jun 13

Thank you @orbenamy.bsky.social for speaking at Coffee with Scientist in HPS today! We discussed this pathbreaking paper. Also what it's like to be a science advisor grappling with all the right moral n epistemic qs with humility n wisdom, while being doubted from left n right. Stay strong, Amy!

Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · Apr 11

New Paper! I'm truly excited to share @natematias.bsky.social and my new Policy Forum in Science published yesterday.

We evaluate science's ability to address technological harms, and offer recommendations for what could be done to improve on the status quo: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Pete Etchells @peteetchells.bsky.social · Jun 13

Screen Sense: Parenting in a Digital World, the new podcast from @shuhbillskee.bsky.social and I - first episode is now live. We hope you enjoy it. open.substack.com/pub/screense...

Episode 1: Why does (digital) parenting feel so hard?

Listen now | How should we think about parenting in a digital age?

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Luisa Fassi @fassiluisa.bsky.social · Jun 5

Very excited and grateful to receive the 2025 Psychology of Technology Dissertation Award for my PhD thesis!

A special thanks to the Institute, the organisers and my wonderful PhD supervisors @orbenamy.bsky.social & @tamsinford.bsky.social.

More info: psychoftech.substack.com/p/congratula...

Nate Fast @natefast.bsky.social · Jun 4

We're excited to announce the 2025 Psychology of Technology Dissertation Award winners! Please join us in congratulating them!

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Amy Orben @orbenamy.bsky.social · May 23

Interested in improving researcher's access to social media data? Kate Dommett and myself are hiring for a Research Fellow (1 year; based at Sheffield) for an exciting new project to be announced soon: jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research...

Research Fellow (UKRI Social Media Data Access for Researchers)

jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk

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Reposted by Amy Orben

Georgia Turner @georgiaturner.bsky.social · May 22

🔷New in Biological Psychiatry🔷

**Old Strategies, New Environments: Reinforcement Learning on Social Media**

In this Review, we argue that the computational framework of Reinforcement Learning can help us understand social media behaviour:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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