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Barnabas Szaszi

@szaszibarnabas.bsky.social

1.5K followers 300 following 36 posts

Behavior change at scale, decision-making, meta-science, inequality, and a 'little bit' of happiness. Fulbright Alumn at Harvard & Columbia. Also leading the BS lab at ELTE.

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

🧵 Can you predict whether behavioral interventions will work in new contexts?

… probably not, right?

In our new paper with @dggoldst.bsky.social @dilipsoman.bsky.social @susanmichie.bsky.social, we dive into how to better understand and improve generalizability. rdcu.be/ewD2z

Summary👇

Generalizability of choice architecture interventions

Nature Reviews Psychology - Choice architecture interventions (or ‘nudges’) aim to guide behaviour by changing the proximal physical, social or psychological environment. In this...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Jamie Cummins @jamiecummins.bsky.social · 20d

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

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · 25d

Incredible!

Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Gilad Feldman @giladfeldman.bsky.social · 28d

Read: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Thanks, Anna Dreber & economist team that made this a reality, & @PRASAC for taking lead.

Main question:
Can prediction markets and surveys accurately predict if classic social psychology & JDM findings will replicate in new data collections?

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · Aug 22

Did you register to help moderate PsyArXiv preprints but haven’t heard from us yet? Check your spam folder and add [email protected] to your contacts! We are onboarding moderators in batches to avoid overloading the system, but rest assured we will get to everyone. #PsychSciSky

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · Aug 15

PsyArXiv is seeking new moderators to help combat an increase in AI submissions! If you've ever posted a preprint to PsyArXiv, please consider joining. Minimum commitment 1h/month, there's a training session this Monday @ 1pm ET. More info here: forms.gle/9LB1rEtxHAeZ... #PsychSciSky

Expression of Interest in Serving as a PsyArXiv Moderator

As you might have heard, PsyArXiv is having some issues with an increase in low-quality submissions, ranging from AI generated manuscripts to inflate citation metrics, incoherent or nonsensical docume...

forms.gle

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Nicholas A. Coles @nicholascoles.bsky.social · Aug 14

New 📰

Demand characteristics are a fundamental methodological concern in research with humans

Yet little is known about the magnitude and consistency of these effects

In a new paper, I, M. Wyatt, and @mcxfrank.bsky.social take stock of what we’ve learned via meta-analysis

doi.org/10.1525/coll...

A Meta-Analysis of the Impact and Heterogeneity of Explicit Demand Characteristics

Demand characteristics are a fundamental methodological concern in experimental psychology. Yet, little is known about the direction, magnitude, and consistency of their effects. We conducted a three-...

doi.org

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Lukas Röseler @aufdroeseler.bsky.social · Aug 6

If you consume or produce research, I say that you must learn about the commercial publishing system. Start with @forrt.bsky.social's glossary (forrt.org/glossary/eng...), watch the Paywall Movie (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAzT...) and learn about OA types. Think about who you want to do research for.

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Behavior Change for Good Initiative @bcfginitiative.bsky.social · Aug 5

In @natrevpsychol.nature.com, Team Scientists @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social, @dggoldst.bsky.social & @dilipsoman.bsky.social and Susan Michie argue that improving how we study nudges—through better design, collaboration, and open science—can help us learn when and where they’re most effective.

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · Jul 31

Here's a quick blogpost about alternative publishing models. You can bring a horse to water, and indeed wave the bucket temptingly under its nose, but it is likely to gallop off elsewhere. deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/07/new-...
@ec.europa.eu @wellcometrust.bsky.social

New publishing models will only work if authors embrace them

Complaints about the broken academic publishing system have been around for years and are getting louder. A common theme is that with the r...

deevybee.blogspot.com

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 30

Generalizability!

Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

4️⃣ These practices are essential to:
– Strengthen behavioral theories
– Make interventions reliable
– Help policy & orgs pick strategies that actually work

This paper is for anyone in:
– Behavioral science
– Policy
– Intervention design
- Replications

🙏Let us know what you think!
📄 rdcu.be/ewD2z

Generalizability of choice architecture interventions

Nature Reviews Psychology - Choice architecture interventions (or ‘nudges’) aim to guide behaviour by changing the proximal physical, social or psychological environment. In this...

rdcu.be

Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

3️⃣ What can we do?

We outline ways to build evidence on generalizability more efficiently:
– Explore moderators systematically
– Design studies with generalizability in mind
– Report generalizability relevant details transparently

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

2️⃣ Why is generalizability so tricky?
Because it has:
– Many dimensions (population, setting, outcome, etc.)
– Complex interactions between them
– Dynamic change over time

👇

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

2/n
1️⃣ Nudges can be highly effective in some contexts, but ineffective or even harmful in others.
The problem? We’re bad at predicting which outcome will happen.

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

1/n Our core message:
You can’t assume an intervention that worked somewhere will work elsewhere.
But we can design behavioral science in ways that make generalization more likely and transparent.

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jul 28

Generalizability of choice architecture interventions

Nature Reviews Psychology - Choice architecture interventions (or ‘nudges’) aim to guide behaviour by changing the proximal physical, social or psychological environment. In this...

rdcu.be

2 15 38

Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Dan Goldstein @dggoldst.bsky.social · Jul 23

New paper just dropped:

Szaszi, Barnabas, Daniel G. Goldstein, Dilip Soman, Susan Michie. (2025). Generalizability of Choice Architecture Interventions. Nature Reviews Psychology.

Thanks to @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social for doing the lion's share!

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Generalizability of choice architecture interventions - Nature Reviews Psychology

Choice architecture interventions (or ‘nudges’) aim to guide behaviour by changing the proximal physical, social or psychological environment. In this Review, Szaszi and colleagues show that the avera...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Ekaterina Pronizius @epronizius.bsky.social · Jun 26

Day 2 of #SIPS2025 ended with a fabulous boat trip! I’ve been told that SIPSers took part in traditional Hungarian dances led by @martonkovacs.bsky.social and @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social . But what happened on the boat, stays on the boat. Tss!

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · Jun 20

HELP! 🙏

I’m looking for validated emotionally neutral texts (ideally pretested or normed) to use in a control condition. Participants will read the text and count letters. Any leads, references, or resources? 🙏

Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · Jun 17

This is shocking behaviour by Wiley; the stated justification does not stand up.
I will not be doing any peer review for Wiley journals in future.

Peer Community in Registered Reports @pci-regreports.bsky.social · Jun 17

NEW: Statement from the PCI RR Managing Board on the withdrawal of Infant and Child Development as a PCI RR-friendly journal, and the decision by Wiley to refuse preprints that have been peer-reviewed by @peercommunityin.bsky.social / @pci-regreports.bsky.social

Read here ➡️ osf.io/tn8mh

In 2024, Infant and Child Development (ICD) withdrew as a PCI RR-friendly journal and reneged on three Stage 1 recommendations issued by PCI RR. In addition, Wiley – the publisher of ICD – notified PCI RR and the PCI core team of its decision to withdraw all Wiley journals from PCI and PCI RR, including an additional 9 PCI-friendly journals. Finally, Wiley appears to have banned all of its ~1600 journals from considering submissions that have been previously reviewed by PCI or PCI RR. This statement explains the history of ICD joining PCI RR and developments that led to the current outcome. The PCI RR Managing Board believes that this shift in policy to become “PCI-hostile” renders Wiley journals incompatible not only with community-based preprint review but with preprint archiving in general.

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

PCI Psychology @psych.peercommunityin.org · Jun 11

PCI Psychology is here!! 🎉🥳

After over a year of hard work by so many people, we are thrilled to announce that we are open for submissions! Join us in making publishing more efficient, equitable, and open: psych.peercommunityin.org
#PsychSciSky #scipub

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · May 22

would love it! Thanks!!

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

František Bartoš @fbartos.bsky.social · May 21

A recently published meta-analysis in Nature Human Behaviour "found evidence supporting the efficacy of social comparison as a behaviour change technique in shaping behaviour in the desired direction".

I was curious, so I re-analyzed the manuscript, but the funnel plots below say it all.

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · May 22

Will there be a recording of your talk? Would love to watch it!

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Reposted by Barnabas Szaszi

Katherine Stiles @katherinestiles.org · May 16

US brain drain: Nature’s guide to the initiatives drawing scientists abroad

“the ERC is doubling to up to €2 million (US$2.2 million) the extra ‘start-up’ money that researchers moving to Europe can apply for to help them establish their laboratories.” #AcademicSky #ERC #US #Researchers

US brain drain: Nature’s guide to the initiatives drawing scientists abroad

In response to US turmoil, premier establishments such as the European Research Council have sweetened incentives to attract talent.

www.nature.com

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · May 14

Please help us on our next big behavioral study on parental well-being!

Peter Szecsi @peterszecsi.bsky.social · May 14

We are designing a large-scale RCT to evaluate the impact of behavioral interventions on parental well-being and their downstream effect on second birth likelihood.

If you know of relevant materials, interventions, or email lists, we’d appreciate any recommendations!

Details on the scope below⬇️