Sam Pratt
@sampratt99
Lab Manager @UNCpsych: http://deepestbeliefslab.com - learning about morality, politics, and consciousness. Incoming PhD student @UCLA
New paper in early publication at Annual Review of Psychology: @kurtjgray and I review how the mind makes sense of morality. We argue that morality is fundamentally tied to perceptions of harm/victimhood/suffering and discuss how to understand and bridge moral/political divides
There is no legit evolutionary psychology podcast. My friend @DavePietrasz and I thought this was a dire situation, so we set out to fix it. I’m excited to announce the start of Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast). I wrote a little something about it on my blog. (Link below).
New preprint! We developed new measurement tools to study moralization in ~2B X & Reddit posts and ~5M traditional media texts. Key finding: moralization increased markedly on social media from 2013-2021; more than traditional media; associated with multiple user dynamics 🧵👇
New paper in JEP Applied: Why do so many instructors use trigger warnings or announce that their classroom is a "safe space"? We find that these practices send important signals about the instructor's intentions, values, and political commitments. @APA_Journals
Trigger warnings had no overall impact on students' perceptions of instructors. In contrast, safe space notifications increased students' feelings of psychological safety and willingness to discuss controversial topics. But they also increased perceptions of instructors as…
New paper in JEP Applied: Why do so many instructors use trigger warnings or announce that their classroom is a "safe space"? We find that these practices send important signals about the instructor's intentions, values, and political commitments. @APA_Journals
Forget whether or not "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" are effective - what do they SIGNAL? That's the premise of this new paper just out from @sampratt99
New paper in JEP Applied: Why do so many instructors use trigger warnings or announce that their classroom is a "safe space"? We find that these practices send important signals about the instructor's intentions, values, and political commitments. @APA_Journals
Why do professors often make a point of saying their classroom is a "safe space"? And why has the practice spread so rapidly? One reason might be that it sends a social signal that they (the professor) are caring and trustworthy.
Very cool experience giving a talk at the YMCA summer camp I attended in New Hampshire from age 9-16. I spoke about the youth mental health crisis and how summer camps can provide boys and young men with a sense of belonging.
🧵1/12 New GreeneLab paper in Nature Human Behaviour—after 5+ years! Our cooperative quiz game, Tango (letstango.org), defuses political animosity and improves democracy-related attitudes. Some key effects last 4 months doi.org/10.1038/s41562…
Some promising trends in the psychology replication crisis since 2004: - Fewer studies publish weak p values (.01 < p < .05) - Studies with weak p values are less likely to get cited - The % of weak p values (26%) is now roughly what we would expect from studies with 80% power.
AI is quickly becoming a valuable tool in psychological research. I created a short guide to help you use it well (link in comments 👇). Includes CustomGPTs, example prompts, and tools for lit reviews, survey design, data analysis, and manuscript prep.