More of a Comment Than a Question

In this episode we are joined by Sinan Alper, a professor of Psychology at Yaşar University in Turkey, to discuss psychological research in non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) contexts, and his work on the antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

Follow Sinan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SinanAlper_

Some references:

1. Paper showing people holding contradictory conspiracy beliefs (e.g. Princess Diana was assassinated but is nonetheless still alive): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550611434786

2. Civic honesty around the globe (Science paper testing frequency of returning lost wallets in different countries): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau8712

3. The backfire effect of debunking misinformation on Twitter: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445642

4. SInan's paper on the link between intuitive thinking and social conservativism in WEIRD/non-WEIRD contexts: http://journal.sjdm.org/18/181212/jdm181212.pdf

In this episode we respond to a disgruntled listener's critiques of our previous Rittenhouse-gate! episode, and discuss a controversial proposal on the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) listserv to form a group of non-oppressed oppression researchers.

Links:

Statement by graduate students of color at UNC concerning the pervasiveness of racism in the UNC psychology department: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L6J6Ee58JM338Fu89it_iKECeWdFWwSX60W6T3eC1r8/edit

A list of references we were pointed towards as additional evidence of racism within the UNC psychology department: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UmtHuW31UDoXfFe7LT26bnDVkGrB0DzpwroAD4QRW2U/edit

Statistics concerning the demographics of SPSP members: https://www.spsp.org/sites/default/files/Member-Diversity-Statistics-December-2019.pdf

Racial Equity Tools' explainer on the reasoning behind racial affinity groups https://www.racialequitytools.org/resources/act/strategies/caucus-and-affinity-groups

Showing Up For Racial Justice's (SURJ) list of past actions taken by SURJ affinity groups https://surj.org/category/past-actions/

Opinion piece: 'Please don't ask your Black friends to teach you about racism' https://theeverymom.com/dont-ask-your-black-friends-to-teach-you-about-racism/

In this episode we are joined by Paul Cernasov, a graduate student of clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina, to discuss a controversy within the UNC psychology department following an official email sent out to the department regarding the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse.

Here is the study Paul mentioned with regard to anti-Asian racism: https://virulenthate.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Virulent-Hate-Anti-Asian-Racism-In-2020-5.17.21.pdf

In this episode we talked with Professor Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist from the University of Chicago whose views on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) led to the cancellation of a public lecture he was scheduled to give at MIT this autumn. 

We discuss how Professor Abbot gradually became concerned enough about what he saw happening at his institution with regard to DEI that he felt compelled to raise a dissenting voice concerning on affirmative action and academic freedom.

Here is a paper by Peter Arcidiacono of Duke University, whose work Professor Abbot references in the pod, which argues that affirmative action may harm its beneficiaries in many cases: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20130626 And here is Professor Arcidiacono talking on Glenn Loury's show about more of his research:
https://twitter.com/glennloury/status/1307037150815420417?lang=hi

On this episode we are joined by Thomas Costello, a PhD candidate at Emory University, to discuss his work on the fascinating but under-studied construct of Left-Wing Authoritarianism. 

You can find Tom on twitter at https://twitter.com/tomstello_ and read more about his work at https://www.thcostello.com/

In this episode we are joined by air force veteran and 'professor in exile' Dave Porter to discuss the series of events that culminated in his termination from Berea College, Kentucky, and his ongoing lawsuit against the college alleging that Berea violated his and his students' academic freedom.

Some more background on Dave's story can be found here: https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2021/07/why-did-a-christian-college-fire-a-tenured-professor/

A letter in support of Dave published by the National Association of Scholars can be found here: https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/an-open-letter-to-lyle-d-roelofs-president-of-berea-college

It's been a big week on psych twitter! Friend of the pod Nicole Barbaro returns to help us unpack all the drama surrounding the launch of Substack U (aka the University of Austin), as well as the fifty-ninth wave of the Great Tone Debate™

Here is the University of Austin's website: https://www.uaustin.org/

And here is the paper at the center of the last few days' controversy: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjso.12489

In this episode we are joined by Steven Zhou, a graduate student in I-O Psychology at George Mason University, to discuss personality types. good and bad science communication, and what a healthy skepticism of academic research looks like. 

In this episode, we try to unpack the notion of offensiveness, and discuss recent controversies at Yale and Netflix. What does it mean to find something offensive, and how should institutions handle situations in which individuals invoke the notion of offensiveness? 

In this episode we muse about one of the least popular opinions possible for an academic to have: is it possible that grad students are actually not underpaid?