Arguably, the last 25 years of moral psychology have been about people's judgments of "purity violations"--ostensibly harmless acts that "are disgusting or degrading to one’s spiritual nature." From sex with (dead) chickens to pet-eating to baby Jesus buttplugs, moral psychologists have been fascinated by purity transgressions. Moral psychologist and purity expert David Pizarro joins the show to talk about the concept of purity and recent critiques arguing that it's a concept too broad to be useful. Along the way, we also discuss how often to shower, getting into bed in your outside clothes, and ritualistically washing your dad's feet.

Special Guest: David Pizarro.

Links:

• How disgust affects social judgments - ScienceDirect
• The Problem of Purity in Moral Psychology - Kurt Gray, Nicholas DiMaggio, Chelsea Schein, Frank Kachanoff, 2023
• Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 90: Freelance Kinkology (with Aella)
• Very Bad Wizards podcast

On-again off-again co-host Mickey Inzlicht joins the show to debrief about the recent SPSP (Society for Personality and Social Psychology) conference. We then dissect a new paper purporting to show working memory deficits in heavy cannabis users, including a deep dive into the preregistration. Finally, we discuss a recent Op-Ed in the Guardian that argues that research on AI empathy is fatally flawed.

Links:

• Brain Function Outcomes of Recent and Lifetime Cannabis Use | Child Development | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network
• OSF Registries | Verbal Memory and Language Processing in Young Adults who Use Cannabis: An Analysis of the Human Connectome Project
• AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged | MJ Crockett | The Guardian
• Tunde Adebimpe - Magnetic (Official Video) - YouTube

Cultural and developmental psychologist and open science advocate Moin Syed joins the show to talk what he thinks people get wrong about ideology, diversity, and open science. We talk about what role, if any, researchers' ideology should play in their science, and what it means when people describe psychological research as "ideological." In the second half of the show, we talk about what people get wrong about preregistration, and why it seems some misconceptions just won't die. We also talk about Moin's attempt to correct some misinformation (it did not go that well), and some local beer history.

Special Guest: Moin Syed.

Links:

• You Also Have an Ideology
• So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory - Elliot T. Berkman, Sylas M. Wilson, 2021
• Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 100: What Happened at Perspectives on Psychological Science?
• Preregistration: More Promises than Pitfalls
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race: Tatum, Beverly Daniel: 9780465060689: Amazon.com: Books
• A Brief Note on Intellectual Sloth; or, Are 70% of U.S. Faculty Really Adjuncts?
• Hinds - En Forma - YouTube

Occasional co-host Mickey Inzlicht joins the show to talk about the 2024 election, Bluesky, and his crusade against yard signs. We discuss prediction markets, Democratic declines with non-college voters, and whether Bluesky is a political bubble (and if so, if there's anything wrong with that). Also, Mickey explains his problem with yard signs and defends his beer snobbery.

Links:

• How the Trump Polymarket Whale Correctly Called the Election, and Made Nearly $50 Million - WSJ
• Yard Wars - by Michael Inzlicht - Speak Now Regret Later
• Melenas - Bang (Official Video) - YouTube

Paul Bloom joins the show to talk about a recent paper in which he argues that much of developmental psychology is not worth doing. We also talk about where he thinks psychology has succeeded, and whether we should be more skeptical of progressive-friendly social science findings. Plus: is it ever a good idea to tell your friend that the person they're dating is bad for them?

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

Links:

• Non-Zero Podcast (Post-Election Reflection with Paul Bloom)
• Much of developmental psychology is not worth doing | Theory and Society
• Psychology is ok - by Paul Bloom - Small Potatoes
• Progressives should worry more about their favorite scientific findings
• Psych: The Story of the Human Mind: Bloom, Paul: 9780063096363: Amazon.com: Books
• International Music - Im Sommer bin ich dein König - YouTube

Researcher and writer Adam Mastroianni joins the podcast to talk about why he left academia, what conventional scientific research might be missing, and how he ended up writing a succesful science blog instead of more journal articles. Plus: what is a Science House? How do we know that psychology is making progress? And should scientific fraud be a crime?

Special Guest: Adam Mastroianni.

Links:

• Experimental History | Adam Mastroianni | Substack
• PsyArXiv Preprints | Things could be better
• The first transmissions from Science House
• Good ideas don't need bayonets - by Adam Mastroianni
• Is psychology going to Cincinnati? - by Adam Mastroianni
• The Order of Death - YouTube

University of British Columbia professor and ADHD expert Amori Mikami joins the show to talk attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). What is it, how has our understanding of it changed over the years, and how accurate is the public discourse about it?

Plus, some more on Yoel's own ADHD journey and a quiz where we establish how many of Yoel's annoying behaviors are ADHD-related.

Special Guest: Amori Mikami.

Links:

• Amori Mikami - UBC Department of Psychology
• Why'd I take speed for twenty years?
• Lita Ford - Kiss Me Deadly - YouTube

Mickey joins Yoel for the first new episode in nearly a year. We talk what's been up with the show, plans for the future, and what it feels like to briefly be (almost) internet-famous.

In the second half of the show, we talk about expertise and prediction. When social scientists make predictions about the future, should we listen? How much should failures of prediction make us distrust expert advice more generally, and if so, how skeptical should we be?

Links:

• D.E.I. Statements Spark Debate at UCalifornia and Other Universities - The New York Times
• Americans harbor much less favorable explicit sentiments toward young adults than toward older adults | PNAS
• On the accuracy, media representation, and public perception of psychological scientists' judgments of societal change - PubMed
• When expert predictions fail - ScienceDirect
• Amyl and The Sniffers - "U Should Not Be Doing That" (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Andrew Devendorf joins Alexa and Yoel to discuss his work on "me-search" (or self-relevant research) within clinical psychology. He talks about the prevalence of mental health difficulties within the field, and the harmful taboos against speaking openly about them. And, he shares his own reasons for studying depression and suicide, and how he has been discouraged from citing personal experience as a motivation for his work. Their conversation also explores common misconceptions about mental illness, strengths of self-relevant research, and ways to be more supportive to those facing mental health challenges. In the end, Yoel and Alexa fail to resolve their debate about the existence of the "unbiased researcher."

Special Guest: Andrew Devendorf.

Links:

• Andrew Devendorf, M.A.
• PsyArXiv Preprints | Stigmatizing our own: Self-relevant research (Me-search) is common but frowned upon in clinical psychological science
• PsyArXiv Preprints | Is "me-search" a Kiss of Death in mental health research
• Only Human: Mental-Health Difficulties Among Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychology Faculty and Trainees - Sarah E. Victor, Andrew R. Devendorf, Stephen P. Lewis, Jonathan Rottenberg, Jennifer J. Muehlenkamp, Dese’Rae L. Stage, Rose H. Miller, 2022
• My Brother Went Missing, And The Search For Him Turned My World Upside Down | HuffPost HuffPost Personal
• NADA SURF - where is my mind? (Official Video) - YouTube

Playing devil's advocate, Yoel and Mickey mount a criticism against the scientific study of mindfulness. What is mindfulness? Can we measure it? Is mindfulness-based therapy effective? Can mindfulness improve the quality of attention beyond the meditation cushion? Are effects of mindfulness mostly placebo effects produced by motivated practitioners and adherents? Should we be impressed by mindfulness meditation’s supposed effects on conceptions of the self? Is mindfulness, in all its complexity, amenable to scientific study?

Bonus: Is the value of diversity and inclusivity a core part of open science?

This is a re-release of an episode first released on August 7, 2019.

Links:

• Burdock Brewery
• Lunch Money | Collective Arts Brewing
• PsyArXiv Preprints | Will this time be different?
• Opinion | Can We End the Meditation Madness? - The New York Times
• The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being - PubMed
• Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation - PubMed
• Argentine tango dance compared to mindfulness meditation and a waiting-list control: a randomised trial for treating depression - PubMed
• Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | Complementary and Alternative Medicine | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network
• Mindfulness training affects attention--or is it attentional effort? - PubMed
• Meditation, mindfulness and executive control: the importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring - PubMed
• Cognitive effects of MBSR/MBCT: A systematic review of neuropsychological outcomes - PubMed
• Mindfulness training as cognitive training in high-demand cohorts: An initial study in elite military servicemembers - PubMed
• A randomised active-controlled trial to examine the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive control, critical thinking and key thinking dispositions in a university student sample | BMC Psychology | Full Text