Two Psychologists Four Beers

Harvard psychologist and philosopher Josh Greene joins the show to talk about his influential work in moral psychology and why he has partly moved from basic science to applied projects. We talk about two ways he's trying to apply his research to change the real world. The first is Giving Multiplier, a donation platform that nudges people towards higher-impact giving (listeners can get extra matching funds on Giving Multiplier by visiting https://givingmultiplier.org/invite/BEERS). The second is Tango, an online interactive quiz game that gets Democrats and Republicans to like each other a little better.

Let's hope Mickey never finds out that this episode features zero (0) alcoholic drinks. Josh drinks some fancy adult sodas, and Yoel, who is less fancy, drinks a Red Bull.

Also, the question everyone has been asking: is Josh a moral realist?

Special Guest: Josh Greene.

Sponsored By:

• Giving Multiplier: Listeners get extra matching funds on Giving Multiplier!

Links:

• Boosting the impact of charitable giving with donation bundling and micromatching | Science Advances

Andy Masley joins Yoel and Mickey to talk about a claim that's made him (in)famous: using AI chatbots doesn't meaningfully affect your carbon footprint or water usage. We discuss what data centers actually do with water, why "ten times a Google search" is not a useful metric, and why people really don't want data centers built near them.

We also talk about Andy's involvement in effective altruism, which criticisms of it he takes seriously, and whether a grant from an EA funder should make you trust him less. Plus, some self-driving car discourse, and Yoel tries to drink a bottle of bourbon.

Finally, a small correction from Andy: "I misspoke at 48:00 and said you'd need to send 150,000 prompts to raise your emissions by 1%, I got my wires crossed with how much you'd need to double your emissions and the actual number should be 1,500 per day."

Special Guest: Andy Masley.

Links:

• Andy Masley | Substack

Paul and Yoel talk about whether it's a problem that psychologists seem to be no better than laypeople at predicting behavior. We also cover a recent controversy in anthropology, talk a little bit about the Odyssey (movie), and discuss whether people ought to be drinking more.

(Sorry about the clicking in Paul's audio--we did what we could to tone it down!)

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

Links:

• Did Carolyn Rouse Make Things Worse? - by Evan Goldstein

Cognitive scientist Molly Crockett joins the show to talk about what it's like to be known in the field as an "AI skeptic." We talk about where Molly is actually skeptical, but also what she thinks that label gets wrong. Along the way, we cover a bunch of other things too: Molly's research in social neuroscience, computational modeling, and moral psychology; Molly and Mickey's disagreements about empathic AI; and Molly's case for what she's calling "thick empathy." Finally, Molly makes a pitch for non-alcoholic beer, which sadly falls on deaf ears.

Special Guest: Molly Crockett.

Links:

• OSF | The pitfalls of pay-to-play morality

Researcher, professor, and former Division III football player Nick Epley joins the show to talk about why we underestimate the benefits of social connections. We are a social species, and yet many of us choose to avoid connecting with others. Nick and I talk about his research on this, and about his new book, A Little More Social, which is all about how we can change our behavior to connect more with others.

Special Guest: Nick Epley.

Links:

• Nicholas Epley

Instead of a new episode this month, we have one from the vaults that many newer listeners might not have heard (because it came out almost 7 years ago). But, especially since Paul has a new baby (see first link), re-releasing this one seemed fitting. And it's always been one of my favorites. We'll be back with new episodes in the coming months.

Original Episode Description

Yoel and Mickey welcome Paul Bloom to the podcast, who is not only a returning guest but also the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. We first give terrible advice on parenting. Does parenting affect happiness, relationship satisfaction, and meaning? Does parenting screw with prospective decision making because it leaves the decision maker utterly transformed? We next discuss perversity. Why do we enjoy doing transgressive things? Who is likely to be perverted? Is perversion ever a good strategy?

Bonus: How would Paul rate Yoel on a scale of 1 to 5?

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

Links:

• Small Potato - by Paul Bloom - Small Potatoes

Many academics care about diversity in faculty hiring, but why? Azim Shariff joins the show to talk about his new paper where he describes rationales for diversity in hiring, and an as-yet unpublished study where he asked department chairs how much they actually care about those rationales. We also talk about the empirical evidence for the diversity rationales (it's mixed!), Paul Bloom's argument against viewpoint diversity, and the future of DEI policies in the U.S.

Plus, Azim deviates from his long-standing practice of not drinking beer.

Special Guest: Azim Shariff.

Links:

• Taking faculty diversity seriously means asking why it matters

Mickey and Yoel talk about Canada's controversial euthanasia law (called MAID: medical assistance in dying). Since its introduction in 2016, an increasing number of Canadians are choosing euthanasia (in recent years, more than 5% of deaths in Canada were the result of MAID). We talk about the history of the law, criticism of it in Canada and abroad, and our own discomfort (or lack of) with legal euthanasia.

Separately, we also discuss a new paper that claims to show robust ego depletion effects--but is it just showing fatigue by another name?

Links:

• Congratulations, You've Discovered Fatigue

Paul Litvak joins the show to talk about how AI tools can help us measure research quality and assess evidence in the scientific literature. His first project is a way to extract test statistics and p-values from papers automatically, with no manual coding needed. We also talk about Paul's non-profit dedicated to improving the reliability of scientific research, the legendary judgment and decision making scholar Robin Dawes (whose entirely algorithmic approach to graduate student selection once went terribly awry), and Paul's exit from academia. Plus, Yoel reveals a shameful secret about his use of AI.

Special Guest: Paul Litvak.

Links:

• What If Everyone Knew Which Science to Trust?

Mickey is back and fired up about citation diversity statements. We talk about a recent editorial from Nature Reviews Psychology encouraging authors to include a "citation diversity statement" in their articles to "to draw attention to citation imbalances and confirm that they made efforts to cite publications from a diverse group of researchers." We discuss what we don't like about the editorial, as well as the strongest case for it.

We also talk about SpringerNature's profit margins, posting on LinkedIn, and Mickey's extremely problematic beer views.

Sponsored By:

• MindSampler: MindSampler provides a simple and powerful way to run Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) research directly from your Qualtrics account.

Links:

• Mickey's post on LinkedIn