Paul Bloom joins Yoel and Alexa to talk about the glamour and humiliation of teaching psychology at the college level. They discuss how they've changed their approaches to teaching over the years, and whether they've become more skilled or more out of touch (or both). Alexa shares her experiences teaching about morality and evolution to a predominantly Christian student body, Yoel laments the fact that his students aren't more disagreeable, and Paul claims that critical thinking is overrated. In an era of increasing remote instruction, they claim that online courses can't do what they do. But, only Yik Yak knows for sure.

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• Paul Bloom's Teaching Advice
• Career science, open science, and inspired science (with Alexa Tullett) | Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
• Teacher (On FIlm) - YouTube

Inspired by a recent Atlantic article ("The Myth of Independent American Families" by Stephanie H. Murray) Alexa and Yoel consider what it means to live in an indiviualistic society. At an abstract level, they discuss different visions for interdependence, from communes to church communities to welfare states. On a more personal note, they reflect on ways that they depend on, and support, people in their families and communities, and whether it would be desirable to increase those levels of reliance. They also consider the domains of romantic relationships (should we feel like we're free to leave at any time?) and college education (how affordable should it be?). And, Yoel explains his beef with student loan forgiveness.

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• The Myth of Independent American Families - The Atlantic
• The Swedish Theory of Love
• Fees - Future Students. University of Toronto | University of Toronto
• Cost of Attendance – Financial Aid | The University of Alabama

Yoel and Alexa are joined by Stefan Uddenberg, a social perception researcher and author of the paper "Deep Models of Superficial Face Judgments." This paper was the focus of a previous episde - "A Face for Podcasting" - in which the co-hosts discussed the research, and the resulting controversy. Now, Stefan offers a new, insider perspective. He begins by offering a deeper explanation of the work, noting that a large, diverse set of facial images, is essential for studying how people are unfairly judged based on appearance (e.g., their race and gender). He also recounts the outrage on Twitter and somehow finds lessons to be learned from even the harshest and most misinformed attacks. In an unexpected twist, Yoel and Alexa discover Stefan's hidden talent.

Special Guest: Stefan Uddenberg.

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• Stefan Uddenberg
• Deep models of superficial face judgments | PNAS
• Reflections on ML models of first impressions | by Alex, Jordan, Josh, Stefan & Tom | Medium
• In the Air - YouTube

As the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) starts gearing up for their 2023 conference, Alexa and Yoel debate some of the organization's recent efforts to be more anti-racist and politically engaged. First, the co-hosts discuss debate over moving the conference from its originally scheduled location (Atlanta, Georgia) due to the state's restrictive abortion laws. They consider how boycotting (or, as SPSP ultimately decided, not boycotting) fits with the organization's mission and identity. Second, they examine SPSP's new submission evaluation criteria, which reward submissions for promoting equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. Yoel and Alexa are largely divided on both topics, but Yoel provides at least one improvement they can agree on.

Links:

• Two Psychologists Four Beers on Untappd
• Demonstrating Our Commitment to Anti-Racism Through Programming and Events | Society for Personality and Social Psychology
• SPSP Diversity Statistics
• Georgia's strict abortion law could take effect soon. Here's what the law does. - Georgia Recorder
• Views on whether abortion should be legal, and in what circumstances, in U.S. | Pew Research Center
• Stacey Abrams Urges Hollywood to Stay and Fight Anti-Abortion Laws in Georgia
• We Didn't Start the Fire - YouTube

Yoel and Alexa chat with Jennifer Cox and Lauren Kois, co-directors of the Southern Behavioral Health and Law Initiative. Established in 2020, the initiative was created to address the dearth of mental health resources for people who become involved with the legal system. Jennifer and Lauren walk our co-hosts through common scenarios that can occur when a person with mental illness encounters the legal system, some of which involve long waits in understaffed state hospitals with little access to basic mental health resources. They also describe various efforts to ameliorate these problems, including their own work to optimize use of the 988 mental health emergency line in Alabama. In the process, they offer hope for researchers who aim to effect policy change without becoming mired in political polarization. And, they challenge future guests to a deadlifting contest.

Special Guests: Jennifer Cox and Lauren Kois.

Links:

• Two Psychologists Four Beers on Untappd
• SOUTHERN BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND LAW INITIATIVE - Welcome
• Standing tall: A new stage for incompetency cases
• Yoel Romero - Wikipedia
• Tomberlin - stoned [Official Audio] - YouTube

Independent researcher Aella joins Yoel and Alexa to talk about her experiences doing freelance social science. Their discussion touches on some far-ranging topics, from the upsides of Twitter microfame to the humbling experience of questioning one's faith. At one point, they consider the compromises - good and bad - that come from catering to one's critics. Aella also discusses a recent funded research project where she asks people about their sexual fetishes.

Special Guest: Aella.

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• Knowingless – In pursuit of an internally consistent annihilation
• erodynamics
• All The Twitter Polls (@aella_girl) - Google Sheets

Mickey returns with the hot takes you know and love. He joins Yoel and Alexa to discuss Jonathan Haidt's recent Atlantic article, "Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid." Haidt claims the answer is social media, but the cohosts aren't fully convinced. To shed a bit more light on the matter, they turn to an article by Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski which provides a rigorous analysis of the relationship between social media use and well-being. In the end, Mickey admits to being a hypocrite, and Alexa makes a plug for Big Potato.

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid - The Atlantic
• Orben & Przybylski (2019)
• Response from Twenge, Haidt, Joiner, & Campbell
• Response to the Response
• US TikTok User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China, Leaked Audio Shows
• The Welfare Effects of Social Media - American Economic Association
• Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media
• Corrupting The Youth: Teaching of Psychology | RSS.com

Earlier this year, the last of five "Many Labs" projects was accepted for publication at Collabra: Psychology, representating the culmination of a nearly-decade long series of multi-lab replication efforts. In this episode, Alexa and Yoel consider what they've learned from Many Labs 1 through 5, including insights about replication, expertise, and the impact (or lack thereof) of small effects. They also discuss their own connections to the project - Yoel as an original author, and Alexa as a researcher examing psychologists' reactions to the findings. Although the co-hosts deny they have any existential fear of death (see Many Labs 4) they do share their most recent life-threatening experiences.

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• Many Labs 1
• Many Labs 2
• Many Labs 3
• Many Labs 4
• Many Labs 5
• PsyArXiv Preprints | Psychologists Update their Beliefs About Effect Sizes After Replication Studies
• Burlington Farmers Market

Originating within the behavioral sciences, "nudging" has received attention as a way to achieve broad societal change by promoting small, individual adjustments. We're told, for instance, that if we all do our part reduce our carbon footprints we can stave off climate change. In today's episode, Yoel and Alexa consider a critique of "nudging" offered by Chater and Loewenstein. These authors argue that individual-level interventions often fail to accumulate to impressive societal change, and meanwhile distract from much needed system-level solutions. Also, Yoel claims to be less relatable than Alexa.

Sponsored By:

• FindingFive: Link and promo code for users in the European Union Promo Code: FF-EU-2P4B
• FindingFive: FindingFive is a non-profit web platform where academic researchers can create and run online behavioral research studies in the cloud. Promo Code: FF-US-2P4B

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• The i-Frame and the s-Frame: How Focusing on Individual-Level Solutions Has Led Behavioral Public Policy Astray by Nick Chater, George Loewenstein :: SSRN
• Sleaford Mods - Nudge It Ft. Amy Taylor - YouTube
• Why 'Nudges' Hardly Help - The Atlantic
• Climate Change Is a Crisis We Can Only Solve Together | The Nation
• (5) Oleg Urminsky on Twitter: "Some slightly cranky comments on the "nudges can be a harmful diversion" discussion. 🧵" / Twitter
• What nudge theory got wrong | Financial Times

Yoel and Alexa discuss a recent study that examines the facial features that people perceive as "smart," "dorky," "trustworthy," or a number of other traits. The study quickly captured a lot of attention, eliciting both fascination and anger. The cohosts turn to Twitter, and to Alexa's undergraduate students, to attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the criticisms and suspicions expressed about the work. In the process, they consider whether glasses make you look smart, and whether babies can be trusted.

Sponsored By:

• FindingFive: Link and promo code for users in the European Union Promo Code: FF-EU-2P4B
• FindingFive: FindingFive is a non-profit web platform where academic researchers can create and run online behavioral research studies in the cloud. Promo Code: FF-US-2P4B

Links:

• Two Psychologists F. on Untappd
• Deep models of superficial face judgments | PNAS
• Abeba Birhane on Twitter: ""trustworthy", "smart" & "privilege" are not things that can be read off faces. this is nothing but a form of machine aided phsygnomy that will be used for insidious purposes which will end up harming those that don't fit social and historical stereotypes" / Twitter
• Tim Maughan on Twitter: "fuck you and fuck your digital calliper skull measuring snake oil bullshit" / Twitter
• Yoel Inbar on Twitter: "I'd be very interested in the strong argument against this kind of research (ideally including readings). I see a lot of moral outrage in the replies/quote tweets but I would like to know more about why. As an outsider it seems sort of baffling." / Twitter
• joseph osmundson (all pronouns) on Twitter: "@yorl There are literally entire libraries on this, Jesus." / Twitter
• The Data Therapist on Twitter: "I like this question. Baffled by all the outrage around AI ethics? Would like to form your own opinion but not sure how to start thinking about it? Here’s my 3 minute tweetorial / lay of the land: #ethnlp #AIEthics #EthicalAI" / Twitter
• The ethical questions that haunt facial-recognition research
• Physiognomy’s New Clothes. by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Margaret… | by Blaise Aguera y Arcas | Medium
• Black racial phenotypicality shapes social pain and support judgments
• I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles (Cover) - YouTube