newsletter: (almost) august 2023 ☀️
introducing the new editors & team leaders of marginalia science + some updates for our first official substack newsletter
hiii marginalia community. it’s eliana, ivy, jordan, & minjae.
happy summertime!!
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first things first…want to be the guest editor for the september newsletter?
shoot us an email, sign up via this google form, or DM us on Twitter & we’ll tell you more!!
💛💛💛
this newsletter has a slightly different format than usual. we start with some quick intros from each member of the new team, and then share marginalia updates to give some insight into our goals as the next team in charge of running this platform.
to start, meet the new team!
jordan
about me i am finishing up my first year as a postdoc at Boston College. i am a moral psychologist, and i study how morality influences how we reason about rules, rule breakers, and who we are curious to learn more about. if you’d like to learn more about me, check out my website.
here’s a quick overview of what i’ve been reading, watching, and thinking about this month:
📚READING 🤓
metazoa this is a beautiful and profound book by Peter Godfrey-Smith that takes a deep dive into the origins of thought and experience. highly recommend if you like non-fiction & 🦑 or 🐙
📺 WATCHING 👀
inspector ike i’m a huge fan of indie film, and this one is a winner imo. the plot of this comedy follows the eponymous inspector ike as he investigates a murder of a avant-garde theater actor. it’s inspired by 70’s murder mystery TV-shows (an aesthetic it absolutely nails), doesn’t take itself too seriously, and is pretty funny at times. it’s definitely not for everyone, but worth it if you don’t mind microbudget film!
💻 SOME PAPERS I’M (TRYING!) TO READ THIS MONTH 👇
How reputation does (and does not) drive people to punish without looking
Jillian J. Jordan & Nour S. Kteily
PNAS (2023)
Punishing wrongdoers can confer reputational benefits, and people sometimes punish without careful consideration. But are these observations related? Does reputation drive people to people to “punish without looking”? And if so, is this because unquestioning punishment looks particularly virtuous? To investigate, we assigned “Actors” to decide whether to sign punitive petitions about politicized issues (“punishment”), after first deciding whether to read articles opposing these petitions (“looking”). To manipulate reputation, we matched Actors with copartisan “Evaluators,” varying whether Evaluators observed i) nothing about Actors’ behavior, ii) whether Actors punished, or iii) whether Actors punished and whether they looked. Across four studies of Americans (total n = 10,343), Evaluators rated Actors more positively, and financially rewarded them, if they chose to (vs. not to) punish. Correspondingly, making punishment observable to Evaluators (i.e., moving from our first to second condition) drove Actors to punish more overall. Furthermore, because some of these individuals did not look, making punishment observable increased rates of punishment without looking. Yet punishers who eschewed opposing perspectives did not appear particularly virtuous. In fact, Evaluators preferred Actors who punished with (vs. without) looking. Correspondingly, making looking observable (i.e., moving from our second to third condition) drove Actors to look more overall—and to punish without looking at comparable or diminished rates. We thus find that reputation can encourage reflexive punishment—but simply as a byproduct of generally encouraging punishment, and not as a specific reputational strategy. Indeed, rather than fueling unquestioning decisions, spotlighting punishers’ decision-making processes may encourage reflection.
Which kind of sameness? Disambiguating two senses of identity with a novel linguistic task
Vilius Dranseika, Shaun Nichols, & Nina Strohminger
Cognition (2023)
When people report that a person's identity has changed, what do they mean by this? Recent research has often assumed that participants are indicating a change in numerical, rather than qualitative, identity. Investigations into this matter have been hampered by the fact that English has no clear way to demarcate one type of identity from the other. To resolve this matter, we develop and test a novel task in Lithuanian, which has lexical markers for numerical and qualitative identity. We apply this task to intuitions about changes in moral capacities, which has previously shown to lead to high ratings in identity change. We discover that, when people say that a morally altered person is dramatically different, they mean the person is qualitatively transformed, but numerically intact. We conclude that this methodology is a valuable tool not only for illuminating the specific phenomenon of the moral self, but for general use in studying folk ascriptions of identity persistence.
ivy
about me i’m a third-year PhD student in social psych at Cornell. prior to starting my phd, i did an MA in linguistics and spent some time interning and working with animal protection groups, including the humane league, farm sanctuary, and PETA. i'm interested in moral psychology, cognitive linguistics, perceptions of animal agriculture/farmed animals, and the impact of these perceptions on consumer behavior. my website is here.
this month…
📚READING 🤓
l’assommoir zola on the poverty-stricken parisian working class
a place of greater safety re-reading this one, as it’s one of my favorites. it follows three jacobin figureheads, including danton and robespierre, prior to and during the french revolution
rashōmon and seventeen other stories some akutagawa to break up all the french history
👂LISTENING 🎧
faye wong i love her
show me the body just trust me!
💻 SOME PAPERS I’M (TRYING!) TO READ THIS MONTH 👇
Animals are diverse: distinct forms of animalized dehumanization
Verónica Sevillano & Susan T. Fiske
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (2023)
The animal stereotype approach dissolves ‘animals’ into diverse images depending on their species. First, we reviewed recent research showing the attributes socially ascribed to different animal species. Next, we discussed how the animal stereotype approach may complement dehumanization by broadening the distinct forms of animalized dehumanization based on 1) intentions (warm, friendly, and harmful), 2) abilities (perceptual and cognitive), 3) physical appearance (size, aesthetic appeal), 4) affective capacities, 5) physiological needs, and 6) domestic–wild nature.
minjae
about me i recently finished my PhD at Boston College, and am very excited to start a postdoc in the LIU Lab at Johns Hopkins this month! i’m interested in how we form and update impressions of people’s moral character, and how theory of mind and causal reasoning support these processes.
here are some things i’ve been enjoying this month:
👂LISTENING 🎧
Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster this is a podcast where the hosts invite the guest to describe their ‘dream meal’ (their all-time favorite starter, main course, side dish, drink, and dessert). the format highlights how food can be both universal and incredibly personal, and every episode is replete with delightful culinary puns. if you’re looking for a place to start, i’d recommend the eps with Florence Pugh, Yotam Ottolenghi, or Rina Sawayama.
📺 WATCHING 👀
Past Lives (2023) & Return to Seoul (2022) these might be two of my favorite films of the past decade, and would make a lovely double feature. Return to Seoul stars Ji-Min Park as a twentysomething Korean adoptee raised in France who impulsively flies to the motherland to search for her biological parents; Past Lives stars Greta Lee as a married, thirtysomething Korean expat in New York who reunites with a childhood sweetheart from her hometown. the women in both movies grapple with the circumstances and choices that left them alienated from their own cultures, and the complexities of trying to find a home in other people. if you’re into longing and Linklater, these are for you!
💻 SOME PAPERS I’M (TRYING!) TO READ THIS MONTH 👇
You never get a chance to undo a negative first impression: Social anxiety is associated with impaired positive updating of social information
Reut Zabag, Roy Azoulay, Mike Rinck, Eni Becker, Einat Levy-Gigi, Eva Gilboa-Schechtman.
Personality and Individual Differences (2023)
In an ever-changing social world, learning and updating beliefs about others are essential for smooth interpersonal functioning. Social anxiety is a common and burdensome condition involving difficulties in interpersonal functioning. However, the processes governing the learning and updating of beliefs regarding others, processes crucial for these interactions, are poorly understood. In order to address this gap, we used a novel modification of a reversal-learning task. The task consisted of two phases. In the first (learning) phase, participants learned that interactions with certain individuals were associated with negative outcomes and other individuals with positive outcomes. In the second (updating) phase, these associations were reversed. Hence, negative individuals became positive and vice-versa, and participants had to update their initial beliefs. Study 1 (n = 87; undergraduate students) revealed that social anxiety was not associated with biases in learning positive or negative information about others. However, social anxiety was associated with a deficit in positively updating existing negative beliefs. Study 2 (n = 248; Mturk workers) replicated these findings in a representative and demographically diverse sample, controlling for depression severity and age. The current research suggests that social anxiety-related difficulty in the positive updating of negative social information may contribute to the impairment in interpersonal functioning.
Role of right temporoparietal junction for counterfactual evaluation of partner’s decision in ultimatum game
Akitoshi Ogawa, Saki Asano, Takahiro Osada, Masaki Tanaka, Reia Tochigi, Koji Kamagata, Shigeki Aoki, Seiki Konishi.
Cerebral Cortex (2023)
Humans assess the distributions of resources based on their aversion to unfairness. If a partner distributes in an unfair manner even though the partner had a less unfair distribution option, a recipient will believe that the partner should have chosen the counterfactual option. In this study, we investigated the neural basis for fairness evaluation of actual and counterfactual options in the ultimatum game. In this task, a partner chose one distribution option out of two options, and a participant accepted or rejected the option. The behavioral results showed that the acceptance rate was influenced by counterfactual evaluation (CE), among others, as defined by the difference of monetary amount between the actual and counterfactual options. The functional magnetic resonance imaging results showed that CE was associated with the right ventral angular gyrus (vAG) that provided one of convergent inputs to the supramarginal gyrus related to decision utility, which reflects gross preferences for the distribution options. Furthermore, inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation administered to the right vAG reduced the behavioral component associated with CE. These results suggest that our acceptance/rejection of distribution options relies on multiple processes (monetary amount, disadvantageous inequity, and CE) and that the right vAG causally contributes to CE.
eliana
about me i am gearing towards the end of my PhD at Penn State and looking forward to starting my post-doc at UT Austin at the start of 2024. i am (another) moral psychologist in the group, broadly interested in altruism, empathy, and prosocial behavior, and specifically studying how we think about, expect and sometimes (negatively) judge the kindness of others. if any of that sounds interesting, feel free to check out my website.
this month:
📚READING 🤓
The maidens by fellow Cypriot Alex Michaelides although not as mind-blowing as his first thriller the silent patient. I highly recommend the latter if you enjoy mystery/suspense/thriller fiction.
📺 WATCHING 👀
You which by this point has gone mainstream and i’m probably pretty late to the party. as a moral psychologist i’ve enjoyed experiencing the moral conundrums of the hero/villain see-saw. although i finished watching this a while ago, i cannot recommend Chef’s Table enough - whether you are a foodie or not, it is a masterpiece.
👂LISTENING 🎧
One time by Marian Hill - a jazzy-pop delight. while you are at it, listen to all their songs from that album, you won’t be disappointed.
💻 SOME PAPERS I’M (TRYING!) TO READ THIS MONTH 👇
The psychology of zero-sum beliefs
Shai Davidai & Stephanie J. Tepper
Nature Reviews Psychology (2023)
People often hold zero-sum beliefs (subjective beliefs that, independent of the actual distribution of resources, one party’s gains are inevitably accrued at other parties’ expense) about interpersonal, intergroup and international relations. In this Review, we synthesize social, cognitive, evolutionary and organizational psychology research on zero-sum beliefs. In doing so, we examine when, why and how such beliefs emerge and what their consequences are for individuals, groups and society. Although zero-sum beliefs have been mostly conceptualized as an individual difference and a generalized mindset, their emergence and expression are sensitive to cognitive, motivational and contextual forces. Specifically, we identify three broad psychological channels that elicit zero-sum beliefs: intrapersonal and situational forces that elicit threat, generate real or imagined resource scarcity, and inhibit deliberation. This systematic study of zero-sum beliefs advances our understanding of how these beliefs arise, how they influence people’s behavior and, we hope, how they can be mitigated.
Kathryn Buchanan & Gillian M. Sandstrom
Plos one (2023)
Negatively valenced news dominates the press, with stories of death and destruction gaining significant traction while also negatively impacting people’s mental health and perceptions of humanity. Given that horrific acts happen and need to be reported, we examined if news stories featuring others’ kindness could undo the aversive effects of news stories featuring others’ immorality. In Studies 1a-d we tested whether media exposure to the acts of kindness that occurred in response to a terrorist attack could alleviate the aversive effects of media exposure to the terrorist attack. In Study 2, we examined whether, more generally, the aversive effects of news stories featuring immorality (e.g., homicide, paedophilia, bullying) could be alleviated through news stories featuring acts of kindness (e.g., volunteering, philanthropy, caring for the homeless). In Studies 1 and 2, we found that participants exposed to others’ immorality and then others’ kindness suffered from less aversive changes to their mood, experienced greater levels of elevation and were more inclined to believe in the goodness of others, than participants exposed only to others’ immorality. Given this, we suggest there is merit in journalists shining a light on others’ kindness if people’s affective well-being and belief in the goodness of humanity is to remain intact.
🎤 ICYMI we were featured on the Stanford Psychology Podcast! make sure to listen and share it! on the episode, we restate our values and share some of our ideas for growing marginalia in the coming years.
🚧 our website is under construction — you can still check out our website for updates, but we are in the process of building out some new pages to help make the website more of a centralized resource. stay tuned!
💻 we plan to survey y’all — we want to get to know our subscribers, so stay tuned for a VERY short survey about who you all are and what you’d like to see from us.
✌✌✌ in support & science,
📚 MARGINALIA SCIENCE 📚
eliana hadjiandreou
ivy gilbert
jordan wylie
minjae kim
THIS MONTH’S (short but sweet) ROUND-UP 🤩
but first…
Have a job opportunity to share? Use the form in this link
Have a paper or recent presentation to share? Use the form in this link
round up below 👇👇👇
💎 awesome work by marginalia and affiliated scientists 💎
💫 💫 p.s. you can soon find these articles on our website 💫 💫
Seeing racial avoidance on New York City streets
Bryce Dietrich & Melissa Sands
Keven Joyal-Desmarais, Alexandra K. Scharmer, Molly K. Madzelan, Jolene V. See, Alexander J. Rothman, & Mark Snyder
Freedom and constraint in digital environments: Implications for the self
Sanaz Talaifar & Brian S. Lowery
Sanaz Talaifar, Michael Stuetzer, Peter J. Rentfrow, Jeff Potter, & Samuel D. Gosling
Jonathan M. Adler, Robert B. Manning III, Rachel Hennein, Julia Winschel, Alessandra Baldarie, Kathleen R. Bogart, Michelle R. Nario-Redmond, Joan M. Ostrove, Sarah R. Lowe, & Katie Wang
Special issue of American Psychologist: Foundational contributions of Black scholars in psychology
Fanita A. Tyrell, Helen A. Neville, José M. Causadias, Kevin O. Cokley, & Karlyn R Adams-Wiggins.
👓 OTHER THINGS THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU 🚀
BJDP special issue on gender diversity in development (due Nov 1)
Princeton academic job materials panel discussions are ongoing – unfortunately, the first session already passed, but the next session is on 8/2 from 3-4 p.m. EST!
🌱 JOB-MARKET RESOURCES 🌱
no matter where you’re at right now -- offer in hand, fingers still crossed, looking at post-docs, exploring options outside academia -- we support you!
tenure track // assistant professor positions
Boston College school of education and human development: assistant professor
UMD College Park department of human development & quantitative methodology: 2 assistant professor positions
University of Minnesota department of psychology (behavioral/cognitive neuroscience): assistant professor
lab manager // research assistant positions
Clinical Aging and Relational Emotion Science Lab at Georgetown: full-time lab manager
Early Learning Lab at UNC Chapel Hill: 2 full-time research assistants
Cognition, Affect, and Temperament Lab at Penn State: full-time research assistant/study navigator
Van Bavel/Vlasceanu Lab at NYU hiring a joint lab manager
Oliver Hauser, Jon Jachimowicz, & Ania Jaroszewicz are seeking a part-time research assistant to help with data cleaning and analysis for a field experiment on US poverty policy
Melanie Joy is looking for a grad student in psych to assist with scale development.
and, of course, feel free to email us with questions, ideas, etc to add to this list!