Deepest Beliefs Lab
@DeepBeliefsLab
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🧠 Led by @kurtjgray. ⚖️ We study morality, mind perception, religion, artificial intelligence, and more!
The Ohio State University
Joined August 2024
A new scale provides a tool for studying the belief that words can cause psychological harm. 🤬 led by lab alum 👴 @sampratt99
✍️ New Preprint: "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." but can words really harm? We created the Words Can Harm Scale (WCHS) to measure the belief that speech can cause lasting psychological harm. You can take the online assessment here: https://t.co/7lEWgN06Hx
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Read the full piece here! https://t.co/ySHa8luE3z
moralunderstandingnewsletter.com
Who’s Right in the Parental Blame Game?
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Are dads doing more than ever, or are they as lazy as ever compared to their wives? The answer, it turns out, is both. 👫 In our newest Substack, we chatted with Dr. Corinne Low (@femonomics) about how conflicts in relationships often look a lot like moral disagreements. 🔗⬇️
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New semester, new lab members, new University! We're glad to be settling in and posting on our Substack again about what this chaotic summer taught @kurtjgray . (new post linked below 🍎🤓)
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So excited to welcome @MirandaMStiehl and @CCX_Zhang to our new lab! 🥳
Completed my first day of classes at @OhioState! Super excited to start my Social Psychology PhD journey with @kurtjgray in the @DeepBeliefsLab!
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🚨 New preprint from the lab finds that dog owners who see their dog as a "soulmate" prioritize dogs 🐶 > people 🧑🤝🧑 across various moral dilemmas. ✍️: @danicajdillion , @helenldevine , @kurtjgray 🔗:
osf.io
Dogs have ascended to core family members in American households. Across three studies, we show that modern dogs now occupy roles historically reserved for close human relationships and often receive...
1 in 5 dog owners would let you die to save a puppy. 🐶 The majority of pet owners see their dog as a soulmate. Many don’t just prefer their own dog over people—they’ll pick a stranger’s dog over a human life. New preprint 🧵
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This week's Science to Impact symposium at @OhioStatePsych hosted experts in all kinds of science communication! Grateful to have helped organize this event and heard from these minds in one room. 🧠 🧪
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New work from @sampratt99 : Trigger warnings and safe spaces aren't just "mental health tools". They send important social signals about the person giving them.
New paper in JEP Applied: Why do so many instructors use trigger warnings or announce that their classroom is a "safe space"? We find that these practices send important signals about the instructor's intentions, values, and political commitments. @APA_Journals
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Why do professors often make a point of saying their classroom is a "safe space"? And why has the practice spread so rapidly? One reason might be that it sends a social signal that they (the professor) are caring and trustworthy.
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Some promising trends in the psychology replication crisis since 2004: - Fewer studies publish weak p values (.01 < p < .05) - Studies with weak p values are less likely to get cited - The % of weak p values (26%) is now roughly what we would expect from studies with 80% power.
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Ever wonder how AI can help improve research? @sampratt99 made a guide (link in quoted thread).
AI is quickly becoming a valuable tool in psychological research. I created a short guide to help you use it well (link in comments 👇). Includes CustomGPTs, example prompts, and tools for lit reviews, survey design, data analysis, and manuscript prep.
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I recently had the chance to go on the @OutrageOverload Podcast with David Beckemeyer. We discussed the psychology of morality, the role of victimhood in political conflict, and how we might lower the temperature on society's biggest divides. Link in the comments!
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50 years ago Thomas Nagel famously asked "What is it like to be a bat?" Now, some really promising insights into the stream of consciousness.
Excited to share my new TiCS paper, currently free to download. After 40 years since I was first obsessed with consciousness, I finally wrote a paper directly about it. A thread on the paper's plot line below. 1/8
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@danicajdillion is a rising star in the psychology of AI and morality. We're excited to follow her continued success as she transitions to a postdoc with Dr. Mirta Galesic!
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Answers (left to right) Top Row: Human, Human, AI, AI, AI, Human Bottom Row: Human, AI, Human, AI, Human, AI
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Fittingly, we celebrated Danica's defense with a Turing Test: can you guess the 6 signs that were generated using AI? (Spoiler: GPT passed the turing test). Answers in next slide.
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In a 2025 paper in Scientific Reports, Danica found that language models even surpass the expert NYT ethical columnist "The Ethicist" in the perceived thoughtfulness, morality, trustworthiness, correctness, and nuance of its moral advice. https://t.co/f1JyTP7aoY
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In a 2023 TiCS paper, Danica and her colleagues found that AI language models nearly perfectly replicate human moral judgment. They zoom out and ask: Could AI language models one day replace human participants? https://t.co/WarfUiTwcw
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