August Newsletter

August 2021: A feud with Facebook, new pieces in Science Magazine and Psychology Today, and other updates from the lab. Plus, learn how to download and analyze social media data!

Jul 29, 2021

Summer is in full swing at the Social Identity and Morality Lab! We’re excited to share some updates about what we’ve been up to over the past month.

Our recent work has been capturing the attention of some big names in the past few weeks. From Nate Silver dunking on a paper (and simultaneously proving the point of said paper) to Facebook issuing a response to a new piece in the Washington Post, our research has been ruffling some feathers.

In a new Washington Post piece, Steve Rathje, Jay, and Sander van der Linden discussed our new research which found that the most viral posts tended to be about the opposing political party, and that posts about one’s political out-group were shared about twice as often than posts about one’s political in-group. Additionally, we found that posts about the opposition were almost exclusively negative.

Steve Rathje @steverathje2

We have a new op-ed in the @washingtonpost @monkeycageblog (with @Sander_vdLinden and @jayvanbavel) about our new @PNASNews study -- and why we need to re-think the perverse incentives of social media.

washingtonpost.comAnalysis | Why Facebook really, really doesn’t want to discourage extremismOur research finds that outrage is what goes viral – and makes money.

Citing Karen Hao’s recent account of Facebook’s content-recommendation models, which promote posts to maximize engagement and often reward extremist content, our piece argues that such a business model “ends up rewarding politicians, brands and hyperpartisan media companies for attacking their enemies.” And because high engagement makes social media companies more money, they will be unlikely to take steps towards reducing animosity on their platforms.

In response, Facebook issued a statement referring to the piece as “simply wrong.” Check out Steve’s thread to follow along with the drama and hear our rebuttal:

Steve Rathje @steverathje2

A few thoughts about Facebook's response to our @washingtonpost article, which @Facebook says is "simply wrong."

research.fb.comExtremism is bad for our business and what we are doing about it - Facebook ResearchA piece in today’s Washington Post alleges that it is not in Facebook’s financial interests to discourage extremism on our…

Publications

Jay co-authored a new Letters to Young Scientists column for Science. The piece explored the lessons learned from the pandemic and what practices we may want to continue, or do differently, as we begin to return to some semblence of normal:

Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine

"In our labs, we have begun to look back on the past year to see whether there might be any useful lessons learned." Our #LTYS columnists reflect on what their research groups learned during the #COVID19 pandemic. fcld.ly/4t0pueb @ScienceCareers

fcld.lyWhy the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to overdue change in academiaOur Letters to Young Scientists columnists reflect on what their research groups learned during the pandemic

Jay’s book has finally hit the presses! And we got our very first review from Publisher’s Weekly (which, we learned, is the primary magazine for book reviews). You can read the full review at the bottom of our most recent newsletter.

Jay Van Bavel @jayvanbavel

Our book is finally real! @dominicpacker_ and I got a few extra books so we will mail an autographed version next week to the 400th person who signs up for our newsletter (via powerofus.online) and a randomly selected person who shares this news on social media.

In the news

Anni Sternisko was recently interviewed about how work on conspiracy theories for the You Are Not So Smart podcast and connected it to the rise of QAnon:

Social Identity & Morality Lab @ NYU @vanbavellab

Why do people form communities around conspiracy theories? Lab member Anni Sternisko (@AnniSternisko) was interviewed about our research and theorizing on conspiracy theory beliefs for the latest episode of the @notsmartblog Podcast with @davidmcraney youarenotsosmart.com/2021/07/26/yan…

Jay was recently featured on Vox’s Recode podcast discussing the impact of social media on collective behavior:

Shirin Ghaffary @shiringhaffary

There is so much we don't know about the impact of social media on collective human behavior. And that worries academics. I had the pleasure of talking to @jayvanbavel and Mirta Galesic about this. Listen here on the Recode Daily podcast:

podcasts.apple.com‎Recode Daily: How social media threatens humanity on Apple PodcastsSocial media has, in an incredibly short period of time, drastically restructured the way we communicate. But there’s a problem: We know very little about its dangers. A new paper in the scientific journal PNAS argues that if left misunderstood and unchecked, we could see unintended consequences of…

And was also quoted in an article for USA Today:

American Psychological Association @APA

When making decisions involving risk, we often seek simple answers in black and white. When it comes to the continuing risks of #COVID19, says @jayvanbavel, there are too many variables for that to be the case.

usatoday.com‘It’s limbo’: Parents stuck between two COVID-19 worlds as young kids remain unvaccinatedAs the world returns to normal, fully vaccinated parents feel left behind while their young children are unprotected against the coronavirus.

I’m not sure if you would call this “In the news”, but Michael Thai made this hilarious video of the Stanford Prison Experiment (and our identity leadership re-analysis of the study) in this brilliant and funny music video:

Jay Van Bavel @jayvanbavel

A truly amazing music video summarizing the famous Stanford Prison Experiment by @drmichaelthai set to Billie Eilish youtube.com/watch?v=qTGoMk… The video explains the role of identity leadership in generating human cruelty (summarized here: blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/r…)

The Power of Us

Jay and his co-author Dominic Packer will be publishing, The Power of Us, on September 7. We started a weekly newsletter, a Medium blog, and a column for Psychology Today—all with the goal of sharing insights from the book in accessible, bite-sized pieces that can help us understand our group identities and become smarter about groups. Here’s our first piece for Psychology Today, analyzing how group identities contribute to the dumpster fire that is social media:

Dominic Packer @dominicpacker_

With help from David Bowie, @jayvanbavel and I wrote a piece for @PsychToday about the dumpster fire our online ecosystem has become and why it often has much to do with group identities... 🧵 psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-po… youtube.com/watch?v=8tCC9y…

youtube.comDavid Bowie predicted in 1999 the impact of the Internet in BBCDavid Bowie predicted in 1999 the impact of the Internet in BBC.

Workshops

Steve Rathje hosted a workshop on how to download and analyze data from both Twitter and Facebook. In his presentation, he details how to navigate the Twitter API and Crowdtangle (a tool for getting Facebook data), and provides tips for analyzing the data once you have it downloaded:

A few weeks back, we also had a wonderful presentation on working with physiological data from Kareena del Rosario and Dr. Tessa West. That workshop, and the resources mentioned in the video, will be live on their lab’s website sometime soon!

For more tips and workshops, check out our lab Youtube channel.

Getting together

As things are opening back up, we have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get together in person (and catch some rays while doing so!). Here is a snapshot from one of our recent project meetings at a cafe. We are planning a lab gathering at Central Park on Monday at 2pm if any current or former lab members want to join us. Just email Jay for the details.