daniel f stone
dfstone.bsky.social
daniel f stone
@dfstone.bsky.social

Behavioral economist at Bowdoin College. Interested in beliefs, sports, media, polarization, socially responsible capitalism. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047500/undue-hate/
https://www.bowdoin.edu/profiles/faculty/dstone/index.html .. more

Political science 43%
Communication & Media Studies 12%

Great! More than happy to discuss, don't hesitate to let me know of any questions/thoughts. Re other UG friendly readings, you've probably considered this already but Ezra Klein's book is an obvious one that comes to mind, covers a lot of research up to when it was published pretty well
Now this is an abstract.

An open access undergrad friendly book on this topic (that uses a particular lens), for what it's worth :)

direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
Undue Hate: A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Hostile Polarization in US Politics and Beyond
How to understand the mistakes we make about those on the other side of the political spectrum—and how they drive the affective polarization that is tearin
direct.mit.edu
Hi!!! I'm in the process of working on my syllabus for a course focused on US parties/partisanship/polarization.

If anyone's taught a similar course and is willing to share their syllabus, I'd really appreciate seeing how others have done this! Plugs for undergrad friendly papers also welcome (:

"Academics underestimate the rewards, and overestimate the risks, to researching, teaching, and speaking freely"

guidedcivicrevival.substack.com/p/and-thats-...
And that's how I learned to speak up
The academy is no place for self-censorship.
guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Loss aversion ("bad is stronger than good"): evidence from Buddhism

Interesting piece but if this claim is true that means students/parents don't actually care about teaching quality?

"colleges and universities have no incentive to define or measure teaching quality and have not funded serious controlled studies"

hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/teaching-q...
Teaching Quality
Higher Ed's Dirtiest Secret
hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com
Appreciate this letter from MN State Sen Jim Abler (R-Anoka) to POTUS

Yes... The existence of the college admissions consulting industry is also pretty clear evidence of this (only wealthy people can afford it - and they wouldn't pay if it didn't work - and it doesn't work by improving test scores/grades... though of course $ can be used to improve these too)

Interesting session! www.aeaweb.org/conference/2...,
American Economic Association
www.aeaweb.org

Reposted by Daniel Stone

Some social media algorithms are feeding us antidemocratic attitudes and intergroup hostility.

But a new field experiment finds that an algorithmic feed can reduce out-group animosity & affective polarization by down-ranking this hostile political content.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Reposted by Daniel Stone

We should just use standardized test scores + grades to admit students into college.

Everything else is way too easy to game, allowing the extremely rich to dominate access to prestigious colleges. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I've been saying this for a long time, but the data makes it clear.

Yas! Maybe Kahneman's most underrated contribution. Cool project supporting these: web.sas.upenn.edu/adcollabproj...
Participate | Adversarial Collaboration Project
web.sas.upenn.edu

Reposted by Daniel Stone

We’re trying to raise $1 million for desperately poor people in Rwanda to beat last year’s mark and do more good.

www.slowboring.com/p/one-millio...
One million dollars
How you can live a happier life, crush our Substack rivals, and help people in need
www.slowboring.com
Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.

Reposted by Daniel Stone

Reposted by Daniel Stone

Great @jamellebouie.net piece tying together many of the administration's grafts - for cash, for power...

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/o...
Opinion | The White House Gold Rush Is On
www.nytimes.com
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.

He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.
www.washingtonpost.com

"Because the truth is, I'm lying when I say there is no truth. The truth is- the pathetically, stupidly, inconveniently obvious truth is- helping only ourselves is bad and helping each other is good.“

-Jeff Winger (Community)

Reposted by Daniel Stone

Wow... @cnn.com
MTG apologizes for taking part in "toxic politics"
"I would like to say humbly for taking part in the toxic politics:

She says she is workign hard to "put down the knives"
Amazing.
A step forward.
She should be applauded for apologizing.
I am glad that MTG is speaking out on behalf of the victims of Epstein

And it is WRONG, just WRONG, that people are threatending her life
She is speaking now on @CNN State of the Union
Schrödinger’s immigrant - destitute yet able to buy a house.

This is *excellent*
So I met this guy who’s meditated 4000 conversations between Israelis and Palestinians since October 7th. And he’s building an AI powered platform for difficult conversations. Here’s what he’s learned. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/what-you-c...
What You Can Learn from 4,000 Conversations Between Israelis and Palestinians
Adam Becker is building an AI-powered platform for difficult conversations - BCB #171
www.betterconflictbulletin.org

Reposted by Daniel Stone

So I met this guy who’s meditated 4000 conversations between Israelis and Palestinians since October 7th. And he’s building an AI powered platform for difficult conversations. Here’s what he’s learned. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/what-you-c...
What You Can Learn from 4,000 Conversations Between Israelis and Palestinians
Adam Becker is building an AI-powered platform for difficult conversations - BCB #171
www.betterconflictbulletin.org

Good thread to share with those who question the value of viewpoint diversity

(Eg www.aaup.org/academe/issu...)

Sad to see yet another lawmaker - Rep. Jared Golden in this instance - citing threats against their loved ones as an impediment to their continued public service.

For 478 (literal) swing voters, your vote really did matter
www.pressherald.com/2025/11/05/b...