Gordon Pennycook
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gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook
@gordpennycook.bsky.social
23K followers 1.2K following 390 posts

Associate Professor, Psychology @cornelluniversity.bsky.social. Researching thinking & reasoning, misinformation, social media, AI, belief, metacognition, B.S., and various other keywords. 🇨🇦

https://gordonpennycook.com/ .. more

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Gordon Robert Pennycook is a Canadian psychologist who is an associate professor at Cornell University. He is also an adjunct professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Regina's Hill and Levene Schools of Business. In 2020, he was elected to be a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. .. more

Political science 22%
Sociology 21%
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gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 2d
Great new example of a selection effect for class

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

jayrosen.bsky.social
Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 2d
Via @brianstelter.bsky.social

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Gordon Pennycook, Martin Lang

dorsaamir.bsky.social
Dorsa Amir @dorsaamir.bsky.social · 2d
Thrilled to share our latest paper, out now in Science Advances! We explored the development of cooperative behaviors — fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, & honesty —  across five societies, culturally contextualizing them & seeing how they correlate. (1/5) www.science.org/doi/full/10....

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 3d
I know this is dumb and beside the point, but there are no gorillas in The Lion King

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 3d
I don't think it's giving him the benefit of the doubt. It's more that we can't be making assumptions about things that can't be verified. And we don't really need to: There's more than enough legitimate true information around to castigate Trump on any number of different indiscretions.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 3d
y'all, I almost fell for this one. This is a fake email www.snopes.com/fact-check/e...

Don't need to make things up to know that Trump is a racist

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook, Brendan Nyhan, Alberto Acerbi , and 2 more

dgrand.bsky.social
David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 6d
🚨New WP "@Grok is this true?"
We analyze 1.6M factcheck requests on X (grok & Perplexity)
📌Usage is polarized, Grok users more likely to be Reps
📌BUT Rep posts rated as false more often—even by Grok
📌Bot agreement with factchecks is OK but not great; APIs match fact-checkers
osf.io/preprints/ps...

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, David G. Rand, Linda J. Skitka

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 7d
Please contact Nina if you're interested in working with us! Much of this work is also with @dgrand.bsky.social & @tomcostello.bsky.social, and others! Very fun collaborative environment. And Nina is wonderful to work with!! (She is also the coolest among us, FWIW)

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Gordon Pennycook, Linda J. Skitka , and 2 more

ninawang.bsky.social
Nina Wang @ninawang.bsky.social · 7d
Interested in doing a postdoc on misinfo/belief change with me and @gordpennycook.bsky.social? We are looking for candidates to apply for a Connected Minds Postdoctoral Fellowship, based at York University. Contact me for more details! #PsychJobs
Connected Minds Postdoctoral Fellowships - Connected Minds
INTRODUCTION: New technologies are revolutionizing society, creating a 'techno-social collective' where humans and intelligent technologies are deeply interconnected. While such advances present excit...
www.yorku.ca

Reposted by David Lazer, Robert N. Stavins, Gordon Pennycook , and 8 more

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 7d
The last time he started talking like this, his allies minimized the risks and we ended up with January 6. This time we must take him literally and seriously. These comments are a five-alarm fire for democracy. In a functioning republic, he would be impeached and removed from office today.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Lisa W. Fazio, Brian J. Enquist , and 12 more

chanda.blacksky.app
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 8d
Epstein’s economic power among academics was made possible by a capitalist system that makes higher education dependent on the charity economy rather than a public good supported by taxing the rich

Reposted by Kori Schake, Elizabeth Saunders, Gordon Pennycook , and 22 more

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11d
Q: Can you be specific about how many ICE and CBP agents are currently operating in the state?

HOMAN: 3,000. There's been some rotations. They've been in theater a long time. Day after day, can't eat in restaurants, people spin on you, blowing whistles at you. But my main focus now is draw down

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook, Bruce D. Baker, Ann Bartow , and 1 more

juliarosekraut.bsky.social
Julia Rose Kraut @juliarosekraut.bsky.social · 11d
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Tom Homan and the Case of the Missing Fifty Thousand
Lawmakers and ordinary citizens have to keep asking about the bag of cash, or accept an executive branch without any accountability.
www.newyorker.com

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 12d
No, oddly enough I was listening to the Sgt. Pepper album in my car, realized I didn't know why the Beatles called it that. Went to Wikipedia, and one thing led to another

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 12d
Strange coincidence. I, too, found myself on this Wikipedia page today...

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Gordon Pennycook, Linda J. Skitka , and 1 more

irahyman.bsky.social
Ira Hyman @irahyman.bsky.social · 12d
Assistant Professor in Cognitive Psychology, Tenure-Track Position at Western Washington University.

This is an assistant professor position in applied cognitive psychology.

Short 🧵 about this position. 1/?

Here is the link with details and for applying: hr.wwu.edu/careers-facu...
Assistant Professor in Cognitive Psychology, Tenure-Track Position The Department of Psychology at Western Washington University seeks applicants for a tenure track Assistant Professor position with expertise in applied cognitive psychology to begin September 16, 2026. This is an assistant professor position in applied cognitive psychology. The position is open with respect to area of expertise. Possible applied topics in cognitive psychology might include, but are not limited to: culture and cognition, memory, human-computer interaction, eyewitness memory, learning and education, aging, embodied cognition, social cognition, and judgment and decision-making concerning current social issues. We are seeking candidates who have experience with equitable and inclusive teaching, mentorship, and research practices and share a strong commitment to promoting the success of students from historically underrepresented groups. The candidate will have teaching experience commensurate with their career level. They will be required to teach courses at the undergraduate level in cognitive psychology and research methods and statistics. The candidate should also be prepared to teach a cognitive course in a master’s level program. Responsibilities also include establishing and maintaining an active research program that involves undergraduate and graduate students, as well as service activities as appropriate. Review of files will begin on February 18th, 2026. More information at: https://hr.wwu.edu/careers-faculty?job=502873

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
Psychologists are definitely surprised. But it does seem to transcend various groups. It's less about prior theory and more about common experiences with debating and political communication.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
Just to clarify, I'm not likening you to a conspiracy theorist. I'm making the broader point that ppl often appear to be obstinate in debate contexts (such as this) and the general view is that facts don't matter. But we found that they do *even for conspiracy theorists* - i.e., a more extreme case

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
You don't like the studies, that's fine. I've given many talks on the topic now and I'm telling you honestly: People are surprised by these results.

Do what you want with that info. I've said my bit & don't intend to spend today trying to convince you to care about something you don't care about.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
Rather, it's mostly just the weight of facts and evidence that is having such a strong effect on people.

But, importantly, when we say "facts and evidence" we mean "ostensible" facts and evidence. In fact, the LLMs are quite good at convincing people to believe conspiracies as well.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
This is where the LLMs come in. The studies show not simply that people can be persuaded, but that they can be persuaded far more than anyone in the field (except for maybe you - apologies) expected. Furthermore, many of the mechanisms proposed in research on persuasion don't seem to matter much.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
Even though we know that people, in general, can be persuaded by text, this intuitive impression persists. But part of the reason that people seem so obstinate in context like this is that we (as experimenters) haven't done a good enough job of truly providing strong counterarguments.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
My intuitive impression from this conversation is that it won't really matter what I say because nothing will persuade you. And perhaps part of that is because I know you, but it's a general phenomenon. This is how conspiracy theorists are commonly described. Political communication as well.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
One can take any scientific study and strip it down to its most basic conclusion and make it look trivial. But if you read the papers with an open mind you might discover more to them.

That people (can be) persuaded by text isn't really the target. Rather, this very conversation is much closer.

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
Perhaps *you* would have been confident in this result, but until the study is run we can't say for sure. And many people would have been skeptical (trust me on that)

The debriefing is very thorough. If anything, people in the bunking condition are probably better off (given all the extra info) 2/2

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
What do you mean? We learn the extent to which AI is (a) willing to convince people to believe conspiracies and (b) is effective in doing so. The whole "oh we already knew that without the experiment" thing isn't worth much to me. 1/2

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 13d
There is a LOT more to those papers than that.

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Dorothy Bishop, Gordon Pennycook , and 5 more

katestarbird.bsky.social
Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 15d
Yesterday, I awoke to news of another ICE killing in MN. On Bluesky, the conversation was deeply critical of ICE. But I wanted to see how things were going on X. Surprisingly, the attempts there to blame the victim weren't getting as much traction as I suspected. So I wrote a thing.
Another Killing on ICE
The right wing propaganda machine can’t spin the killing of Alex Pretti
open.substack.com

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook, Rosemary A. Joyce, Richard Mortimer

johndrake.bsky.social
John Drake @johndrake.bsky.social · 16d
Wake up. Make breakfast. Do email. Watch a murder. Go to a party for a 5 year old. Laugh with my daughter. See a different angle of that murder. Hear govt officials slander the victim. Play Barbies with my kid. Feed her dinner. Tear up at that victim reading last honors to a vet. Put kid to bed. USA

gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social · 20d
Yah its more emphasis, sort of like a voice going deeper for emphasis. It's weird b/c its not akin to anything that one would normally hear or do in standard verbal communication. Outside of mockingly using air quotes