Morteza Dehghani

@mdehghani.bsky.social

740 followers 270 following 49 posts

Professor of Psychology and Computer Science at USC

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Computer science 33%

Psychology 22%

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Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

Led by @sabdurah.bsky.social w/ Farzan Karimi-Malekabadi, Chenxiao Yu, @nourkteily.bsky.social

Here is the link to the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2512.17066

Realistic threat perception drives intergroup conflict: A causal, dynamic analysis using generative-agent simulations

Human conflict is often attributed to threats against material conditions and symbolic values, yet it remains unclear how they interact and which dominates. Progress is limited by weak causal control,...

arxiv.org

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

This framework allows us to bridge the gap between individual psychology and macro-level social outcomes in ways previously impossible.

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

Key finding: "Hateful language" was a transient symptom, not the cause. The true engine of long-term escalation was persistent ingroup bias.

Structural factors like segregation didn't change the psychology but concentrated hostility within majority groups.

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

In our 2x2 simulation, Realistic Threat (safety/resources) was the heavy hitter. It was the most reliable predictor of actual behavioral escalation.

Symbolic Threat drove ingroup bias and "hateful" speech but rarely escalated conflict on its own.

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

By injecting "hostility vectors" into the model's activations, we could causally shift agents from neutral to aggressive behavior.

This proves these internal representations aren't just noise—they functionalize behavior.

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

Using mechanistic interpretability, we found the LLM encodes "realistic threat," "symbolic threat," and "hostility" as distinct internal activation states.

We then "steered" these states...

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Efrén O. Pérez

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · 3d

How do resource fears (realistic threat) vs. value clashes (symbolic threat) drive war & peace?

We built a virtual society of 25 autonomous agents using the Park et al. (2023) framework to find out, using a "minimal groups" paradigm (Group A vs. B).

But first, we looked under the hood. 🧠

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Sep 8

We're looking for a PhD in Computer Science, Psychology, or Political Science with a strong computational background. ($84-85k salary).

usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

Happy to answer any questions!

#postdoc #hiring #USC #AI #ComputationalSocialScience #AIforGood

Postdoctoral Scholar - Research Associate at USC

Learn more about applying for Postdoctoral Scholar - Research Associate at USC

usccareers.usc.edu

Reposted by Efrén O. Pérez, Melanie C. Green, Michael Jones‐Correa

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Sep 8

Come work with us at USC! We're hiring an NSF-funded Postdoc for the Everyday Respect Project. 🤖

You'll work directly with me, Ben Graham, and Shri Narayanan, using cutting-edge AI to analyze police body-worn camera footage to improve police-community relations.

Postdoctoral Scholar - Research Associate at USC

Learn more about applying for Postdoctoral Scholar - Research Associate at USC

usccareers.usc.edu

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Payam Piray @payampiray.bsky.social · Aug 12

New paper with @nathanieldaw.bsky.social in Nature Communications: an RL model that builds a successor map compositionally. The new model plans as well as the best models, and it links components of the map used for planning to neural codes in the medial entorhinal cortex.
rdcu.be/eAofi

Reconciling flexibility and efficiency: medial entorhinal cortex represents a compositional cognitive map

Nature Communications - How the brain creates compositional cognitive maps that support both flexible and efficient planning remains poorly understood. Here, authors propose a...

rdcu.be

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Oct 6

Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist who is serving a 10-year sentence in Tehran, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” nyti.ms/3Q6O3sL

Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist who is serving a 10-year sentence in Tehran, was named as the recipient of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Suhaib Abdurahman @sabdurah.bsky.social · Nov 15

New Preprint: "Perils and Opportunities in Using Large Language Models in Psychological Research." osf.io/tg79n

@mdehghani.bsky.social @aliomrani.bsky.social @mohammadatari.bsky.social

osf.io

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Nils Reimer @reimtime.bsky.social · Nov 16

I am recruiting Ph.D. students to join our Social Injustice and Social Change group at UCSB! You still have until December 1 to apply. Application fee waiver are available (for qualified domestic applicants).

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Elnaz Rahmati @elnaz-rahmati.bsky.social · Feb 20

Read our latest work CoCo-CoLa on measuring and improving language adherence in multilingual LLMs with efficient fine-tuning. 📖 arxiv.org/abs/2502.12476
Thanks to my co-authors @alirezaziabari.bsky.social and @mdehghani.bsky.social
for their collaboration!
#LLMs #NLP #Multilinguality

CoCo-CoLa: Evaluating Language Adherence in Multilingual LLMs

Multilingual Large Language Models (LLMs) develop cross-lingual abilities despite being trained on limited parallel data. However, they often struggle to generate responses in the intended language, f...

arxiv.org

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Morteza Dehghani

Andrea Vial @avial.bsky.social · Jul 25

🔥Excited to share our new paper in PsychScience! Shout out to best-ever collaborators Aida Davani, @ruyuan-zuo.bsky.social, @shreyahavaldar.bsky.social, Eleanor Chestnut, @mdehghani.bsky.social & @andreicimpian.bsky.social 🧵1/8…
doi.org/10.1177/0956...

Syntactic and Semantic Gender Biases in the Language on Children’s Television: Evidence From a Corpus of 98 Shows From 1960 to 2018 - Andrea C. Vial, Aida Mostafazadeh Davani, Ruyuan Zuo, Shreya Haval...

Biased media content shapes children’s social concepts and identities. We examined gender bias in a large corpus of scripts from 98 children’s television progra...

doi.org

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Jun 28

Understanding this dynamic is crucial. External calls for regime change often backfire, strengthening the regime's narrative. The path forward is a psychological shift, not a political one. (2/2)

Reposted by Jeremy Ginges

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Jun 28

My new op-ed in the @nytimes.

I argue that Iranians are caught in a state of “moral paralysis,” a psychological trap set by the Islamic Republic itself. It pits two of our most sacred values against each other: liberation vs. self-determination. (1/2) www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/o...

Opinion | The Moral Paralysis Facing Iranians Right Now

www.nytimes.com

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Jun 13

Check up on your Iranian colleagues and students; this is a full-on war!

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · Jun 4

Watch this montage of clips from Israel's Channel 14, filled with racist and genocidal bile, shocking stuff, ask yourself why you don't see these clips on US or UK mainstream news, and then read Prem's deep dive for Zeteo into Channel 14:
zeteo.com/p/inside-the...

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · May 19

PhD preferred.

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · May 17

This position is remote and can be anywhere in the U.S. If interested, send me a resume. I won’t be able to respond to all messages.

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · May 17

This is a unique opportunity to contribute fundamental research, while also applying and operationalizing your findings to build cutting-edge AI evaluation systems in a fast-paced, impactful environment!

Reposted by Jeremy Ginges

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · May 17

We’re looking for a researcher to work on methods and building tools for AI evaluation. We are seeking candidates with expertise at the intersection of agentic systems and personalization, demonstrated by a strong publication record in relevant venues.

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Jeremy Ginges @jeremyginges.bsky.social · May 16

This is what Leibowitz was warning about when he referred to Judeo Nazis www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

Gaza: Latest Israeli Plan Inches Closer to Extermination

The Israeli government’s plan to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population into a tiny area would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongo...

www.hrw.org

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Apr 19

I am very sorry to hear that, Maddy.

Reposted by Morteza Dehghani

Phil Klay @philklay.bsky.social · Apr 5

“There is no God but God, Muhammad is his messenger,” the paramedic is heard saying. He asks God for forgiveness and says he knows he is going to die.

“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose — to help people,” he said. “Allahu akbar,” God is great, he says.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/w...

Video Shows Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Under Gunfire Barrage, With Ambulance Lights On

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Florian Bieber, Colombia, Morteza Dehghani , and 1 more Florian Bieber, Colombia, Morteza Dehghani, Susan D. Amussen

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · Mar 24

BREAKING: Yuval Abraham, co-director of Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land," says Israeli settlers beat his co-director Hamdan Ballal, injuring his head and stomach — and then Israeli soldiers invaded the ambulance he was in and seized him.

Ballal's whereabouts are now unknown.

Tweet from Yuval Abraham:
"A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since."

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Mar 16

Such a great read! Thanks

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Mar 16

Anyway to share a version outside the paywall?

Morteza Dehghani @mdehghani.bsky.social · Mar 14

Very similar to the Islamic Republic

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