Aurélien Allard
@aurelienallard.bsky.social
Philosopher and Social Psychologist. Assistant professor at Nantes University. Studying justice, morality, replicability and open science. Personal website: https://aurelienallard.netlify.app/
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
I like to look back at my tools at the end of the year, should we share our best picks of apps for academics?
Can't-live-without-them:
- Alfred (launcher)
- Superhuman (email)
- Things 3 (todo)
- Overleaf (writing)
Honorable mentions: Highlights, Bear, MindNode, ChatGPT, RStudio, Slack
Can't-live-without-them:
- Alfred (launcher)
- Superhuman (email)
- Things 3 (todo)
- Overleaf (writing)
Honorable mentions: Highlights, Bear, MindNode, ChatGPT, RStudio, Slack
December 26, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I like to look back at my tools at the end of the year, should we share our best picks of apps for academics?
Can't-live-without-them:
- Alfred (launcher)
- Superhuman (email)
- Things 3 (todo)
- Overleaf (writing)
Honorable mentions: Highlights, Bear, MindNode, ChatGPT, RStudio, Slack
Can't-live-without-them:
- Alfred (launcher)
- Superhuman (email)
- Things 3 (todo)
- Overleaf (writing)
Honorable mentions: Highlights, Bear, MindNode, ChatGPT, RStudio, Slack
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Giving what we can has implemented a fun game where you spin a globe to see how your starting point in life would compare if you were reborn today, randomly somewhere on earth.
www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery
www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery
Birth Lottery
If you were reborn today, where would you land? And how would that change your life?
www.givingwhatwecan.org
December 25, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Giving what we can has implemented a fun game where you spin a globe to see how your starting point in life would compare if you were reborn today, randomly somewhere on earth.
www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery
www.givingwhatwecan.org/birth-lottery
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
🎄 Hope you’ve got all your presents ready 💝
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
December 24, 2025 at 10:16 AM
🎄 Hope you’ve got all your presents ready 💝
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Never heard back from the author so I emailed the editors and it turns out the authors had already discovered this shortly after publishing and sent a corrigendum which had not been published until just now.
If a Table in a meta-analysis contains one outlier SMD = 50 (!) with a suspiciously small SD that also happens to correspond to an SE from the study they're citing, and their estimate is clearly affected by this, is that enough to e-mail the corresponding author? (please say yes, I already did)
December 24, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Never heard back from the author so I emailed the editors and it turns out the authors had already discovered this shortly after publishing and sent a corrigendum which had not been published until just now.
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
This smells distinctly like collider bias and/or selection bias and/or regression to the mean... You simply can't select teen prodigies, and world class athletes rom databases, and go run regressions without serious consideration of the selection process!
"Most top achievers (Nobel laureates and world-class musicians, athletes, chess players) demonstrated lower performance than many peers during their early years. Across the highest adult performance, peak performance is negatively correlated with early performance" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Recent discoveries on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance
Scientists have long debated the origins of exceptional human achievements. This literature review summarizes recent evidence from multiple domains on the acquisition of world-class performance. We re...
www.science.org
December 20, 2025 at 3:48 PM
This smells distinctly like collider bias and/or selection bias and/or regression to the mean... You simply can't select teen prodigies, and world class athletes rom databases, and go run regressions without serious consideration of the selection process!
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Google AI is wrong to refer to the QI website for a quotation I have never examined.
The AI is confused because I do have an article referring to Lord Bowen and another article referring to an umbrella
quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/15/h...
quoteinvestigator.com/2011/04/07/b...
The AI is confused because I do have an article referring to Lord Bowen and another article referring to an umbrella
quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/15/h...
quoteinvestigator.com/2011/04/07/b...
December 20, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Google AI is wrong to refer to the QI website for a quotation I have never examined.
The AI is confused because I do have an article referring to Lord Bowen and another article referring to an umbrella
quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/15/h...
quoteinvestigator.com/2011/04/07/b...
The AI is confused because I do have an article referring to Lord Bowen and another article referring to an umbrella
quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/15/h...
quoteinvestigator.com/2011/04/07/b...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Our paper on the ☀️ "summer slide" 🛝 is out now @pnas.org!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Summer slide is a replicable phenomenon across diverse datasets that's more than "forgetting" school material in vacation months, but effects of socioeconomic inequality are ➡️ 7x bigger! ⬅️
#PsychSciSky #DevPsy
🧵👇
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Summer slide is a replicable phenomenon across diverse datasets that's more than "forgetting" school material in vacation months, but effects of socioeconomic inequality are ➡️ 7x bigger! ⬅️
#PsychSciSky #DevPsy
🧵👇
December 16, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Our paper on the ☀️ "summer slide" 🛝 is out now @pnas.org!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Summer slide is a replicable phenomenon across diverse datasets that's more than "forgetting" school material in vacation months, but effects of socioeconomic inequality are ➡️ 7x bigger! ⬅️
#PsychSciSky #DevPsy
🧵👇
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Summer slide is a replicable phenomenon across diverse datasets that's more than "forgetting" school material in vacation months, but effects of socioeconomic inequality are ➡️ 7x bigger! ⬅️
#PsychSciSky #DevPsy
🧵👇
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Join our Replicability Project: Health Behavior!
We have 55 replication studies underway, our target is 65-70.
We are only recruiting for secondary data replications--i.e., using existing data to test the original question.
Here's a list of studies we think could be feasible.
If interested...
We have 55 replication studies underway, our target is 65-70.
We are only recruiting for secondary data replications--i.e., using existing data to test the original question.
Here's a list of studies we think could be feasible.
If interested...
Replications Sourcing Sheet
docs.google.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Join our Replicability Project: Health Behavior!
We have 55 replication studies underway, our target is 65-70.
We are only recruiting for secondary data replications--i.e., using existing data to test the original question.
Here's a list of studies we think could be feasible.
If interested...
We have 55 replication studies underway, our target is 65-70.
We are only recruiting for secondary data replications--i.e., using existing data to test the original question.
Here's a list of studies we think could be feasible.
If interested...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Si vous aimez les SHS/sciences cog/philo et ce qui est deep, allez écouter ce podcast de potes qui invitent des chercheurs.euses pour parler de tout ça dans une ambiance relax !
Partagez ici et notez sur les apps pour nous aider à atteindre notre audience svp 🙏
open.spotify.com/show/7iDdboe...
Partagez ici et notez sur les apps pour nous aider à atteindre notre audience svp 🙏
open.spotify.com/show/7iDdboe...
December 16, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Si vous aimez les SHS/sciences cog/philo et ce qui est deep, allez écouter ce podcast de potes qui invitent des chercheurs.euses pour parler de tout ça dans une ambiance relax !
Partagez ici et notez sur les apps pour nous aider à atteindre notre audience svp 🙏
open.spotify.com/show/7iDdboe...
Partagez ici et notez sur les apps pour nous aider à atteindre notre audience svp 🙏
open.spotify.com/show/7iDdboe...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
🚨 Now out in Psych Science 🚨
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
December 17, 2025 at 5:17 PM
🚨 Now out in Psych Science 🚨
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
You remember that Nature Aging paper about how multilingualism protects against accelerated aging? Well…
December 17, 2025 at 7:15 AM
You remember that Nature Aging paper about how multilingualism protects against accelerated aging? Well…
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
A recent study purports to have found that multilingualism protects against accelerated ageing. I've taken a closer look at it, and it doesn't look good.
New blog post: "Does multilingualism really protect against accelerated ageing? Some critical comments"
janhove.github.io/posts/2025-1...
New blog post: "Does multilingualism really protect against accelerated ageing? Some critical comments"
janhove.github.io/posts/2025-1...
December 15, 2025 at 5:07 PM
A recent study purports to have found that multilingualism protects against accelerated ageing. I've taken a closer look at it, and it doesn't look good.
New blog post: "Does multilingualism really protect against accelerated ageing? Some critical comments"
janhove.github.io/posts/2025-1...
New blog post: "Does multilingualism really protect against accelerated ageing? Some critical comments"
janhove.github.io/posts/2025-1...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Huh I wonder if there were any other global events happening in in 2008. Guess we’ll never know.
December 15, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Huh I wonder if there were any other global events happening in in 2008. Guess we’ll never know.
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Congratulations to @bethclarke.bsky.social on her PhD graduation!! It’s been amazing watching you become the incredible scholar that you are, thanks for letting me come along for the ride!
You’re the best! 🎉🥂🌟
You’re the best! 🎉🥂🌟
December 13, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Congratulations to @bethclarke.bsky.social on her PhD graduation!! It’s been amazing watching you become the incredible scholar that you are, thanks for letting me come along for the ride!
You’re the best! 🎉🥂🌟
You’re the best! 🎉🥂🌟
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
A fascinating & damning exposé on Oliver Sacks, author of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”.
It turns out, by his own admission in his private journals, that much of his work was akin to “fairy tales” — based on “lies”, “falsifications”, & “fabrications”.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
It turns out, by his own admission in his private journals, that much of his work was akin to “fairy tales” — based on “lies”, “falsifications”, & “fabrications”.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
The scientist was famous for linking healing with storytelling. Sometimes that meant reshaping patients’ reality.
www.newyorker.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:48 PM
A fascinating & damning exposé on Oliver Sacks, author of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”.
It turns out, by his own admission in his private journals, that much of his work was akin to “fairy tales” — based on “lies”, “falsifications”, & “fabrications”.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
It turns out, by his own admission in his private journals, that much of his work was akin to “fairy tales” — based on “lies”, “falsifications”, & “fabrications”.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Grant competitions are a waste of everyone's time. If you must do it, at least make it efficient.
A new-ish study shows that asking for a paragraph + CV versus a full proposal basically generates the same results. So let's not waste people's time.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A new-ish study shows that asking for a paragraph + CV versus a full proposal basically generates the same results. So let's not waste people's time.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Do grant proposal texts matter for funding decisions? A field experiment - Scientometrics
Scientists and funding agencies invest considerable resources in writing and evaluating grant proposals. But do grant proposal texts noticeably change panel decisions in single blind review? We report...
link.springer.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Grant competitions are a waste of everyone's time. If you must do it, at least make it efficient.
A new-ish study shows that asking for a paragraph + CV versus a full proposal basically generates the same results. So let's not waste people's time.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A new-ish study shows that asking for a paragraph + CV versus a full proposal basically generates the same results. So let's not waste people's time.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
New experimental paper on intuitions about whether people have obligations *to themselves*
From philosopher Laura Soter (@laurasoter.bsky.social) in JPSP
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
From philosopher Laura Soter (@laurasoter.bsky.social) in JPSP
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
December 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
New experimental paper on intuitions about whether people have obligations *to themselves*
From philosopher Laura Soter (@laurasoter.bsky.social) in JPSP
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
From philosopher Laura Soter (@laurasoter.bsky.social) in JPSP
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Good to know for people who use LLMs for their R code
New data from @sara-altman.bsky.social & @simonpcouch.com, using the vitals and ellmer packages, looks at LLM performance metrics for #RStats.
👀 Sneak peek: Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, & OpenAI GPT-5 lead in generating correct R code.
Read the full breakdown: posit.co/blog/r-llm-e...
👀 Sneak peek: Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, & OpenAI GPT-5 lead in generating correct R code.
Read the full breakdown: posit.co/blog/r-llm-e...
Which LLM writes the best R code? - Posit
The vitals package delivers a dedicated framework for measuring how well Large Language Models perform with code.
posit.co
December 12, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Good to know for people who use LLMs for their R code
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Our affiliate, Seema Jayachandran, argues in this blog post that, when fundraising, nonprofits shouldn't just care about how much they raise. They should value new funds they attract to the cause more than competitive grants they win that would have otherwise gone to an equally capable peer.
I argue in this piece that the nonprofit sector should be thinking more about the counterfactual when assessing fundraising success: winning a $2M competitive bid over capable peers advances the cause less than convincing someone to donate $1M they'd have spent on a yacht.
The Case for Counterfactual Thinking in Nonprofit Fundraising
When a nonprofit wins a major government contract or foundation grant, it’s cause for celebration. These wins reflect hard work and organizational strength. Yet beneath the success lies a subtle, ofte...
www.cgdev.org
December 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Our affiliate, Seema Jayachandran, argues in this blog post that, when fundraising, nonprofits shouldn't just care about how much they raise. They should value new funds they attract to the cause more than competitive grants they win that would have otherwise gone to an equally capable peer.
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Great article about fertility in South Korea. That motherhood penalty 😳
worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is...
worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is...
December 10, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Great article about fertility in South Korea. That motherhood penalty 😳
worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is...
worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is...
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)
The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used
> neal.fun/size-of-life/
The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used
> neal.fun/size-of-life/
December 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)
The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used
> neal.fun/size-of-life/
The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used
> neal.fun/size-of-life/
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
I honestly don't get the "extend the y-axis to zero" dogma that seems to have sprouted up.
/start obvious advice
Sometimes you should, sometimes you shouldn't.
/end obvious advice.
/start obvious advice
Sometimes you should, sometimes you shouldn't.
/end obvious advice.
December 10, 2025 at 11:38 AM
I honestly don't get the "extend the y-axis to zero" dogma that seems to have sprouted up.
/start obvious advice
Sometimes you should, sometimes you shouldn't.
/end obvious advice.
/start obvious advice
Sometimes you should, sometimes you shouldn't.
/end obvious advice.
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Psychological science is an endless struggle between the theory that humans are really weird and the theory that humans aren’t actually that weird.
December 9, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Psychological science is an endless struggle between the theory that humans are really weird and the theory that humans aren’t actually that weird.
Reposted by Aurélien Allard
Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
December 5, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵