Benedek Kurdi
@benedek.bsky.social
Experimental psychologist studying social learning and memory, assistant professor @psychillinois.bsky.social, SAB chair @projectimplicit.bsky.social, AE at JEP:G & @openmindjournal.bsky.social, immigrant, 🏳️🌈, he/him
Pinned
Benedek Kurdi
@benedek.bsky.social
· Jun 21
Paper in @pnas.org in which @d-melnikoff.bsky.social and I provide evidence for model-based effects on automatic evaluation. This was a super fun “adversarial” collaboration with 0 adversariality. It may have been nice to be right, but getting it right is nearly as nice: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
A fascinating new paper by Amanda Royka and colleagues explores why monkeys fail false belief tasks.
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exploring the evolutionary roots of theory of mind: Primate errors on false belief tasks reveal representational limits
Human adults flexibly reason about others' unobservable mental states, a capacity known as Theory of Mind (ToM). Unfortunately, the roots of this capa…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:21 PM
A fascinating new paper by Amanda Royka and colleagues explores why monkeys fail false belief tasks.
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A natural explanation would be that monkeys wrongly assume that other agents share their own knowledge.
Royka et al. find that this is NOT the case...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
December 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
postdoc opportunity! would be a good fit for an intergroup person with NLP chops interested in the role of historical narratives
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
The Psychology Department in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences are seeking a full time, fixed term Post-Doctoral Research Associate. This post is available from 1st of Septemb...
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM
postdoc opportunity! would be a good fit for an intergroup person with NLP chops interested in the role of historical narratives
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
bonus, Edinburgh is a phenomenal city to live in with wonderful, walkable quality of life
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper with Junyi Chu, Tomer Ullman et al showing that kids think more difficulty is more fun!
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
December 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
New paper with Junyi Chu, Tomer Ullman et al showing that kids think more difficulty is more fun!
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Fun isn't easy: Children selectively manipulate task difficulty when “playing for fun” versus “playing to win”. psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New preprint in advance of a Phil Trans paper. Outlining a theoretical argument bridging Bayesian causal learning and empowerment in reinforcement learning. And empirical data that kids do too!
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
Empowerment Gain and Causal Model Construction: Children and adults are sensitive to controllability and variability in their causal interventions
Learning about the causal structure of the world is a fundamental problem for human cognition. Causal models and especially causal learning have proved to be difficult for large pretrained models usin...
arxiv.org
December 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
New preprint in advance of a Phil Trans paper. Outlining a theoretical argument bridging Bayesian causal learning and empowerment in reinforcement learning. And empirical data that kids do too!
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
People – Scaffolding of Cognition Team
soc.stanford.edu
November 21, 2025 at 12:16 AM
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team!
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join...
Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
We are hiring!
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
Assistant Professor (f/m/d)
Assistant Professor (f/m/d)
careers.ceu.edu
December 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
We are hiring!
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
The Department of Network and Data Science of Central European University (Vienna) has an open position for an Assistant Professor in network science and computational social science.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
🚨Super excited that Dartmouth's Society of Fellows is hiring a postdoc with the Program in Cognitive Science 🚨 Specialization in computational and empirical approaches to artificial and natural intelligence, including perception, representation, and complex planning: apply.interfolio.com/176946
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:40 PM
🚨Super excited that Dartmouth's Society of Fellows is hiring a postdoc with the Program in Cognitive Science 🚨 Specialization in computational and empirical approaches to artificial and natural intelligence, including perception, representation, and complex planning: apply.interfolio.com/176946
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper alert!
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
New paper alert!
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
"Public Speakers With Nonnative Accents Garner Less Engagement" -- now out in Psych Science!
This is my first graduate student's first first-author paper (and it was her first-year project).
Short THREAD on the results:
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵
December 3, 2025 at 6:04 PM
🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Age is an important predictor of many behaviors & yet we know little about how children understand it. Early studies suggest they don't know much & conflate age with physical size. Here, @kostaboskovic.bsky.social revisits this consensus & shows even 3-yr-olds use multiple cues to reason about age.
December 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Age is an important predictor of many behaviors & yet we know little about how children understand it. Early studies suggest they don't know much & conflate age with physical size. Here, @kostaboskovic.bsky.social revisits this consensus & shows even 3-yr-olds use multiple cues to reason about age.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper in press at JPSP! An adversarial collaboration focusing on a large-scale test of how strongly implicit racial attitudes predict discriminatory behavior. Pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/ps...
December 2, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New paper in press at JPSP! An adversarial collaboration focusing on a large-scale test of how strongly implicit racial attitudes predict discriminatory behavior. Pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
#AcademicSky #PsycSciSky
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
December 1, 2025 at 8:29 PM
#AcademicSky #PsycSciSky
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
Editors, looking for a reviewer?
I know a PhD student looking for more experience. With publishing experience. Bright etc.
feel free to DM me if looking (re: prejudice, contact, ideology, dehumanization)
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
How do people form beliefs about complex topics?
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
A certainty‐weighted, belief‐based model of political attitudes: A Bayesian analysis of American public attitudes toward the affordable care act
This study proposes a novel, certainty-weighted account of the process by which political beliefs shape political attitudes. Building upon expectancy-value frameworks, this paper introduces belief ce...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:47 PM
How do people form beliefs about complex topics?
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
Happy to report our Bayesian model of the psychology of Bayesian updating is out in @ispp-pops.bsky.social! (w/ Gabriel Li & Krosnick)
If you gloss over the Greek, it's a new model for how to assess the impacts of information on summary judgments.
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
1/10
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
October 16, 2025 at 4:17 PM
1/10
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
🚨 New preprint: Using Large Language Models to Estimate Belief Strength in Reasoning 🚨
When asked: "There are 995 politicians and 5 nurses. Person 'L' is kind. Is Person 'L' more likely to be a politician or a nurse?", most people will answer "nurse", neglecting the base-rate info.
A 🧵👇
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
🚨 SynthNet is out 🚨
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
November 26, 2025 at 11:42 AM
🚨 SynthNet is out 🚨
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
Researchers propose new constructs and measures faster than anyone can track. We (@anniria.bsky.social @ruben.the100.ci) built a search engine to check what already exists and help identify redundancies; indexing 74,000 scales from ~31,500 instruments in APA PsycTests. 🧵1/3
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
#AcademicSky
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
November 27, 2025 at 1:44 PM
#AcademicSky
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#PrejudiceResearch scholars will want to check this out
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
New paper from the lab, "Perceiving Event Structure in Brief Actions," now out in Cognitive Psychology :)
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
New paper from the lab, "Perceiving Event Structure in Brief Actions," now out in Cognitive Psychology :)
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Full Professor of Cognitive Science - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at School of Communication and Culture - Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Dept. of, Aarhus University
international.au.dk
November 26, 2025 at 11:38 AM
CogSci in Aarhus is hiring, open rank (assi, asso or full prof).
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
We want somebody working on and teaching computational modelling of cognitive processes and/or social processes. Students are amazing, work/life balance very satisfactory, and colleagues are nice!
international.au.dk/about/profil...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
November 24, 2025 at 5:20 PM
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Check out @theazalabak.bsky.social's cool new paper on model-based planning during foraging. She's applying for grad school this season, so keep your eyes out!
How do people decide whether to stay with a good thing or leave in search of something better? In her new paper, @theazalabak.bsky.social explores how model-based planning guides foraging decisions in structured environments.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Model-based planning in structured foraging environments
In order to maximize reward, humans need to balance engaging with currently available sources of reward and searching for better ones. Optimal foragin…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Check out @theazalabak.bsky.social's cool new paper on model-based planning during foraging. She's applying for grad school this season, so keep your eyes out!
congrats, @ahbailey.bsky.social! 🥳🥳🥳
The International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) is pleased to announce Dr. April Bailey as the 2025 winner of the Early Career Award! Dr. Bailey is a Lecturer of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her PhD in 2019 from Yale University.
November 22, 2025 at 1:50 AM
congrats, @ahbailey.bsky.social! 🥳🥳🥳
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
Affective science has lost an extraordinary member of our community: Dr. Paul Ekman, who passed peacefully at home at the age of 91 on Monday. Dr. Ekman's pioneering cross-cultural research on the interpretation of facial expressions in emotional terms...(1)
November 20, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Affective science has lost an extraordinary member of our community: Dr. Paul Ekman, who passed peacefully at home at the age of 91 on Monday. Dr. Ekman's pioneering cross-cultural research on the interpretation of facial expressions in emotional terms...(1)
Reposted by Benedek Kurdi
POSTDOC POSITION in social psychology at Cornell
@cornellpsych.bsky.social! We will begin reviewing apps Dec 1st. Please repost!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31185
@spspnews.bsky.social @spspsc.bsky.social @aplssc.bsky.social @spssi.bsky.social @psychscience.bsky.social
@cornellpsych.bsky.social! We will begin reviewing apps Dec 1st. Please repost!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31185
@spspnews.bsky.social @spspsc.bsky.social @aplssc.bsky.social @spssi.bsky.social @psychscience.bsky.social
Cornell University, Psychology
Job #AJO31185, WDR-00055818(EVG) Postdoctoral Associate, Psychology, Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 4:28 PM
POSTDOC POSITION in social psychology at Cornell
@cornellpsych.bsky.social! We will begin reviewing apps Dec 1st. Please repost!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31185
@spspnews.bsky.social @spspsc.bsky.social @aplssc.bsky.social @spssi.bsky.social @psychscience.bsky.social
@cornellpsych.bsky.social! We will begin reviewing apps Dec 1st. Please repost!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/31185
@spspnews.bsky.social @spspsc.bsky.social @aplssc.bsky.social @spssi.bsky.social @psychscience.bsky.social