Gordon Pennycook
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gordpennycook.bsky.social
Gordon Pennycook
@gordpennycook.bsky.social

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

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%
Pinned
New paper in PSPB! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Well, actually, not "new". We first put this paper online way back Dec 2022... in any case, we think it's really cool!

We find that conspiracy believers tend to be overconfident & really don't seem to realize that most disagree with them

Very cool paper, Josh!

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

🚨New publication in JEP:G!🚨 We find that, even when a belief serves as a marker of ideological identity, people do not think it is good to engage in partisan motivated reasoning. Instead, people endorse the pursuit of accuracy motives even if these lead to adopting outgroup beliefs. bit.ly/498S8Xk
bit.ly

Good analysis here bsky.app/profile/fish...
The incredible shrinking attack on U.S. universities continues.

Cornell has signed an agreement—but unlike the UVA agreement, instead of pledging to follow the gov't's highly questionable July "guidance" on discrimination, Cornell simply agrees to hand it out to faculty as a "training resource"!

Oh, I'm far from a lawyer and have no idea. They made it seem like the civil court route complicated the case they could build. Perhaps it would increase how much time it would take to resolve. My basic understanding is that the legal route was judged to be uncertain & probably very risky

That is my understanding of the gambit. Also, since (also from my understanding) there was no formal communication about what lead the grants to be frozen, it would have had to go to some sort of civil court.

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio

This agreement maintains that Cornell has full autonomy. Cornell also maintains that it has not done anything wrong.

So, essentially, Trump used the power of his office (e.g. by not paying ongoing grants) to force a $30 million payout.

I understand why Cornell did this, but it doesn't feel good.
Breaking News: Cornell University reached an agreement with the Trump administration that would restore hundreds of millions in funding to the university. It's expected to pay a $30 million fine to the government and to invest $30 million in agriculture and farming programs.
Cornell Reaches Deal with Trump Administration to Restore Research Funds
The Ivy League university had warned of layoffs after the Trump administration stripped it of funds this year. The cuts were among the deepest in higher education.
nyti.ms
The incredible shrinking attack on U.S. universities continues.

Cornell has signed an agreement—but unlike the UVA agreement, instead of pledging to follow the gov't's highly questionable July "guidance" on discrimination, Cornell simply agrees to hand it out to faculty as a "training resource"!
Breaking News: Cornell University reached an agreement with the Trump administration that would restore hundreds of millions in funding to the university. It's expected to pay a $30 million fine to the government and to invest $30 million in agriculture and farming programs.
Cornell Reaches Deal with Trump Administration to Restore Research Funds
The Ivy League university had warned of layoffs after the Trump administration stripped it of funds this year. The cuts were among the deepest in higher education.
nyti.ms
Your cat when you're choking to death in your apartment
A couple weeks ago a friend was telling me about someone she knew who had been on maternity leave, and said she had taken "the full year." I said, "A whole year? Wow, what kind of fancy job does she have that gives her a YEAR of leave?" and my friend looked surprised & said, "... welcome to Canada?"

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

The Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Science of Motivation has opened nominations for the editorship of Motivation Science, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes significant contributions to the study of motivation.
These big wins will embolden Dems to take on Trump's lawbreaking and show there's a price for GOP enabling of him. Folks hate to hear this, but normal patterns are asserting themselves: Liberalism isn't dead, Rs are likely to lose in 2026, and Trump is really unpopular, not a magical exception.

Absolutely heartbreaking World Series. Here's the stat that, to me, tells the story:

Yamamoto pitched for ~2 games. In those 17.2 innings, Dodgers beat the Jays 9-2.

The remainder of the series? 32-17 for the Jays.

The Jays *still* could have won a dozen different ways... but Yamamoto beat them.

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

and to think we could have been reminded what happiness was like

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

I am certainly no seasoned strategist but I am a little skeptical of the political wisdom behind building a giant golden ballroom and sharing a dozen photos of a renovated marble bathroom at the very moment that millions of people are losing access to healthcare and food.
Americans are on the verge of losing their ability to choose their government. But they don't seem to have realized it yet.
Duh. Those of us on the ground last year actually speaking with middle class/working class voters and who heard from these voters every single day the same - “Trump is an asshole, but Democrats are out of touch” - could’ve saved my new political party a lot of time & money producing this “report.”👇

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

Apply for the @drrc-kellogg.bsky.social Dispute Resolution Research Center Postdoctoral Fellowship at @kelloggschoolnu.bsky.social Northwestern Kellogg! Advance research on conflict & cooperation with top scholars and join a powerful alumni network. Deadline soon: Nov 1
🔗 tinyurl.com/drrcpostdoc2...
Postdoctoral fellow information
tinyurl.com
Mindscape 333 | Gordon Pennycook @gordpennycook.bsky.social on Unthinkingness, Conspiracies, and What to Do About Them. #MindscapePodcast

www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

New job opening for a teaching professor* at Cornell! I'm on the committee so please let me know if you have any questions!

(*that's not the title in the ad, but it's in the process of being changed)
OPEN RANK INSTRUCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
Applications invited for a full-time teaching position as lecturer/senior lecturer in clinical psychology
Submit application materials on Academic Jobs Online: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30807.
Direct questions to Prof. David Pizarro, dap54@cornell.edu
Cornell University, Psychology
Job #AJO30807, WDR-00055452 Cornell-CAS-CLIN-PSYCH-OpenRank LECTURER/SR LECTURER, Psychology Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

The Tschida Lab is recruiting a new PhD student this cycle! We have ongoing projects related to (1) neural circuits that regulate vocal communication across behavioral contexts and/or development and (2) motor control of different vocalization types. Please RT! Strong neuro background a plus.
After adding new data to our spreadsheet, our central estimate of turnout for the No Kings Day protests yesterday has risen to 5.5 million, with an upper bound of 8.7 www.gelliottmorris.com/p/second-no-...
Second "No Kings Day" protests likely the largest single-day political demonstration since 1970, with 4.2-7.6 million participants
Here are the initial results from our crowdsourced crowd-counting estimates
www.gelliottmorris.com

Remember the heat that Hillary Clinton got for her "deplorables" comment?
Mike Johnson on No Kings: "We refer to it by its more accurate description -- the Hate America Rally. You're gonna bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far left Democrat Party. That is the modern Democratic Party."
Mike Johnson on No Kings: "We refer to it by its more accurate description -- the Hate America Rally. You're gonna bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far left Democrat Party. That is the modern Democratic Party."
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨

➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms

hopeful findings👇🏽

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook

OPEN RANK INSTRUCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
Applications invited for a full-time teaching position as lecturer/senior lecturer in clinical psychology
Submit application materials on Academic Jobs Online: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30807.
Direct questions to Prof. David Pizarro, dap54@cornell.edu
Cornell University, Psychology
Job #AJO30807, WDR-00055452 Cornell-CAS-CLIN-PSYCH-OpenRank LECTURER/SR LECTURER, Psychology Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org