Rob Sica
@robsica.bsky.social
Knowledge would have little allure if we did not have to overcome so much shame on the way to acquiring it. -Nietzsche
"Students will have the opportunity to probe those disagreements, understand why they persist even in the light of shared evidence, and to improve their own understanding of the facts and values that underlie them."
Democracy and Disagreement: Gender-Affirming Care
YouTube video by Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences
www.youtube.com
February 17, 2026 at 5:11 AM
"Students will have the opportunity to probe those disagreements, understand why they persist even in the light of shared evidence, and to improve their own understanding of the facts and values that underlie them."
"The mind conceived as an assemblage of evolved information-processing modules offers a powerful organizing principle for understanding many phenomena of psychiatric interest"
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
February 17, 2026 at 3:59 AM
"The mind conceived as an assemblage of evolved information-processing modules offers a powerful organizing principle for understanding many phenomena of psychiatric interest"
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
"Without evolutionary framing, each generation can label any novel technological transition as 'unnatural,' using their own experiences as a baseline while ignoring other preexisting societal conditions that are plausible evolutionary mismatches."
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
February 17, 2026 at 3:31 AM
"Without evolutionary framing, each generation can label any novel technological transition as 'unnatural,' using their own experiences as a baseline while ignoring other preexisting societal conditions that are plausible evolutionary mismatches."
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
"All beasts are driven to pasture by blows."
#Heraclitus
#Heraclitus
February 17, 2026 at 2:21 AM
"All beasts are driven to pasture by blows."
#Heraclitus
#Heraclitus
"there is no evolutionary reason why the ultimate functions of motivational systems should be explicit or accessible to introspection... as a matter of fact, one of the recurring problems of evolutionary psychology as a field is that these adaptive motivations are often profoundly counter-intuitive"
(PDF) Human motivation is organized hierarchically, from proximal (means) to ultimate (ends)
PDF | Murayama and Jach raise a key problem in behavioral sciences, to which we suggest evolutionary science can provide a solution. We emphasize the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...
www.researchgate.net
February 17, 2026 at 2:00 AM
"there is no evolutionary reason why the ultimate functions of motivational systems should be explicit or accessible to introspection... as a matter of fact, one of the recurring problems of evolutionary psychology as a field is that these adaptive motivations are often profoundly counter-intuitive"
"In general, bias, unlike sadness, is not even the right kind of thing to be detected by introspection. This is because many of our biases have an externalist character."
Political Epistemology, Rationality, and Externalism About Bias
This article develops and defends the idea that some of our biases have an externalist character, with particular attention to cases in which the phenomenon arises in political contexts. A person who....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:47 AM
"In general, bias, unlike sadness, is not even the right kind of thing to be detected by introspection. This is because many of our biases have an externalist character."
"I never did. I never will."
Tender Mercies - I Don't Trust Happiness
YouTube video by Gash
www.youtube.com
February 16, 2026 at 6:59 PM
"I never did. I never will."
🔪"[E]ven if it turns out that humans are woefully mismatched to the modern world—cavemen in suits, grunting their way through life—we have to ask ourselves another follow-up question: 'Is there any reason to expect intellectuals to be more ‘matched’ than the masses?'"
What Kind Of Apes Are We?
This is a guest post by David Pinsof, who writes the excellent ‘Everything is Bullshit’ Substack.
www.conspicuouscognition.com
February 16, 2026 at 1:40 PM
🔪"[E]ven if it turns out that humans are woefully mismatched to the modern world—cavemen in suits, grunting their way through life—we have to ask ourselves another follow-up question: 'Is there any reason to expect intellectuals to be more ‘matched’ than the masses?'"
🔪"Can you say something about what role teachers and professors played in the Holocaust?"
Alex Alvarez and Richard R. Fernandez, "Lethal Elites: The Institutions and Professionals That Made the Holocaust Possible" (Bloomsbury, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:37 AM
🔪"Can you say something about what role teachers and professors played in the Holocaust?"
"When you have interpretive communities that are simultaneously moral and emotional communities they don't perceive claims made by people outside the tribe as just empirically wrong they perceive them as morally wrong."
Politics Is the Best Predictor of Academic Research — Prof Mark Horowitz
YouTube video by El Podcast
www.youtube.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:03 AM
"When you have interpretive communities that are simultaneously moral and emotional communities they don't perceive claims made by people outside the tribe as just empirically wrong they perceive them as morally wrong."
"Our public discourse about expertise often fails to distinguish empirical and normative questions, with people in effect being encouraged to defer to scientists about *both* kinds of issues (or, by others, about *neither*)."
Authority or autonomy? Philosophical and psychological perspectives on deference to experts
Several decades of work in both philosophy and psychology acutely highlights our limitations as individual inquirers. One way to recognize these limitations is to defer to experts: roughly, to form...
www.tandfonline.com
February 16, 2026 at 12:40 AM
"Our public discourse about expertise often fails to distinguish empirical and normative questions, with people in effect being encouraged to defer to scientists about *both* kinds of issues (or, by others, about *neither*)."
"we argue against the existence of an intrinsic aversion to lying, or an intrinsic preference for truth-telling"
(PDF) Why are lies small?
PDF | Deception is common, yet lies are typically small and not easily spotted. The dominant explanations for why this is the case are psychological in... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
www.researchgate.net
February 15, 2026 at 10:20 PM
"we argue against the existence of an intrinsic aversion to lying, or an intrinsic preference for truth-telling"
Looking forward to:
Puts, D. A., Lieberman, D., & Hill, A. (Under contract). Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature. Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Puts, D. A., Lieberman, D., & Hill, A. (Under contract). Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature. Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Attraction & Disgust: Evolutionary Psychology Explained (Dr. Deb Lieberman)
YouTube video by El Podcast
www.youtube.com
February 15, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Looking forward to:
Puts, D. A., Lieberman, D., & Hill, A. (Under contract). Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature. Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Puts, D. A., Lieberman, D., & Hill, A. (Under contract). Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature. Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Reposted by Rob Sica
"The current paper argues for a more explicitly interactive, co-adaptive account for trends in communications technology and politics." 👏
academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...
academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...
Political polarization as a co-adaptive process
Abstract. Political polarization is often characterized as a consequence of changes in media content or technology. We argue, in contrast, for an account t
academic.oup.com
February 15, 2026 at 4:35 PM
"The current paper argues for a more explicitly interactive, co-adaptive account for trends in communications technology and politics." 👏
academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...
academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...
"[T]he goal of increasing political diversity is to widen the circle of contestation so that truth has a better chance of emerging and public trust can be rebuilt. It is not to achieve political 'balance' for its own sake or to appease rightwing politicians."
Truth, Trust, and the Case for Viewpoint Diversity
Misplaced arguments against intellectual pluralism
unsafescience.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:18 PM
"[T]he goal of increasing political diversity is to widen the circle of contestation so that truth has a better chance of emerging and public trust can be rebuilt. It is not to achieve political 'balance' for its own sake or to appease rightwing politicians."
🔪"If humans are constantly seeking to conceal their motives and signaling strategies from one another, and even from themselves, then any science that relies on self-reported agreement with overly abstract statements is bound to be misleading."
(PDF) The Evolution of Social Paradoxes
PDF | Human behavior is often paradoxical. We show humility to prove we’re better than other people, we bravely defy social norms so that people will... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...
www.researchgate.net
February 15, 2026 at 2:07 PM
🔪"If humans are constantly seeking to conceal their motives and signaling strategies from one another, and even from themselves, then any science that relies on self-reported agreement with overly abstract statements is bound to be misleading."
"We do not fault students for perpetuating a climate that is hostile to intellectual integrity. We fault the faculty, administrators, and institutional leaders who built a system that rewards moral theater while punishing inquiry."
thehill.com/opinion/educ...
thehill.com/opinion/educ...
February 15, 2026 at 5:54 AM
"We do not fault students for perpetuating a climate that is hostile to intellectual integrity. We fault the faculty, administrators, and institutional leaders who built a system that rewards moral theater while punishing inquiry."
thehill.com/opinion/educ...
thehill.com/opinion/educ...
"I only knew a kind and caring man."
Gisèle Pelicot Opens Up About Surviving Years of Secret Abuse | The Interview
YouTube video by The Interview
www.youtube.com
February 15, 2026 at 5:20 AM
"I only knew a kind and caring man."
"It is easy to theorize, from a safe remove, about the evolution of betrayal and passion — of both heart and body. But this particular suffering is anything but abstract. You know it, no doubt; so do I."
Infidélité : la guerre secrète des couples
CHRONIQUE. Trompés et trompeurs jouent à cache-cache depuis des millénaires. Une étude révèle l’arsenal cognitif mobilisé des deux côtés.
www.lepoint.fr
February 14, 2026 at 9:33 PM
"It is easy to theorize, from a safe remove, about the evolution of betrayal and passion — of both heart and body. But this particular suffering is anything but abstract. You know it, no doubt; so do I."
"Evolutionary Psychology [...] unquestionably has enormous scope for increasing our understanding of our own species’ psychology and behaviour."
Evolutionary Approaches to Beauty
In Evolutionary Psychology, it is sometimes claimed that certain traits are universally considered as beautiful. In both sexes, these alleged universals have included having symmetrical facial and bod...
link.springer.com
February 14, 2026 at 9:32 PM
"Evolutionary Psychology [...] unquestionably has enormous scope for increasing our understanding of our own species’ psychology and behaviour."
“Far from ‘drowning in evidence’, real researchers – not pop psychologists – are scouring a great desert looking for puddles. The majority of studies have found either no relationship between social media usage and mental illness, or effects so small that they are practically meaningless.”
There is no evidence that social media harms children’s mental health
Far from ‘drowning in evidence’, real researchers – not pop psychologists – are scouring a great desert looking for puddles
spectator.com
February 14, 2026 at 8:33 PM
“Far from ‘drowning in evidence’, real researchers – not pop psychologists – are scouring a great desert looking for puddles. The majority of studies have found either no relationship between social media usage and mental illness, or effects so small that they are practically meaningless.”
Response from someone with whom I shared Michael Tracey's Compact piece on Chomsky & Epstein:
"Huh, that's pretty interesting. I admit, I am on the mob mentality train, so this was a good read."
"Huh, that's pretty interesting. I admit, I am on the mob mentality train, so this was a good read."
February 14, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Response from someone with whom I shared Michael Tracey's Compact piece on Chomsky & Epstein:
"Huh, that's pretty interesting. I admit, I am on the mob mentality train, so this was a good read."
"Huh, that's pretty interesting. I admit, I am on the mob mentality train, so this was a good read."
Reposted by Rob Sica
New @aeon.co essay just out! On how institutions let us scale trust and cooperation - and when things start to unravel.
Big thanks to editor Sam Dresser.
For the more technical version, see thread & paper below👇
Big thanks to editor Sam Dresser.
For the more technical version, see thread & paper below👇
Institutions are the social technologies that power our world, allowing us to rely on complete strangers every day of our lives. But how do we ensure that this trust isn’t misplaced? In this Essay, the game theorist Julien Lie-Panis explores what makes institutions function @jliep.bsky.social
Institutions are how we scale up cooperation among millions | Aeon Essays
Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?
buff.ly
February 13, 2026 at 3:33 PM
New @aeon.co essay just out! On how institutions let us scale trust and cooperation - and when things start to unravel.
Big thanks to editor Sam Dresser.
For the more technical version, see thread & paper below👇
Big thanks to editor Sam Dresser.
For the more technical version, see thread & paper below👇
