Raihan Alam
@raihanalam.bsky.social
PhD student at UCSD Rady | First Generation | Interested in Morality, Punishment, and Restorative Justice
https://sites.google.com/view/raihan-alam/home
https://sites.google.com/view/raihan-alam/home
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Those claiming Dems should retreat on racial justice aren't hard-headed realists, they're pushing against the electoral tide rather than leaning into it. The story of Gen Z isn't about racist backlash or red-pilled young men. It's the most racially progressive generation in American history. 🧵
November 14, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Those claiming Dems should retreat on racial justice aren't hard-headed realists, they're pushing against the electoral tide rather than leaning into it. The story of Gen Z isn't about racist backlash or red-pilled young men. It's the most racially progressive generation in American history. 🧵
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Americans are growing more socially isolated and politically divided.
Our new paper in Applied Network Science suggests these two forms of disconnection may be linked. People with denser, more connected social networks often feel less partisan animosity.
🧵
Our new paper in Applied Network Science suggests these two forms of disconnection may be linked. People with denser, more connected social networks often feel less partisan animosity.
🧵
November 13, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Americans are growing more socially isolated and politically divided.
Our new paper in Applied Network Science suggests these two forms of disconnection may be linked. People with denser, more connected social networks often feel less partisan animosity.
🧵
Our new paper in Applied Network Science suggests these two forms of disconnection may be linked. People with denser, more connected social networks often feel less partisan animosity.
🧵
Reposted by Raihan Alam
How do we succeed at self-control? In a new paper in @pnas.org with James Wilson, David Kalkstein, and Melissa Ferguson, we use mouse-tracking of ~47,000 decisions of long-term over short-term to show that 'willpower' is too narrow a conception of self-control www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:32 PM
How do we succeed at self-control? In a new paper in @pnas.org with James Wilson, David Kalkstein, and Melissa Ferguson, we use mouse-tracking of ~47,000 decisions of long-term over short-term to show that 'willpower' is too narrow a conception of self-control www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
I'm back! In this experiment we had 39 participants choose between 8 different PhD programs which varied in terms of region, application materials, prestige, and fees. Importantly, two of the programs had a GRE requirement and two were equivalent but did not:
November 11, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I'm back! In this experiment we had 39 participants choose between 8 different PhD programs which varied in terms of region, application materials, prestige, and fees. Importantly, two of the programs had a GRE requirement and two were equivalent but did not:
Reposted by Raihan Alam
✨New preprint! Why do people express outrage online? In 4 studies we develop a taxonomy of online outrage motives, test what motives people report, what they infer for in- vs. out-partisans, and how motive inferences shape downstream intergroup consequences. Led by @felix-chenwei.bsky.social 🧵👇
November 11, 2025 at 4:34 PM
✨New preprint! Why do people express outrage online? In 4 studies we develop a taxonomy of online outrage motives, test what motives people report, what they infer for in- vs. out-partisans, and how motive inferences shape downstream intergroup consequences. Led by @felix-chenwei.bsky.social 🧵👇
Reposted by Raihan Alam
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Excited to share our new paper with @swaziadam.bsky.social and colleagues! We examined how a quarter-long climate crisis course affected students’ real-world collective action behavior.
epo.publia.org/epo/article/...
epo.publia.org/epo/article/...
View of The Impact of a Climate Crisis Class on Collective Action Participation
epo.publia.org
November 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Excited to share our new paper with @swaziadam.bsky.social and colleagues! We examined how a quarter-long climate crisis course affected students’ real-world collective action behavior.
epo.publia.org/epo/article/...
epo.publia.org/epo/article/...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Remember when we had actual competitive Senate elections in most states?
Remember when candidates actually mattered?
People: The moderation debate is missing the big picture!
We're in the era of nothing but D v R matters. And other things should matter.
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...
Remember when candidates actually mattered?
People: The moderation debate is missing the big picture!
We're in the era of nothing but D v R matters. And other things should matter.
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...
The moderation debate fiddles with 2% while Democracy’s dimensionality collapses
Presidential vote now determines 98% of House outcomes. One-dimensional partisan conflict is authoritarian-friendly territory. Could fusion voting restore competitive dimensions?
leedrutman.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Remember when we had actual competitive Senate elections in most states?
Remember when candidates actually mattered?
People: The moderation debate is missing the big picture!
We're in the era of nothing but D v R matters. And other things should matter.
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...
Remember when candidates actually mattered?
People: The moderation debate is missing the big picture!
We're in the era of nothing but D v R matters. And other things should matter.
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Re-posting this because I really like it and I think we need to understand identity from a functionalist perspective more than ever.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I wrote a chapter on a functionalist account of social identity.
IMO, thinking about identity in an instrumental way helps explain a lot of behavior that seems otherwise baffling.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
IMO, thinking about identity in an instrumental way helps explain a lot of behavior that seems otherwise baffling.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
October 27, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Re-posting this because I really like it and I think we need to understand identity from a functionalist perspective more than ever.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
"this conflict will have killed 7.5 percent of the prewar population of Gaza in just two years. It already is, in proportional terms, deadlier than the wars in Yemen, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine. "
The whataboutism on Gaza really rankles, especially for those of us who have spent our careers reporting on the crises Israel's defenders cynically invoke as so much worse than Gaza. I wrote about how it actually compares, and what the true toll may be. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/o...
Opinion | What Happened in Gaza Might Be Even Worse Than We Think
www.nytimes.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
"this conflict will have killed 7.5 percent of the prewar population of Gaza in just two years. It already is, in proportional terms, deadlier than the wars in Yemen, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine. "
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Really excited to share this new piece with @tagerai.bsky.social, out now in @newscientist.com! It’s about our recent research showing how incentivizing punishment can break down cooperation
Our experiments have revealed that we're getting it wrong when it comes to crime and punishment. This is undermining society, say Raihan Alam and Tage Rai
There is a major psychological flaw in how society punishes people
Our experiments have revealed that we're getting it wrong when it comes to crime and punishment. This is undermining society, say Raihan Alam and Tage Rai
www.newscientist.com
October 17, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Really excited to share this new piece with @tagerai.bsky.social, out now in @newscientist.com! It’s about our recent research showing how incentivizing punishment can break down cooperation
Reposted by Raihan Alam
My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Hammam, & Chris Shay) has a new piece, whose title speaks for itself. A 🧵 with some key descriptive takeaways:
The resistance reaches into Trump country
As organizers for No Kings 2 seek historic turnout on Oct. 18, the broader pro-democracy movement has already broken new ground.
wagingnonviolence.org
October 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Hammam, & Chris Shay) has a new piece, whose title speaks for itself. A 🧵 with some key descriptive takeaways:
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Palestine’s most popular leader, Marwan Barghouti, was beaten unconscious and has his ribs broken by Israeli prison guards and his family fears for his life, his son has said, citing evidence given by former Palestinian detainees released this week as part of the ceasefire deal.
Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti assaulted by Israeli prison guards, son says
Family fears for 66-year-old’s life after assault while he was being transferred between prisons
www.theguardian.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Palestine’s most popular leader, Marwan Barghouti, was beaten unconscious and has his ribs broken by Israeli prison guards and his family fears for his life, his son has said, citing evidence given by former Palestinian detainees released this week as part of the ceasefire deal.
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Why do we derogate effective altruists, activists, & other radically prosocial individuals? In new work, we discuss how doing good that deviates from social norms gets stigmatized. New preprint w/ @dcameron.bsky.social @tlau.bsky.social @desmond-ong.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/ps...
October 8, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Why do we derogate effective altruists, activists, & other radically prosocial individuals? In new work, we discuss how doing good that deviates from social norms gets stigmatized. New preprint w/ @dcameron.bsky.social @tlau.bsky.social @desmond-ong.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Need some RAND game theorists to weigh in on how this effectively protests while also being impossible to show on fox news as a war zone.
Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.
October 8, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Need some RAND game theorists to weigh in on how this effectively protests while also being impossible to show on fox news as a war zone.
Reposted by Raihan Alam
This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
October 5, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Strongly recommend Eitan Hersh's book on the problems with political hobbyism and what a better path looks like www.amazon.com/Politics-Pow...
October 6, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Strongly recommend Eitan Hersh's book on the problems with political hobbyism and what a better path looks like www.amazon.com/Politics-Pow...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
I didn’t expect my first interview with the @nytimes.com to be from my 4-day old child’s pediatrician’s appointment!
“Singular acts of violence, when they serve a particular narrative, are being spun into a tale of persecution,” Pasek said. “And that is where things feel dangerous to me.”
“Singular acts of violence, when they serve a particular narrative, are being spun into a tale of persecution,” Pasek said. “And that is where things feel dangerous to me.”
The Paradox of Violence
www.nytimes.com
October 5, 2025 at 7:26 PM
I didn’t expect my first interview with the @nytimes.com to be from my 4-day old child’s pediatrician’s appointment!
“Singular acts of violence, when they serve a particular narrative, are being spun into a tale of persecution,” Pasek said. “And that is where things feel dangerous to me.”
“Singular acts of violence, when they serve a particular narrative, are being spun into a tale of persecution,” Pasek said. “And that is where things feel dangerous to me.”
Reposted by Raihan Alam
I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America
October 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Pretty incredible own goal by liberal institutions and many Democratic electeds to crush the exact type of protests in 2024 that would’ve been the most effective way to slow or stop ICE incursions into American cities in 2025
October 4, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Pretty incredible own goal by liberal institutions and many Democratic electeds to crush the exact type of protests in 2024 that would’ve been the most effective way to slow or stop ICE incursions into American cities in 2025
Reposted by Raihan Alam
Anyway here are some top comments on Ezra’s YouTube channel. I think they’re great examples of substantive discussion
September 30, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Anyway here are some top comments on Ezra’s YouTube channel. I think they’re great examples of substantive discussion
Reposted by Raihan Alam
"Movements that abandon core supporters in pursuit of mythical moderate voters often end up with neither. Energy drains away, activists stay home, and the authentic moral voice gets replaced by calculated positioning that convinces no one." data4democracy.substack.com/p/you-cant-e...
You Can't Expand the Tent by Shrinking It
We should heed Ta-Nehisi Coates' warning: "I'm all for bridging gaps, but not at the expense of my neighbor's humanity."
data4democracy.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM
"Movements that abandon core supporters in pursuit of mythical moderate voters often end up with neither. Energy drains away, activists stay home, and the authentic moral voice gets replaced by calculated positioning that convinces no one." data4democracy.substack.com/p/you-cant-e...
Reposted by Raihan Alam
We propose that the everyday psychology of rules and 3rd party punishment is at the core of authoritarianism
Our view posits no new constructs, is ideology-agnostic, & considers relevant only interactions w the state
See our new working paper "Authoritarianism in Action" osf.io/preprints/ps...
Our view posits no new constructs, is ideology-agnostic, & considers relevant only interactions w the state
See our new working paper "Authoritarianism in Action" osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
September 25, 2025 at 3:14 PM
We propose that the everyday psychology of rules and 3rd party punishment is at the core of authoritarianism
Our view posits no new constructs, is ideology-agnostic, & considers relevant only interactions w the state
See our new working paper "Authoritarianism in Action" osf.io/preprints/ps...
Our view posits no new constructs, is ideology-agnostic, & considers relevant only interactions w the state
See our new working paper "Authoritarianism in Action" osf.io/preprints/ps...