Adam H. Smiley

Adam H. Smiley

@asmiley.bsky.social

Social psychologist and assistant professor at Belmont University. affective polarization, religion, judgment & decision making, metascience. Washington PhD 🟣🟡 ✞ https://adamhsmiley.owlstown.net/

492 followers596 following208 posts

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

What explains high AP for those attending majority out-party churches? It may be due to negative social outcomes such as social isolation at church (pictured) or greater political concealment, which are both much higher among political minorities at church.

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

We also find that more frequent church attendance is associated with lower affective polarization in some (but not all) of our models. Check it out if you’re interested! Abstract here:

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

We originally predicted that there would be a linear relationship between the proportion of out-partisans in one’s church and affective polarization, consistent with Smiley & Kaiser (2026; SPPS) that found that living in places with more out partisans is associated with lower AP (see graph)…

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Instead, we found a robust U-shaped relationship between our-party percentage and AP, such that AP was highest among those attending church with mostly in-partisans OR (to our surprise) mostly out-partisans.

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Mary Katz
@marykatz.bsky.social

Who gets to claim a religious exemption? In the eyes of Americans, the answer depends heavily on political ideology, not just the belief itself. My first first-author paper is out in @spspnews.bsky.social’s Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin! New paper 🧵1/10

Adam H. Smiley reposted

David Roberts
@volts.wtf

I hope everyone caught this Lancet study confirming that Elon Musk & DOGE are responsible for genocidal levels of suffering & death.

thelancet.comEvaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysisUSAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Introducing: The Continuity Heuristic. New paper by Matt Fisher and I now out in Journal of Consumer Psychology. In 24 original studies, we show that people use the length of time something has been to predict how much longer it will be, particularly when knowledge in a domain is lower. Link👇

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Introducing: The Continuity Heuristic. New paper by Matt Fisher and I now out in Journal of Consumer Psychology. In 24 original studies, we show that people use the length of time something has been to predict how much longer it will be, particularly when knowledge in a domain is lower. Link👇

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Adi Wiezel, Ph.D.
@awiezel.bsky.social

In an interesting #SPSP2026 talk, @asmiley.bsky.social presented work suggesting that the proportion of out-partisans at one’s church had a curvilinear association with affective polarization—politically balanced churches showed the lowest rates of affective polarization.

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

If you’re at #SPSP2026 come check out our symposium this afternoon!! Ameliorators and Aggravators of Affective Polarization 🫏 🐘 2-3:10pm in E353A

Adam H. Smiley@asmiley.bsky.social

Very excited to be chairing this symposium at @spspnews.bsky.social this Saturday at 2 with @abdoe.bsky.social! With Zarnab Zahoor (UIC) and Jan Voelkel (Cornell), we will collectively discuss the factor which can combat or amplify group-based animosity amidst rampant polarization. (Room E353A) 🧵1/6

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Adi Wiezel, Ph.D.
@awiezel.bsky.social

Another cool data blitz from #SPSP political psych precon. People asume there are two large coalitions in the U.S.: liberals & conservatives. But, work by @isaiasghezae.bsky.social suggests there are instead 3: (1) conservatives, (2) ideological liberals, and (3) a liberal demographic group.

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Adi Wiezel, Ph.D.
@awiezel.bsky.social

Some interesting talks this morning at the #SPSP political psychology preconference! First up, Beth Anne Helgasom discussed work across five studies (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, and 3) that found that partisans are more lenient in judging the falsehoods said by politicians they support versus oppose, because

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Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Talk 4: @abdoe.bsky.social explores the impact of watching political debates. Two experiments suggest watching debates can increase intellectual humility about the topic of debate and also less affective polarization. He will also describe what YouTube comments on debate videos can teach us. 🧵 5/6

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Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Talk 2: I examine whether religious behavior is associated with affective polarization (AP) in American Christians. I find that those who attend politically balanced churches are less effectively polarized. I’ll also present pilot data showing that studying the Bible may help reduce AP. 🧵 3/6

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Talk 3: Zarnab Zahoor finds that, across 8 nations, religious nationalism (the desire to fuse politics and religion) is associated with greater support for undemocratic practices and partisan violence. 🧵 4/6

Adam H. Smiley
@asmiley.bsky.social

Talk 1: Jan Voelkel examines the relationship between attitudinal and affective polarization by testing whether interventions designed to manipulate both forms of polarization in turn lead to reductions in the other form of polarization Across dozens of interventions he finds… not usually! 🧵 2/6

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Pew Research Center
@pewresearch.org

Who is more religious: religiously unaffiliated Latin Americans or European Christians? We compared these groups on three measures: 🌟 Belief in God 🙏 Frequency of prayer 🤲 If they consider religion to be very important in their lives. 🧵👇

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Jay Van Bavel, PhD
@jayvanbavel.bsky.social

Replying to @jayvanbavel.bsky.social

In 13% of special issues produced by several major publishers over the past decade, the guest editor contributed more than 1/3 of the papers themselves As usual, MDPI and Frontiers journals are among the worst offenders.

Adam H. Smiley reposted

T. Greg Doucette
@gregdoucette.bsky.social

A downside to literally no one in this Administration understanding basic economics is that "we're going to raise tariffs until you give up Greenland" is the econ version of "I'm going to repeatedly kick myself in the testicles until you do what I want" www.cnbc.com/2026/01/17/t...

cnbc.comTrump: NATO members to face tariffs increasing to 25% until a Greenland purchase deal is struckTrump recently hinted that he may pursue a tariff strategy on Greenland similar to the one he used to force foreign countries to change their drug prices.

Adam H. Smiley reposted

[Christopher M. Federico]
@chrispps.bsky.social

“ICE Watch works because it surrounds men seeking approval with people loudly expressing their disapproval.“

Nicole Bedera@nbedera.bsky.social

For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention. The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.

ms.nowOpinion | I'm a Minneapolis sociologist who studies violence. Here's how ICE observers are helping.Research into how violence occurs shows that disapproval from the people around you can help reduce it.

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Nina Jankowicz
@ninajankowicz.com

I can't say this loudly enough: THEY ARE TRYING TO NORMALIZE THE KILLING OF CIVILIANS FOR PARTICIPATING IN FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED PROTEST ACTIVITIES.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Homan: "We gotta stop the hateful rhetoric. Saying this officer is a murderer is dangerous. It's just ridiculous. It's gonna infuriate people more which means there's gonna be more incidents like this."

Adam H. Smiley reposted

OptaJoe
@optajoe.com

1909 - Macclesfield are the first non-league team to eliminate the FA Cup holders since Crystal Palace knocked out Wolves in the 1908-09 first round. Fairytale.

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Dan Quintana
@dsquintana.bsky.social

Replying to @dsquintana.bsky.social

I'm sure someone else has suggested this, but it's time for mandatory DOIs in reference lists. This will make it easier to identify hallucinated references

Adam H. Smiley reposted

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

NEW: Data released by ICE shows that virtually the entire growth of detention in the last few months has been among people with no criminal record at all - no prior convictions (no matter how minor) and no pending criminal charges.

Austin Kocher, PhD@austinkocher.com

92% of ICE Detention Growth in FY 2026 Driven by Immigrants with No Criminal Convictions ICE published new detention data today that brings the current population to a record-high of 68,990. ICE records first detention death of 2026. austinkocher.substack.com/p/92-of-ice-...

austinkocher.substack.com92% of ICE Detention Growth in FY 2026 Driven by Immigrants with No Criminal ConvictionsICE published new detention data today that brings the current population to a record-high of 68,990. Get the full breakdown below. Plus: ICE records first detention death of 2026.