Simon Columbus

Some personal news: In April, I will be joining the University of St Andrews as a lecturer @standrewspsyneuro.bsky.social (~assistant professor for non-UK folks). I work on cooperation, institutional legitimacy, and personality. If you're in the area and share some interests, I'd love to chat.

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Nikoleta Glynatsi @nikoletaglyn.bsky.social Revisiting Axelrod: What makes a strategy successful? Date: Oct 30 Time: 14:00 UTC+1 (Vienna) / 9am NYC Note the earlier starting time if you are in Europe. Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

It's really true! Y_post - Y_pre ~ Z almost ALWAYS has worse precision than Y_post ~ Z + pre (compare teal "difference-in-difference" to gold "ols" in plot below)

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Charles Efferson @charlesefferson.bsky.social The Arbitrary Evolution of Cooperation Date: October 16 Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am NYC Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

Excellent thread with relevance well beyond Berlin.

Nice real-world example of plausible deniability creating moral wiggle room: conservative MPs secretly vote for a far-right candidate but publicly claim to have abstained: 8 claimed abstentions vs 5 actual. Group-level dishonesty is evident, but individual MPs can hide behind plausible deniability.

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Patricia Kanngiesser @patkanngiesser.bsky.social Sustaining cooperation in intra- and inter-generational resource dilemmas Date: October 2 Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am NYC Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

Somehow I did not know this.

Everybody's posting about politics; meanwhile I'm here wondering whether there's a legal limit to the number of arepas I'm allowed to eat in a single sitting

Today's Cooperation Colloquium

Our first speaker this week is Kasper Otten (WODC/Erasmus University Rotterdam): The ​co-occurrence of ingroup and outgroup prosociality across 121 societies Friday, September 18 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am NYT / 21 Beijing Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

We're hiring a PhD candidate in Fair Climate Policy! Deadline to apply: 2 October werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/pro... (Please note: Carina Havenga de Poel & @gpalomovelez.bsky.social are the contact people, and job interviews will take place in late October) @rug-gmw.bsky.social @rug.nl

Autumn 2026 Cooperation Colloquia We have an exciting interdisciplinary series of speakers with Kasper Otten, @patkanngiesser.bsky.social, @charlesefferson.bsky.social @nikoletaglyn.bsky.social, Cameron Curtin, & Devesh Rustagi Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

My answer

We are hiring a joint-PhD candidate with SCP to study how people perceive climate policies and more generally what’s fair climate policy. Come do research with us! — werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/pro...

Any sufficiently advanced technology purchased by a university is indistinguishable from malware

Two postdocs with the inimitable Anna Berti Suman in Padova, on personal narratives in climate litigation. Deadline September 14. Project overview: www.pastis-research.eu/the-persona-... Text mining: www.fisppa.unipd.it/bando-2026cr..., Legal ethnography: www.fisppa.unipd.it/bando-2026cr....

Based on our GWAS of personality I have an academic/data driven reflection on new challenges to the environmental path from parental personality toe child personality. I could put it on my substack (bleg) or add to my near non existend blog, but I have no reach, anyone willing to let me guest blog?

Come to my wonderful wonderful unit! We offer a collaborative and supportive work environment, like none I've even had before, and we're looking for others who would value and support it. If that's you, please apply! @unileiden.bsky.social @leidenphysics.bsky.social @leidenpsychology.bsky.social

If a guy keeps finding the same headline-grabbing, non-replicable result again and again and again, that should indeed make you laugh, then think -- laugh in despair, then think about how to do better.

1) denial 2) anger 3) bargaining 4) depression 5) major revisions

Six editors and nearly 60 advisory editors of Games and Economic Behavior resigned after Elsevier, the journal’s publisher, decided not to renew the editor-in-chief’s contract.

Interesting idea: is anthropology divided more by ontology than by epistemology? It certainly rings true in the sense that cultural anthros (and qual psychologists) rarely appear interested in the same subject matter as quant social scientists across disciplines (such as 'cooperation').

My department is hiring a lecturer (i.e. assistant prof) in developmental psychology.

Dear editors: sending me manuscripts missing basic information is the best way to make me think twice about reviewing for your journal. Second time in as many months that I have to return a manuscript because I simply cannot figure out the design of the experiment.

Whether or not radicalization is a good replacement, the political science concept of polarization is normatively dubious, descriptively thin and causally... eh, let's not even go there. I know you just got a big grant to study it but I'm sure they'll let you spend the money on something more useful

I'm hiring! I am currently establishing my new Research Group for Personality Psychology at Ulm University and am looking for a motivated researcher to join the team starting October 1, 2026 (or by arrangement). 🧵👇 (1/4) 🔗 Full description and details: stellenangebote.uni-ulm.de/jobposting/a...

For the 4th time, @bramlancee.bsky.social & I, in collaboration with AMCIS, organise a workshop on survey experiments on 5 Oct. 2026. CfP below ⬇️. We particularly welcome papers/research designs from early career researchers. Deadline for submissions: 23 Aug. @aissr.bsky.social

As an adult, can I sign up voluntarily?

🧑🏻‍🏫 Do you teach statistics? 📊 Have you ever taught ANOVA? ⏰ Do you have 5 minutes to spare? Then participate in our survey and help us improve statistics education! run.pavlovia.org/pavlovia/sur... #stats #edusky #mathsky #scisky #academicsky

New working paper with @robertboehm.bsky.social: it is an early version likely needing significant revision, so feedback is very much appreciated. We review multi-level games: a family of economic games that capture tensions within and between groups simultaneously. (1/5) doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Today's Cooperation Colloquium!

A special Cooperation Colloquium this week: Shuxian Jin @shuxianjin.bsky.social The cultural logic of honor in cooperation and punishment across societies Date: Friday, May 22 Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am ET (NYC) Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

If you are an early-career researcher (PhD student, postdoc, or similar) in personality psychology, consider signing up for the EAPP Mentoring Programme: forms.gle/zH8DmY57eLQ6... Consider forwarding this call to early-career researcher who may be less likely to be aware of this programme.

I think a big problem has been a kind of confused circular logic where people (especially researchers, but not political scientists) go “Things seem bad and polarized. What is polarization? It’s a bimodal opinion distribution. Anything that produces a bimodal opinion distribution is bad!”

💫Job Alert 💫 We are hiring a Lab Manager in the ABC Lab @standrewspsyneuro.bsky.social! Help support exciting developmental research with children and families ☺️ Closing Date: 18th May 2026 Full Details: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Just saw that Die Zeit did a big interview with Carlson as well. Maddening. Repeat after me: you. Don’t. Platform. Fascists.

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Sebastian Hafenbrädl @shafenbraedl.bsky.social Social rewards protection theory: Why people morally derogate prosocial actors for undisclosed personal benefits Date: May 8 Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am ET (NYC) Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Sebastian Hafenbrädl @shafenbraedl.bsky.social Social rewards protection theory: Why people morally derogate prosocial actors for undisclosed personal benefits Date: May 8 Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am ET (NYC) Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

This looks like a paper every personality psychologist should have an opinion on. I've often defended broad factor models to cognitive scientists and economists who look at them askance because they are genuinely useful, but it's hard to argue that personality traits are common causes as modelled.

This week's Cooperation Colloquium: Aron Szekely @aronszekely.bsky.social Measuring social norms with surveys Date: Friday, April 24 Time: 15:00 UTC+2 (Vienna) / 9am ET (NYC) Sign up: list.ku.dk/postorius/li...

Shape the future of social science as a PhD student of machine learning-informed theory construction, based on patterns in high-frequency longitudinal data! You will be part of vibrant communities like the INSIGHT Lab, Theory Methods Society, and Tilburg Experience Sampling Center tiu.nu/23721

This strikes me as a terrible idea. The US government is not trying to enhance scientific integrity, no matter how they are framing their attacks on science. Treating their concerns and efforts as legitimate undermines genuine reform efforts.