Two Psychologists Four Beers

Episode 131: What's Wrong With AI (with Molly Crockett) 01.06.2026 1t 45min

Cognitive scientist Molly Crockett joins the show to talk about what it's like to be known in the field as an "AI skeptic." We talk about where Molly is actually skeptical, but also what she thinks that label gets wrong. Along the way, we cover a bunch of other things too: Molly's research in social neuroscience, computational modeling, and moral psychology; Molly and Mickey's disagreements about empathic AI; and Molly's case for what she's calling "thick empathy." Finally, Molly makes a pitch for non-alcoholic beer, which sadly falls on deaf ears.Special Guest: Molly Crockett.Links:OSF | The pitfalls of pay-to-play morality AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science: Trends in Cognitive Sciences Replication for Language Models GUIDE-LLM: Reporting checklist for studies with large language models in the behavioral and social sciences Do Artifacts Have Politics? on JSTOR CITP Seminar:Janet Vertesi - Where Fairness Fails: How to Confront Material Political Economy of AI - YouTube \Reckoning with the Political Economy of AI: Avoiding Decoys in Pursuit of Accountability UK quietly increases AI emissions forecast 100-fold – POLITICO The carbon and water footprints of data centers and what this could mean for artificial intelligence: Patterns Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change: Naomi Oreskes: Bloomsbury Publishing - Bloomsbury The Risks of Industry Influence in Tech Research More Everything Forever by Adam Becker | Hachette Book Group AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged | MJ Crockett | The Guardian Empathy, Thick and Thin by M.J. Crockett In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles The Last Human Job | Princeton University Press Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research | Nature Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus | Nature

Episode 130: You Should Be Talking to Strangers (with Nick Epley) 05.05.2026 1t 12min

Researcher, professor, and former Division III football player Nick Epley joins the show to talk about why we underestimate the benefits of social connections. We are a social species, and yet many of us choose to avoid connecting with others. Nick and I talk about his research on this, and about his new book, A Little More Social, which is all about how we can change our behavior to connect more with others. Special Guest: Nick Epley.Links:Nicholas Epley A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection: Epley, Nicholas: 9780593319543: Amazon.com: Books Strangers - YouTube

Episode 129: RE-RELEASE: Terrible Advice (with Paul Bloom) 07.04.2026 1t 8min

Instead of a new episode this month, we have one from the vaults that many newer listeners might not have heard (because it came out almost 7 years ago). But, especially since Paul has a new baby (see first link), re-releasing this one seemed fitting. And it's always been one of my favorites. We'll be back with new episodes in the coming months. Original Episode Description Yoel and Mickey welcome Paul Bloom to the podcast, who is not only a returning guest but also the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. We first give terrible advice on parenting. Does parenting affect happiness, relationship satisfaction, and meaning? Does parenting screw with prospective decision making because it leaves the decision maker utterly transformed? We next discuss perversity. Why do we enjoy doing transgressive things? Who is likely to be perverted? Is perversion ever a good strategy? Bonus: How would Paul rate Yoel on a scale of 1 to 5?Special Guest: Paul Bloom.Links:Small Potato - by Paul Bloom - Small Potatoes Parenthood and Marital Satisfaction: A Meta‐Analytic Review - Twenge - 2003 - Journal of Marriage and Family - Wiley Online Library Long-term effects of pregnancy and childbirth on sleep satisfaction and duration of first-time and experienced mothers and fathers - PubMed In Defense of Parenthood - S. Katherine Nelson, Kostadin Kushlev, Tammy English, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2013 In Defense of Parenthood What You Can't Expect When You're Expecting Idealizing Parenthood to Rationalize Parental Investments - Richard P. Eibach, Steven E. Mock, 2011 The Strange Appeal of Perverse Actions | The New Yorker St. Vincent - Smoking Section (Official Audio) - YouTube

Episode 128: Why Do We Care About Faculty Diversity? (with Azim Shariff) 06.03.2026 1t 14min

Many academics care about diversity in faculty hiring, but why? Azim Shariff joins the show to talk about his new paper where he describes rationales for diversity in hiring, and an as-yet unpublished study where he asked department chairs how much they actually care about those rationales. We also talk about the empirical evidence for the diversity rationales (it's mixed!), Paul Bloom's argument against viewpoint diversity, and the future of DEI policies in the U.S. Plus, Azim deviates from his long-standing practice of not drinking beer.Special Guest: Azim Shariff.Links:Taking faculty diversity seriously means asking why it matters Viewpoint diversity and its limits - by Paul Bloom CAMP: Centre for Applied Moral Psychology – University of British Columbia | Psychology | Director: Azim Shariff, PhD

Episode 127: The Great Canadian Euthanasia Experiment (with Mickey Inzlicht) 09.02.2026 1t 17min

Mickey and Yoel talk about Canada's controversial euthanasia law (called MAID: medical assistance in dying). Since its introduction in 2016, an increasing number of Canadians are choosing euthanasia (in recent years, more than 5% of deaths in Canada were the result of MAID). We talk about the history of the law, criticism of it in Canada and abroad, and our own discomfort (or lack of) with legal euthanasia. Separately, we also discuss a new paper that claims to show robust ego depletion effects--but is it just showing fatigue by another name?Links:Congratulations, You've Discovered Fatigue Revisiting Ego Depletion: Evidence from Multi-Lab Collaborations Canada Gave Citizens the Right to Die. Doctors Are Struggling to Meet Demand. - The Atlantic Sturgill Simpson - Make Art Not Friends (Official Video) - YouTube

Episode 126: Using AI to Improve Science (with Paul Litvak) 10.01.2026 1t 14min

Paul Litvak joins the show to talk about how AI tools can help us measure research quality and assess evidence in the scientific literature. His first project is a way to extract test statistics and p-values from papers automatically, with no manual coding needed. We also talk about Paul's non-profit dedicated to improving the reliability of scientific research, the legendary judgment and decision making scholar Robin Dawes (whose entirely algorithmic approach to graduate student selection once went terribly awry), and Paul's exit from academia. Plus, Yoel reveals a shameful secret about his use of AI.Special Guest: Paul Litvak.Links:What If Everyone Knew Which Science to Trust? evidence.guide The Robyn Dawes Institute for the Improvement of Science Why are so many professors conservative? - by Paul Bloom Science is a strong-link problem - by Adam Mastroianni

Episode 125: Citation Diversity Statements? (with Mickey Inzlicht) 04.11.2025 1t 13min

Mickey is back and fired up about citation diversity statements. We talk about a recent editorial from Nature Reviews Psychology encouraging authors to include a "citation diversity statement" in their articles to "to draw attention to citation imbalances and confirm that they made efforts to cite publications from a diverse group of researchers." We discuss what we don't like about the editorial, as well as the strongest case for it. We also talk about SpringerNature's profit margins, posting on LinkedIn, and Mickey's extremely problematic beer views.Sponsored By:MindSampler: MindSampler provides a simple and powerful way to run Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) research directly from your Qualtrics account. Promo Code: 2P4BLinks:Mickey's post on LinkedIn Citation diversity statements | Nature Reviews Psychology The extent and drivers of gender imbalance in neuroscience reference lists Science must respect the dignity and rights of all humans | Nature Human Behaviour Nature Communications retracts much-criticized paper on mentorship – Retraction Watch Feel Free - YouTube

Episode 124: Civic Honesty Around the Globe (with David Tannenbaum) 09.10.2025 1t 4min

David Tannenbaum (Associate Professor of Management at the University of Utah) joins the show to talk about one of Yoel's favorite papers: a massive field study of honesty in 40 countries that had some unexpected results. We talk about the promises and pitfalls of field studies, what happens when your results are not at all as expected, and how to deal with going viral (in a bad way). Also, we talk about our recent hiking trip and David actually drinks two beers.Special Guest: David Tannenbaum.Sponsored By:MindSampler: MindSampler provides a simple and powerful way to run Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) research directly from your Qualtrics account. Promo Code: 2P4BLinks:Sunshine Coast Trail — Hut to Hut Hiking - Powell River BC Civic honesty around the globe | Science Data and code for: Civic Honesty Around the Globe - Replication Data for: Civic Honesty Around the Globe Great Lake Swimmers - Pulling On A Line [Official Music Video] - YouTube

Episode 123: RE-RELEASE: What are Teachers Good For? (with Paul Bloom) 03.09.2025 1t 8min

This is a re-release of Episode 95, which was recorded in September 2023. Paul Bloom joins Yoel and Alexa to talk about the glamour and humiliation of teaching psychology at the college level. They discuss how they've changed their approaches to teaching over the years, and whether they've become more skilled or more out of touch (or both). Alexa shares her experiences teaching about morality and evolution to a predominantly Christian student body, Yoel laments the fact that his students aren't more disagreeable, and Paul claims that critical thinking is overrated. In an era of increasing remote instruction, they claim that online courses can't do what they do. But, only Yik Yak knows for sure.Special Guest: Paul Bloom.Links:Paul Bloom's Teaching Advice ClearerThinking.org Podcast | Career science, open science, and inspired science (with Alexa Tullett) Teacher (On FIlm) - YouTube

Episode 122: When to Quit (with Paul Bloom) 07.08.2025 1t 10min

Paul Bloom takes over the show to interview Yoel about loss of faith: when to give up on a theory, and which of his own findings he no longer believes. But it's not all doom and gloom! They also talk about what social psychology findings they think are robust, and what new research they are excited about. But before all that, they discuss whether Sydney Sweeney's new American Eagle ad campaign is pro-eugenics. Special Guest: Paul Bloom.Sponsored By:Statistical Horizons: Use the promo code for 20% off any seminar today! Promo Code: BEERSLinks:Yes, Sydney Sweeney's Boobs Are Anti-Woke Speak Now Regret Later | Michael Inzlicht | Substack Psychologists Have Been Wrong About Death For 40 Years The Reports of Terror Management Theory’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Episode 121: A New Paradigm for Psychology? 07.07.2025 1t 23min

Yoel is joined by a mysterious pseudonymous duo called Slime Mold Time Mold, who are proposing a new paradigm for psychology based on principles from cybernetics. This means thinking of the behavior as the result of "governors" (think drives) that are trying to reduce the distance between a set point and the state of the world by motivating you to do stuff. So when you are thirsty, you are highly motivated to drink, and when you need to pee, you are highly motivated to find a toilet. Those are simple examples, but can we use the same principles to explain more complex phenomena like emotion, motivation, personality, mental illness, and more? That is what my guests on this episode are proposing.Special Guest: Slime Mold Time Mold.Sponsored By:Statistical Horizons: Use the promo code for 20% off any seminar today! Promo Code: BEERSLinks:Angel's Envy Bourbons - Kentucky Bourbons SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD – Mad Science Blogging The Mind in the Wheel Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again - Wikipedia I Palindrome I - YouTube

Episode 120: Transparent Replications (with Spencer Greenberg) 06.06.2025 1t 13min

Returning guest Spencer Greenberg joins the show to talk replications, what psychologist think of terror management theory (and other controversial topics), and a machine-learning tool he developed to predict correlations between psychological traits and survey questions. In this episode, we talk about what Spencer has learned by replicating studies from recent publications in psychology, the decline of p-hacking, and what other threats to validity psychologists should be worried about.Special Guest: Spencer Greenberg.Sponsored By:Statistical Horizons: Use the promo code for 20% off any seminar today! Promo Code: BEERSLinks:Transparent Replications PersonalityMap | Explore 1 million human correlations spanning personality, demographics, behaviors, psychology, and beliefs AI can outperform humans in predicting correlations between personality items | Communications Psychology What do we know for sure about human psychology? (with Simine Vazire) | Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg — the podcast about ideas that matter Career science, open science, and inspired science (with Alexa Tullett) | Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg — the podcast about ideas that matter Broncho - "Get Gone" (Official Video) - YouTube

Episode 119: The Future of DEI in Higher Ed (with Amori Mikami) 07.05.2025 1t 46min

It's been a tumultuous time for DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts in higher education. Whether due to political pressure, internal arguments, or both, many prominent institutions are revamping their DEI offices (or even eliminating them altogether) and rethinking DEI policies that once seemed unquestionable. Amori Mikami from the University of British Columbia re-joins the show to talk about the changes and what she thinks universities ought to be doing (as well as what she thinks we can do better). Along the way, Yoel and Amori talk about the use of race and gender in hiring, diversity statements, October 7 and the Gaza war, and institutional neutrality (in short, this episode touches every third rail imaginable). There's some debate and some agreement, but most importantly we both finish our beers.Special Guest: Amori Mikami.Links:Amori Mikami - UBC Department of Psychology — Associate Head, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion The rise of citational justice: how scholars are making references fairer Los Macuanos - Pasado y Presente ft. Lucrecia Dalt (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Episode 118: Do We Have a Purity Problem? (with David Pizarro) 01.04.2025 1t 12min

Arguably, the last 25 years of moral psychology have been about people's judgments of "purity violations"--ostensibly harmless acts that "are disgusting or degrading to one’s spiritual nature." From sex with (dead) chickens to pet-eating to baby Jesus buttplugs, moral psychologists have been fascinated by purity transgressions. Moral psychologist and purity expert David Pizarro joins the show to talk about the concept of purity and recent critiques arguing that it's a concept too broad to be useful. Along the way, we also discuss how often to shower, getting into bed in your outside clothes, and ritualistically washing your dad's feet.Special Guest: David Pizarro.Links:How disgust affects social judgments - ScienceDirect The Problem of Purity in Moral Psychology - Kurt Gray, Nicholas DiMaggio, Chelsea Schein, Frank Kachanoff, 2023 Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 90: Freelance Kinkology (with Aella) Very Bad Wizards podcast

Episode 117: Good News for the Chronics (with Mickey Inzlicht) 06.03.2025 1t 19min

On-again off-again co-host Mickey Inzlicht joins the show to debrief about the recent SPSP (Society for Personality and Social Psychology) conference. We then dissect a new paper purporting to show working memory deficits in heavy cannabis users, including a deep dive into the preregistration. Finally, we discuss a recent Op-Ed in the Guardian that argues that research on AI empathy is fatally flawed.Links:Brain Function Outcomes of Recent and Lifetime Cannabis Use | Child Development | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network OSF Registries | Verbal Memory and Language Processing in Young Adults who Use Cannabis: An Analysis of the Human Connectome Project AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged | MJ Crockett | The Guardian Tunde Adebimpe - Magnetic (Official Video) - YouTube

Episode 116: Can We Do Science Without Ideology? (with Moin Syed) 22.01.2025 1t 27min

Cultural and developmental psychologist and open science advocate Moin Syed joins the show to talk what he thinks people get wrong about ideology, diversity, and open science. We talk about what role, if any, researchers' ideology should play in their science, and what it means when people describe psychological research as "ideological." In the second half of the show, we talk about what people get wrong about preregistration, and why it seems some misconceptions just won't die. We also talk about Moin's attempt to correct some misinformation (it did not go that well), and some local beer history.Special Guest: Moin Syed.Links:You Also Have an Ideology So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory - Elliot T. Berkman, Sylas M. Wilson, 2021 Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 100: What Happened at Perspectives on Psychological Science? Preregistration: More Promises than Pitfalls Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race: Tatum, Beverly Daniel: 9780465060689: Amazon.com: Books A Brief Note on Intellectual Sloth; or, Are 70% of U.S. Faculty Really Adjuncts? Hinds - En Forma - YouTube

Episode 115: What's Wrong with Living in a Bubble? (with Mickey Inzlicht) 04.12.2024 1t 11min

Occasional co-host Mickey Inzlicht joins the show to talk about the 2024 election, Bluesky, and his crusade against yard signs. We discuss prediction markets, Democratic declines with non-college voters, and whether Bluesky is a political bubble (and if so, if there's anything wrong with that). Also, Mickey explains his problem with yard signs and defends his beer snobbery.Links:How the Trump Polymarket Whale Correctly Called the Election, and Made Nearly $50 Million - WSJ Yard Wars - by Michael Inzlicht - Speak Now Regret Later Melenas - Bang (Official Video) - YouTube

Episode 114: Psychology Worth Doing (with Paul Bloom) 11.11.2024 1t 15min

Paul Bloom joins the show to talk about a recent paper in which he argues that much of developmental psychology is not worth doing. We also talk about where he thinks psychology has succeeded, and whether we should be more skeptical of progressive-friendly social science findings. Plus: is it ever a good idea to tell your friend that the person they're dating is bad for them?Special Guest: Paul Bloom.Links:Non-Zero Podcast (Post-Election Reflection with Paul Bloom) Much of developmental psychology is not worth doing | Theory and Society Psychology is ok - by Paul Bloom - Small Potatoes Progressives should worry more about their favorite scientific findings Psych: The Story of the Human Mind: Bloom, Paul: 9780063096363: Amazon.com: Books International Music - Im Sommer bin ich dein König - YouTube

Episode 113: The Road to Cincinnati (with Adam Mastroianni) 21.10.2024 1t 9min

Researcher and writer Adam Mastroianni joins the podcast to talk about why he left academia, what conventional scientific research might be missing, and how he ended up writing a succesful science blog instead of more journal articles. Plus: what is a Science House? How do we know that psychology is making progress? And should scientific fraud be a crime?Special Guest: Adam Mastroianni.Links:Experimental History | Adam Mastroianni | Substack PsyArXiv Preprints | Things could be better The first transmissions from Science House Good ideas don't need bayonets - by Adam Mastroianni Is psychology going to Cincinnati? - by Adam Mastroianni The Order of Death - YouTube

Episode 112: All About ADHD (with Amori Mikami) 02.09.2024 1t

University of British Columbia professor and ADHD expert Amori Mikami joins the show to talk attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). What is it, how has our understanding of it changed over the years, and how accurate is the public discourse about it? Plus, some more on Yoel's own ADHD journey and a quiz where we establish how many of Yoel's annoying behaviors are ADHD-related.Special Guest: Amori Mikami.Links:Amori Mikami - UBC Department of Psychology Why'd I take speed for twenty years? Lita Ford - Kiss Me Deadly - YouTube