Two Psychologists Four Beers

Latest Episodes:

Episode 124: Civic Honesty Around the Globe (with David Tannenbaum) Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

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:

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Episode 123: RE-RELEASE: What are Teachers Good For? (with Paul Bloom) Sep 03, 2025

Show notes

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:

Episode 122: When to Quit (with Paul Bloom) Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

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: BEERS

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Episode 121: A New Paradigm for Psychology? Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

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: BEERS

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Episode 120: Transparent Replications (with Spencer Greenberg) Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

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: BEERS

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Episode 119: The Future of DEI in Higher Ed (with Amori Mikami) May 07, 2025

Show notes

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) Apr 01, 2025

Show notes

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:

Episode 117: Good News for the Chronics (with Mickey Inzlicht) Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

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:

Episode 116: Can We Do Science Without Ideology? (with Moin Syed) Jan 22, 2025

Show notes

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:

Episode 115: What's Wrong with Living in a Bubble? (with Mickey Inzlicht) Dec 04, 2024

Show notes

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.

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