Jake Womick

Thanks to everyone who came to our symposium on moralized politics during the *last session* of @spspnews.bsky.social 2026. We are so grateful for your feedback and questions! And I’m especially grateful to @diegoreinero.bsky.social, Paul Teas and @jakewomick.bsky.social for sharing their cool work!

Heads up #SPSP2026 - no excuses!

Excited to be giving a talk at #SPSP2026 in Chicago on this terrific symposium.

Our symposium explores how moralized political thinking emerges, how it polarizes and divides, and how it can be reduced. Come check it out!

Are you a social psych person who studies things related to culture, social dynamics, contextually situated groups or just want to live in the southwest and eat amazing Mexican food? Apply to our position! We’re hiring at the asst prof level in psych utep.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdeta...

It’s so weird how we’re all just working like this is still a normal country.

You know what I miss?

Science. Doing it. Thinking about it. Talking about it. Writing about it. Getting excited about it.

Maybe I’ll get to be a scientist again one day. Maybe it will matter.

Ever wonder why some immigrants seem to want to close the door (or the border) behind them? Go see Kevin at #28 to find out how authoritarianism and acculturation drive this phenomenon #spsp25

Liberals always report lower meaning in life. What can they do to boost meaning? Stop by Brandon’s poster to find out! #SPSP25

Although the poster may be small, the results are huge!

Go check out Kevin’s poster about anti-immigration attitudes among U.S. immigrants! #SPSP25

A graphic showing the symposium title “Social Psychological Insights into LGBTQ+ Health”, from 11AM to 12:10PM on Saturday, Feb 22.

Coming to @spspnews.bsky.social? Interested in LGBTQ+ people, health psychology, or both? Come to our ✨timely✨ symposium on Social Psychological Insights into LGBTQ+ health! See work from me plus @paolopalma.bsky.social, @drmikeytrujillo.bsky.social, and @catherinesjwall.bsky.social!

How do attitudes become moralized? We find that moral conviction spreads between connected attitudes over time. + Those with highly connected belief systems (ideologues) have highly moralized belief systems!

Come see us at the moral psych pre-con poster session @spspnews.bsky.social to learn more😃

a woman in a black dress is standing next to a man in a suit who says you 're hypocrites ALT: a woman in a black dress is standing next to a man in a suit who says you 're hypocrites

Went to Heterodox Academy's website, wondering if an organization "dedicated" to free inquiry would condemn academic censorship from the Trump admin. Unsurprisingly, the only statements on their website commend the admin and explicitly pit the "pursuit of truth" against that of "social justice."

This new paper is so cool!

It shows that the media use passive voice, nominalizations, and intransitive verbs that obscure responsibility in cases of police killings.

Because they do this, citizens are less likely to hold police officers responsible for bad behavior.

Scientific breakthroughs we might not have had without NSF funding:

The Internet
Smartphones
DNA analysis
MRIs
Doppler radar
Bar codes

And this is just the tiniest tip of the iceburg.

Although I feel the same, I would add that something keeping me going is mentoring students who are still hoping and dreaming big

Sums it up pretty well

So weird

My occasional reminder to folks on tenure and promotion committees that there will be a cohort of people whose early careers were defined entirely by the pandemic and *waves vaguely* this nonsense, and it *will* impact their productivity.

It can't not.

The correlations have become so strong that they compel the question of if and how much these are even separable

Yet another hurdle has been added to the an academic experience for our students. We're doing our best to provide them extra support. I was pretty solid having these conversations in my first class yesterday. In my second class, I couldn't hold back the tears. Make it stop.

It's hard enough already to navigate student life as a first-generation student, in a second language, while working (sometimes multiple) jobs, and/or raising a family. Of course, this EO makes students more anxious about being on campus and worried about whether it is safe to come to class.

I work at a HSI, and we've been having lots of ICE raids in the area this week. One of Trump's EOs enables ICE to conduct raids on campus. We've been trying to prepare students and equip them with resources to navigate this possibility. It's been heart-wrenching to have these conversations.

@jakewomick.bsky.social is now on Bluesky!

Give him a follow to learn more about intergroup relations & political ideology etc