Calvin Lai's Avatar

Calvin Lai

@calvinklai

Social psychologist & professor at Rutgers University. Studying how to reduce prejudice and discrimination. Opinions are my own. he/him calvinklai.com

2,452
Followers
452
Following
86
Posts
02.10.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Calvin Lai @calvinklai

Post image Post image

Last few weeks teaching has had me thinking a fair bit about age, period, and cohort effects on attitudes so cooked up these two figures out of interest. Sharing if interesting to folks.

06.03.2026 22:18 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

๐Ÿ˜ฎ this isn't what we meant when us millennials said we were nostalgic for the 2000s

06.03.2026 21:07 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best

A picture of PEW poll on global attitude survey, saying the % who rate the morality and ethics of people in their country as good vs bad, where the US has the worst rankings and Canada the best

Americans: we live in a fallen stateโ€”embroiled by sin, cheating, lying, and evil. You cannot trust anyone, not even those who claim to know you best

Canadians: I love my neighbors and my friends!

05.03.2026 16:09 ๐Ÿ‘ 5890 ๐Ÿ” 1539 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 285 ๐Ÿ“Œ 520

New from Chyei Vinluan finds that Asian Am workers (1) exp more discrimination working & (2) felt less in control/able to manage conflict in-person v. remotely; and (3) were more inclusive/equitable in policy support after learning about (1) & (2) ๐Ÿ”“๐Ÿงต online.ucpress.edu/collabra/art...

04.03.2026 22:20 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Basically ZERO awards in NSF SBES ๐Ÿคฏ

Consistent with what Iโ€™ve heard from friends, who say last summerโ€™s submissions havenโ€™t even been reviewed yetโ€ฆ

04.03.2026 18:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 9 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Two people shake hands in front of a boardroom meeting with a city landscape in the background.

Two people shake hands in front of a boardroom meeting with a city landscape in the background.

How Joint Review Can Boost Faculty Diversity

A new study finds that Black and Hispanic faculty have much higher chances of promotion or tenure when they are evaluated alongside other candidates. https://bit.ly/4aTV7lq

#EDUSky #HigherEd #AcademicSky

04.03.2026 17:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
The Report of Stereotype Threat's Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated And why I'm feeling a certain way about it

Today Dominic Packer & @jayvanbavel.bsky.social republished @minzlicht.bsky.social's post about "The Downfall of Stereotype Threat" in their widely-read The Power Of Us newsletter. I felt a certain way about that & the evidence presented there & thought I'd respond:

04.03.2026 06:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 37 ๐Ÿ” 13 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
Preview
Objection: What Happened in Dallas County Was Not a Glitch What happened in Dallas County tonight should scare the hell out of you.

What just happened in Dallas County is one of the most blatant voter suppression operations I've ever seenโ€”and it happened in a *primary*.

In March. Imagine November.

I broke it down here:

open.substack.com/pub/objectio...

04.03.2026 04:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 2696 ๐Ÿ” 1491 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 102 ๐Ÿ“Œ 135
Preview
How do you measure a threat in the air? Testing the universal, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of social identity threat Using the SITC Inventory, social identity threat is shown to be dynamic, multifaceted, and nearly universal.

New paper out in Science Advances! I'm really (really) proud of this one. Let's get into it. doi.org/10.1126/scia...

28.02.2026 05:07 ๐Ÿ‘ 41 ๐Ÿ” 19 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

This is what state censorship looks like:

02.03.2026 17:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 44 ๐Ÿ” 21 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Is SPSP a Healthy Organization?

01.03.2026 03:48 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Yes

01.03.2026 01:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Trump has offered effectively zero rationale to the public and the result is confusion and diffidence - 68% say not justified or not sure; only 62% of Rs say justified

28.02.2026 22:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 52 ๐Ÿ” 18 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Nice!! I had my hand raised too but didn't get called on. Alas.

28.02.2026 21:48 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Let's say I'm a researcher in a politically controversial topic: flu and hepatitis vaccines for children. I study interventions to increase vaccine uptake.

Would I be doing "activist science" given the anti-vaxx political movement & anti-vaxx govt actions here in the US?

(Inspired by #SPSP2026)

28.02.2026 21:43 ๐Ÿ‘ 63 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
28.02.2026 21:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 176 ๐Ÿ” 27 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
Preview
Lawrence Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Epstein Revelations

I'm glad to see accountability for academia's bad apples. But I also hope that resignations like this one won't be the end of the story. Because we still need to reckon with how the structures and cultures in "elite" academia have created ripe conditions for rot. 1/๐Ÿงต

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

25.02.2026 22:30 ๐Ÿ‘ 530 ๐Ÿ” 114 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 19 ๐Ÿ“Œ 10

Proud to be member of an exclusive club ๐Ÿ˜Ž ๐ŸŒŠ #SPSP2026

26.02.2026 00:58 ๐Ÿ‘ 13 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A graphic showing four speakers and their talk titles: Katie Kroeper presenting "Who Gets to Belong? Belonging Opportunities in College Vary by Race and First-Gen Status," Carlton Fong presenting "Exploring College Students' Costs to Belong," Joel Le Forestier presenting "Belonging According to Whom? The Effects of Distancing from a Stigmatized Identity on Felt and Perceived Belonging," and Kevin Binning presenting "Transforming Social Contexts with Ecological Belonging Interventions."

A graphic showing four speakers and their talk titles: Katie Kroeper presenting "Who Gets to Belong? Belonging Opportunities in College Vary by Race and First-Gen Status," Carlton Fong presenting "Exploring College Students' Costs to Belong," Joel Le Forestier presenting "Belonging According to Whom? The Effects of Distancing from a Stigmatized Identity on Felt and Perceived Belonging," and Kevin Binning presenting "Transforming Social Contexts with Ecological Belonging Interventions."

Going to #spsp2026? Interested in belonging, diversity, or stigma? Come to our symposium, "The Journey to Belonging: Challenges, Costs, and Ways Forward" on Friday at 9:30AM CST. Featuring @katiekroe.bsky.social, @carltonfong.bsky.social, Kevin Binning, and myself.

25.02.2026 14:24 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 5 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Johnny Cash - Hurt YouTube video by JohnnyCashVEVO

Johnny Cash - Hurt youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI?...

25.02.2026 11:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

and that, my fellow academics, is one reason not to hire war criminals: so they can't show up years post (their) war arguing in favor of the scaffolding behind their own atrocities with the imprimatur and status of your university

23.02.2026 23:49 ๐Ÿ‘ 2478 ๐Ÿ” 494 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 46 ๐Ÿ“Œ 6
Preview
SPSSI Journals Traffic stops are common and consequential for citizensโ€™ legal socialization and for racial gaps in police-community trust. Efforts to change the tenor of police interactions, however, may discount t...

New in JSI (OA): Reckless speeding or tinted windows? We look at racial disparities in reasons why drivers are stopped, their disparate impacts on community trust, and how police departments exacerbate โ€”or mitigateโ€” their impacts through policy. (1/7)
spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

15.09.2025 17:46 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 6 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Izilda Pereira-Jorge, Sandra Manfreda, Brianna Lopez, Selin Toprakkiran

Izilda Pereira-Jorge, Sandra Manfreda, Brianna Lopez, Selin Toprakkiran

Heading to Chicago for #SPSP2026? Come check out work from our lab! ๐Ÿ™‚

Weโ€™re presenting 2 talks & 2 posters on interventions to promote confrontations of sexism, identity safety cues, multiracial identity, and stereotyping about nationality.

23.02.2026 19:12 ๐Ÿ‘ 10 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image

I listened to a panel of election officials last week talk about what they are doing to try to restore trust in elections; but it is hard to reverse a dynamic where Trump is calling you crooked. As a result, more are simply leaving the profession. About 40% of 2020 officials were gone by 2024.

20.02.2026 17:03 ๐Ÿ‘ 96 ๐Ÿ” 20 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
Post image Post image

๐Ÿšจ New paper! Think of a place you feel deeply attached to. When you're in that place, do you feel like your life is more meaningful? New work from @ashleykrause.bsky.social suggests you probably do!

Just accepted at Journal of Environmental Psychology, we find places can give our life meaning ๐Ÿงต

18.02.2026 13:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 76 ๐Ÿ” 18 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
Post image

People form beliefs not only as individual agents, but as members of social groups.

Children (4-6 years old) who belonged to a group were more convinced by evidence that supported their ingroupโ€™s belief (and were less convinced by evidence that opposed their ingroup): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

16.02.2026 19:17 ๐Ÿ‘ 70 ๐Ÿ” 23 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

There's a @adambonica.bsky.social blog post for everything

data4democracy.substack.com/p/how-regula...

16.02.2026 19:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 41 ๐Ÿ” 10 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image

If you're attending #SPSP, come check out the museum our department started! You can play around with behavioral science demos; eat free food; and maybe leave with some free swag. Register here: forms.gle/pTqBu5Pvaayn... @spspnews.bsky.social

16.02.2026 22:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

๐Ÿ‘€๐Ÿ‘€๐Ÿ‘€

16.02.2026 22:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 59 ๐Ÿ” 20 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
Alt text: Illustration of a blue envelope opening to reveal a white card reading โ€œ$10,000 Donatedโ€ with the message โ€œThank you to our individual donors and matching donor!โ€ The Project Implicit logo appears on the card, with a bright orange background and celebratory burst pattern behind the envelope.

Alt text: Illustration of a blue envelope opening to reveal a white card reading โ€œ$10,000 Donatedโ€ with the message โ€œThank you to our individual donors and matching donor!โ€ The Project Implicit logo appears on the card, with a bright orange background and celebratory burst pattern behind the envelope.

Incredibly grateful to the folks who have committed $5,000 to Project Implicit since our announcement of matching funds last week!

A generous donor is currently offering an additional $1,000 for any individual or group donation of $1,000 or more. Group gifts can be coordinated with our team.

16.02.2026 21:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 5 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1