Uri Hertz
@urihertz.bsky.social
PI at the cog-sci dept at the university of Haifa. Social-cognitive-computational psychology, and sometimes neuroscience.
www.socialdecisionlab.net
www.socialdecisionlab.net
Pinned
Uri Hertz
@urihertz.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Adaptive empathic response selection is sensitive to multiple dimensions of social interaction - Communications Psychology
When providing emotional support and deciding on an empathic reaction, responders were sensitive to changes in the person requiring empathy, the emotional state of that person, and the cause of their ...
www.nature.com
New paper! Led by Elena Kozakevitch-Arbel, with Simone Shamay-Tsoory, we used multi-dimensional reinforcement learning approach to examine whether people are sensitive to different dimensions of social scenarios during empathic interactions www.nature.com/articles/s44... 🧵
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Hello! 👋
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
2025 Wrap-up: Fine-tuning Gemma with Kauldron Example ✦︎ · Issue #1414 · google-deepmind/open_spiel
Hello everyone! We've been hard at work this year working on OpenSpiel 2.0, which will be better than ever. Major developments have been underway to make working with language models easier. I'm lo...
github.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Hello! 👋
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
Are you interested in AI for board games using language models? Want to do some hobby tinkering with fine-tuning or RL?
We've released an easy-to-follow example colab that fine-tunes Gemma models via Kauldron to mimic an MCTS player.
Details here: github.com/google-deepm...
♟️🎲♦️♠️♥️♣️✨🎉
Reposted by Uri Hertz
How do biological agents learn for the future?
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
December 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
How do biological agents learn for the future?
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
🚨 Now out in Psych Science 🚨
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
December 17, 2025 at 5:17 PM
🚨 Now out in Psych Science 🚨
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
We report an adversarial collaboration (with @donandrewmoore.bsky.social) testing whether overconfidence is genuinely a trait
The paper was led by Jabin Binnendyk & Sophia Li (who is fantastic and on the job market!) Free copy here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/7JIYS...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
A global study of minimal groups finds discrimination in favor of the in-group in all 20 countries, yielding a large overall effect (OR = 4.58).
The degree of intergroup discrimination was related to higher societal uncertainty www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The degree of intergroup discrimination was related to higher societal uncertainty www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
December 14, 2025 at 5:52 PM
A global study of minimal groups finds discrimination in favor of the in-group in all 20 countries, yielding a large overall effect (OR = 4.58).
The degree of intergroup discrimination was related to higher societal uncertainty www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The degree of intergroup discrimination was related to higher societal uncertainty www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Brains are designed for dimensionality reduction.
Simulated Complex Cells Contribute to Object Recognition Through Representational Untangling
doi.org/10.1162/NECO...
#neuroscience
Simulated Complex Cells Contribute to Object Recognition Through Representational Untangling
doi.org/10.1162/NECO...
#neuroscience
Simulated Complex Cells Contribute to Object Recognition Through Representational Untangling
Abstract. The visual system performs a remarkable feat: it takes complex retinal activation patterns and decodes them for object recognition. This operation, termed “representational untangling,” orga...
doi.org
December 13, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Brains are designed for dimensionality reduction.
Simulated Complex Cells Contribute to Object Recognition Through Representational Untangling
doi.org/10.1162/NECO...
#neuroscience
Simulated Complex Cells Contribute to Object Recognition Through Representational Untangling
doi.org/10.1162/NECO...
#neuroscience
Reposted by Uri Hertz
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
December 13, 2025 at 7:59 AM
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
Reposted by Uri Hertz
New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/
December 11, 2025 at 8:50 PM
New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Want to know more about intellectual humility and trust? I have good news for you! We wrote a brief (but thorough) review on IH and trust in Current Opinion in Psychology! 10/10 experience publishing with some of my fave colleagues @michalehmann.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Intellectual Humility and Trust
The problem of mistrust cannot be solved by increasing trust indiscriminately; rather, we need tools that help people trust more in what is credible a…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Want to know more about intellectual humility and trust? I have good news for you! We wrote a brief (but thorough) review on IH and trust in Current Opinion in Psychology! 10/10 experience publishing with some of my fave colleagues @michalehmann.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Officially out! In this review, Aaron Chuey and I discuss how existing work on ToM mostly focused on a single individual’s mental states (e.g., what Sally thinks). Extending ToM, we argue for ToMS—an understanding of how multiple individuals communicate and influence each others’ minds. t.ly/u4rtb
Theory of Minds: Early Understanding of Interacting Minds
The idea that we understand others’ actions in terms of their underlying mental states has shaped decades of developmental research on social cognition. Existing work, however, has primarily focused o...
www.annualreviews.org
December 10, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Officially out! In this review, Aaron Chuey and I discuss how existing work on ToM mostly focused on a single individual’s mental states (e.g., what Sally thinks). Extending ToM, we argue for ToMS—an understanding of how multiple individuals communicate and influence each others’ minds. t.ly/u4rtb
Reposted by Uri Hertz
🫀 New preprint alert! 🌆
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Physical proximity, social familiarity, and acoustic environment modulate heart rate synchrony in real-world social interactions
Human social behaviour unfolds in complex real-world environments shaped by social and acoustic factors, yet markers of social engagement and connection remain elusive. Interpersonal physiological syn...
www.biorxiv.org
December 7, 2025 at 8:57 AM
🫀 New preprint alert! 🌆
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
A really neat new paper on interpersonal heart coordination in the wild following 3 groups during organized trips in New York.
🫀 New preprint alert! 🌆
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thrilled to share the first paper of my PhD on heart-rate synchrony during social interactions in urban environments. @sinelabdtu.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Physical proximity, social familiarity, and acoustic environment modulate heart rate synchrony in real-world social interactions
Human social behaviour unfolds in complex real-world environments shaped by social and acoustic factors, yet markers of social engagement and connection remain elusive. Interpersonal physiological syn...
www.biorxiv.org
December 9, 2025 at 7:08 PM
A really neat new paper on interpersonal heart coordination in the wild following 3 groups during organized trips in New York.
Reposted by Uri Hertz
🧠💡 This feat of study by Kasper Otten and colleagues analyzed 1.5M decisions from 135K people in online public-goods games. Takeaway? When group membership changes (people leave, newcomers join), cooperation drops. Stable groups = stronger cooperation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Human cooperation in changing groups in a large-scale public goods game - Nature Communications
Little is known about the dynamics of human cooperation in groups with changing compositions. Using data from a large-scale and long-term online public goods game, this study shows how group changes a...
www.nature.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:50 PM
🧠💡 This feat of study by Kasper Otten and colleagues analyzed 1.5M decisions from 135K people in online public-goods games. Takeaway? When group membership changes (people leave, newcomers join), cooperation drops. Stable groups = stronger cooperation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
A couple years (!) in the making: we’re releasing a new corpus of embodied, collaborative problem solving dialogues. We paid 36 people to play Portal 2’s co-op mode and collected their speech + game recordings.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2512.03381
Website: berkeley-nlp.github.io/portal-dialo...
1/n
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2512.03381
Website: berkeley-nlp.github.io/portal-dialo...
1/n
December 5, 2025 at 6:54 PM
A couple years (!) in the making: we’re releasing a new corpus of embodied, collaborative problem solving dialogues. We paid 36 people to play Portal 2’s co-op mode and collected their speech + game recordings.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2512.03381
Website: berkeley-nlp.github.io/portal-dialo...
1/n
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2512.03381
Website: berkeley-nlp.github.io/portal-dialo...
1/n
Reposted by Uri Hertz
A tiny minority of highly active users produce the majority of online political content, while most users consume content passively and remain largely silent.
Toxic comments are more likely to be expressed, even though most people disagree with them, creating false norms.
osf.io/preprints/so...
Toxic comments are more likely to be expressed, even though most people disagree with them, creating false norms.
osf.io/preprints/so...
November 23, 2025 at 7:15 PM
A tiny minority of highly active users produce the majority of online political content, while most users consume content passively and remain largely silent.
Toxic comments are more likely to be expressed, even though most people disagree with them, creating false norms.
osf.io/preprints/so...
Toxic comments are more likely to be expressed, even though most people disagree with them, creating false norms.
osf.io/preprints/so...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
I think almost all scientific projects should be planned carefully. And I think an app can dramatically improve that. So I wrote an app for that (free for now, if you can fund this let me know). I tested it quite a bit (>8000 users in beta so far). try it: planyourscience.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I think almost all scientific projects should be planned carefully. And I think an app can dramatically improve that. So I wrote an app for that (free for now, if you can fund this let me know). I tested it quite a bit (>8000 users in beta so far). try it: planyourscience.com
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Human relational learning is winner-biased: we update our beliefs about winners more than losers. A study of transitive inference uses computational modelling to show this bias hinders flexibility.
@tgham.bsky.social
@bernhardspitzer.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@tgham.bsky.social
@bernhardspitzer.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Asymmetric learning and adaptability to changes in relational structure during transitive inference - Communications Psychology
Human relational learning is winner-biased: we update our beliefs about winners more than losers. A transitive inference study with computational modelling shows this bias hinders flexibility when ada...
www.nature.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Human relational learning is winner-biased: we update our beliefs about winners more than losers. A study of transitive inference uses computational modelling to show this bias hinders flexibility.
@tgham.bsky.social
@bernhardspitzer.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@tgham.bsky.social
@bernhardspitzer.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Contrasting previous offline results, in 5 online studies, motivated empathy interventions for intergroup contexts failed to increase empathy or prosociality with outgroup members.
@alexandertagesson.bsky.social
@philipparnamets.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@alexandertagesson.bsky.social
@philipparnamets.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Brief empathy interventions online can decrease but not increase empathic tendencies - Communications Psychology
Editorial Summary: Across five online studies, motivated empathy interventions for intergroup contexts failed to increase empathy or prosociality with outgroup members; participants were more easily m...
www.nature.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Contrasting previous offline results, in 5 online studies, motivated empathy interventions for intergroup contexts failed to increase empathy or prosociality with outgroup members.
@alexandertagesson.bsky.social
@philipparnamets.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@alexandertagesson.bsky.social
@philipparnamets.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Happy to share my new paper published in @nathumbehav.nature.com: A critical look at statistical power in computational modeling studies, particularly those based on model selection.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Happy to share my new paper published in @nathumbehav.nature.com: A critical look at statistical power in computational modeling studies, particularly those based on model selection.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Come and do a PhD at Exeter with me and Chico Camargo (Computer Science) on human-genAI coevolution
"Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"
www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...
More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
"Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"
www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...
More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
www.exeter.ac.uk
November 14, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Come and do a PhD at Exeter with me and Chico Camargo (Computer Science) on human-genAI coevolution
"Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"
www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...
More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
"Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics"
www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr...
More details here:
www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Excited to share a new preprint, accepted as a spotlight at #NeurIPS2025!
Humans are imperfect decision-makers, and autonomous systems should understand how we deviate from idealized rationality
Our paper aims to address this! 👀🧠✨
arxiv.org/abs/2510.25951
a 🧵⤵️
Humans are imperfect decision-makers, and autonomous systems should understand how we deviate from idealized rationality
Our paper aims to address this! 👀🧠✨
arxiv.org/abs/2510.25951
a 🧵⤵️
Estimating cognitive biases with attention-aware inverse planning
People's goal-directed behaviors are influenced by their cognitive biases, and autonomous systems that interact with people should be aware of this. For example, people's attention to objects in their...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Excited to share a new preprint, accepted as a spotlight at #NeurIPS2025!
Humans are imperfect decision-makers, and autonomous systems should understand how we deviate from idealized rationality
Our paper aims to address this! 👀🧠✨
arxiv.org/abs/2510.25951
a 🧵⤵️
Humans are imperfect decision-makers, and autonomous systems should understand how we deviate from idealized rationality
Our paper aims to address this! 👀🧠✨
arxiv.org/abs/2510.25951
a 🧵⤵️
Reposted by Uri Hertz
What do kids choose to do when they think that someone will help them? What about when no one will help?
New paper: "Young children strategically adapt to unreliable social partners" - led by Kat Shannon, with @hyogweon.bsky.social and Willem Frankenhuis.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
New paper: "Young children strategically adapt to unreliable social partners" - led by Kat Shannon, with @hyogweon.bsky.social and Willem Frankenhuis.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
November 12, 2025 at 6:27 PM
What do kids choose to do when they think that someone will help them? What about when no one will help?
New paper: "Young children strategically adapt to unreliable social partners" - led by Kat Shannon, with @hyogweon.bsky.social and Willem Frankenhuis.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
New paper: "Young children strategically adapt to unreliable social partners" - led by Kat Shannon, with @hyogweon.bsky.social and Willem Frankenhuis.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Expressions of blatantly immoral actions about outgroup members are growing on social media
This leads people to radically overestimate the degree to which political outgroup members support immoral actions
Democrats and Republicans are both off in their estimates. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
This leads people to radically overestimate the degree to which political outgroup members support immoral actions
Democrats and Republicans are both off in their estimates. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
November 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Expressions of blatantly immoral actions about outgroup members are growing on social media
This leads people to radically overestimate the degree to which political outgroup members support immoral actions
Democrats and Republicans are both off in their estimates. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
This leads people to radically overestimate the degree to which political outgroup members support immoral actions
Democrats and Republicans are both off in their estimates. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
[1/9] Excited to share our new paper "A Pragmatic View of AI Personhood" published today. We feel this topic is timely, and rapidly growing in importance as AI becomes agentic, as AI agents integrate further into the economy, and as more and more users encounter AI.
October 31, 2025 at 12:32 PM
[1/9] Excited to share our new paper "A Pragmatic View of AI Personhood" published today. We feel this topic is timely, and rapidly growing in importance as AI becomes agentic, as AI agents integrate further into the economy, and as more and more users encounter AI.
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Interestingly, @simondedeo.bsky.social uses exactly this context of apology as a place where people can use "Mental Proof" to overcome the perception of AI use, by *credibly* communicating intentions -- based on proof of shared knowledge and values.
ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AA...
ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AA...
Undermining Mental Proof: How AI Can Make Cooperation Harder by Making Thinking Easier
| Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
ojs.aaai.org
October 31, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Interestingly, @simondedeo.bsky.social uses exactly this context of apology as a place where people can use "Mental Proof" to overcome the perception of AI use, by *credibly* communicating intentions -- based on proof of shared knowledge and values.
ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AA...
ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AA...
Reposted by Uri Hertz
Ten Simple Rules for AI-Assisted Coding in Science arxiv.org/abs/2510.22254 - our latest, led by @ericwbridgeford.bsky.social
Ten Simple Rules for AI-Assisted Coding in Science
While AI coding tools have demonstrated potential to accelerate software development, their use in scientific computing raises critical questions about code quality and scientific validity. In this pa...
arxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Ten Simple Rules for AI-Assisted Coding in Science arxiv.org/abs/2510.22254 - our latest, led by @ericwbridgeford.bsky.social