In this work, we find that critiques of things like wealth inequality, and violations of the American Dream tend to represent the working class as hopeless, defeated and weak. Congrats to her on a wonderful presentation!

On top of that, I also got to see one of my wonderful RAs, Alyssa Pavek, give her first data blitz in the social psych world. She presented some of the work that she has been helping me with on how humorous critiques of the economic system may inadvertently hurt our social movement potential.

and how central fears of bleak futures for White people (but not other collective existential threats) are to the link between White identity and White nationalism (Sulaimon Kasali). I wish I had taken more pictures...

It was also wonderful hearing about other people's work - from work on the relationships that people form with media characters (Amy Pezoldt),to the effect of deliberative arguments on polarization (Jordan L. Thompson)...

You can find the pre-print here: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Big shout out to my amazing co-authors @aalaukik.bsky.social and Bluesky-less Greg Webster

Our data suggests that the emergence of new unions in RTW states may be a defensive response to worsening financial conditions, compared to union shop states that may form new unions both as a defense and preemptive response to protect worker financial well-being.

...leaving workers in RTW states in significantly worse financial conditions compared workers in to union shop states (i.e., more food insecurity, lower insurance rates, worse salaries and benefits).

We find that RTW laws have a prevailing detrimental effect on efforts to organize new labor unions even decades after their enactment. We also find evidence that RTW laws limit the effectiveness of existing labor unions to improve worker material conditions...

We combined data from the NLRB, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, RAND State Statistics, Gallup, and the Economic Policy Institute from the years 2018-2023 to explore the effects of RTW laws on a myriad of financial well-being indicators and the emergence of new organizing efforts.

RTW laws forbid agreements between labor unions and employers that would compel union membership among workers. These laws have long been debated: Some people argue that RTW laws invigorate state economies, others suggest they create a free-rider problem, weakening union membership bases.

TLDR:
We find prevalent detrimental effects of RTW laws on worker mobilizing, union effectiveness and workers' financial well-being.

Shahrzad Goudarzi and @egarciaferres.bsky.social zoom in on the role of capitalism and evaluate how it is covered in (social) psychological research:

doi.org/10.1080/1047...

Oh no :( i’m so sorry, Erin. I hope he gets through this.