Eric Mandelbaum
@ericman.bsky.social
CUNY Prof of Philosophy & Psychology, Director of Cognitive Science, other stuff too
Reposted by Eric Mandelbaum
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence
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There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way
But this is not the only one…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:58 PM
there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence
1/
1/
Greatest city in the world breaking new records! gothamist.com/news/number-...
Number of homeless students in NYC hits record high, new report finds
Nearly 1 in 7 NYC public school students were homeless at some point last year.
gothamist.com
October 21, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Greatest city in the world breaking new records! gothamist.com/news/number-...
Fantastic researcher, open-minded thinker, dedicated mentor, and one of the absolute nicest people in the field.
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
codec lab
codec-lab.github.io
October 6, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Fantastic researcher, open-minded thinker, dedicated mentor, and one of the absolute nicest people in the field.
Sex dolls: the Evolutionary Psychologist’s electrode
September 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Sex dolls: the Evolutionary Psychologist’s electrode
My friends @foddy.net and @gcuzzillo.bsky.social's game @babystepsgame.bsky.social came out today and it looks amazing. @foddy.net is an artist and philosopher in the truest sense of the words, who just happens to be using video games as his medium at the moment: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/a...
When You Fall on Your Face, a Philosophical Designer Succeeds
www.nytimes.com
September 23, 2025 at 7:59 PM
My friends @foddy.net and @gcuzzillo.bsky.social's game @babystepsgame.bsky.social came out today and it looks amazing. @foddy.net is an artist and philosopher in the truest sense of the words, who just happens to be using video games as his medium at the moment: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/a...
Reposted by Eric Mandelbaum
Our entry (with @ericman.bsky.social ) for the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, “The Language of Thought Hypothesis”, is now out.
doi.org/10.21428/e27...
doi.org/10.21428/e27...
The Language of Thought Hypothesis
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Our entry (with @ericman.bsky.social ) for the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, “The Language of Thought Hypothesis”, is now out.
doi.org/10.21428/e27...
doi.org/10.21428/e27...
It was so great! Really lucky to have been able to listen and learn from Barbara, Liuba, & Benedek. Some of the most insightful research happening today, from just the absolutely nicest, coolest people.
Heading for my last day of the ESPP in Warsaw. Amazing to see philosophers and psychologists in one room. It was a privilege to talk about how symbols and compositionality emerge in babies alongside @ljubapi.bsky.social and @benedek.bsky.social 💕 to @ericman.bsky.social for organizing the symposium!
September 6, 2025 at 10:15 AM
It was so great! Really lucky to have been able to listen and learn from Barbara, Liuba, & Benedek. Some of the most insightful research happening today, from just the absolutely nicest, coolest people.
Bob Clark for mayor
Bob Clark, VP of marketing for Herr Foods, Inc., said the company was surprised to see it was mentioned in the press.
“While we can’t speak to the details of the story,” he said, “we can confirm that our Sour Cream & Onion flavor is money.”
www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/21/w...
“While we can’t speak to the details of the story,” he said, “we can confirm that our Sour Cream & Onion flavor is money.”
www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/21/w...
The Chips Fall as Rivals Fry the Mayor
The jokes and jabs are flying as Eric Adams’ closest aides was slapped with new criminal charges the day after another of his longtime allies offered a reporter cash inside a potato chip bag.
www.thecity.nyc
August 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Bob Clark for mayor
Hard to think of a better gig. So cool for Cornell too
Apply for funding to work with me and Gord at Cornell!
Interested in doing a postdoc with me & @dgrand.bsky.social? Consider applying to Cornell's Klarman Fellowship: as.cornell.edu/research/kla...
It involves a competitive internal application process, but it's 3 years of funding @$80k/year
Please email me/Dave if you're interested! Oct 15th deadline
It involves a competitive internal application process, but it's 3 years of funding @$80k/year
Please email me/Dave if you're interested! Oct 15th deadline
August 16, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Hard to think of a better gig. So cool for Cornell too
Excited about this in large part because Raphael is the absolute best
Happy to share this updated Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on 'Associationist Theories of Thought' with
@ericman.bsky.social. Among other things, we included a new major section on reinforcement learning. Many thanks to Eric for bringing me on board!
plato.stanford.edu/entries/asso...
@ericman.bsky.social. Among other things, we included a new major section on reinforcement learning. Many thanks to Eric for bringing me on board!
plato.stanford.edu/entries/asso...
Associationist Theories of Thought (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
plato.stanford.edu
July 14, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Excited about this in large part because Raphael is the absolute best
This work is so cool, (and Vlad rules to boot)
Do women feel some emotions more strongly than men do? Out today in Affective Science, I argue that claims like this make a notoriously subtle mistake. What is it? And what does it have to do with an astigmatic painter and thyroid medicine? A short thread...
(1/14)
(1/14)
The El Greco Fallacy, this Time with Feeling: How (not) to Measure Group Differences in Emotional Intensity - Affective Science
We all get angry. And some of us get angrier than others. But are such differences systematic across groups? Affective scientists often make claims about group differences in emotional intensity by co...
link.springer.com
July 5, 2025 at 12:59 PM
This work is so cool, (and Vlad rules to boot)
Reposted by Eric Mandelbaum
A key takeaway from 20+ years of computational RL is: model-free=automatic, model-based=deliberate. My new paper w/ @benedek.bsky.social challenges this view, suggesting that MB algos are more ubiquitous, & automatic processing more sophisticated, than currently thought: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Model-based algorithms shape automatic evaluative processing | PNAS
Computational theories of reinforcement learning suggest that two families of algorithm—model-based
and model-free—tightly map onto the classic dis...
www.pnas.org
June 21, 2025 at 1:41 AM
A key takeaway from 20+ years of computational RL is: model-free=automatic, model-based=deliberate. My new paper w/ @benedek.bsky.social challenges this view, suggesting that MB algos are more ubiquitous, & automatic processing more sophisticated, than currently thought: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
This is really impressive. Hard to imagine a more painful (or dangerous) rollercoaster than the Cyclone: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWi_...
Cyclone
YouTube video by Brad Lander for NYC
www.youtube.com
June 15, 2025 at 7:32 AM
This is really impressive. Hard to imagine a more painful (or dangerous) rollercoaster than the Cyclone: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWi_...
Ummmm the Inside the NBA crew is at center court, watching Inside the NBA?
May 29, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Ummmm the Inside the NBA crew is at center court, watching Inside the NBA?
Cuomo is coming for Eric Adams' trophy as the biggest butthead interviewee
May 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Cuomo is coming for Eric Adams' trophy as the biggest butthead interviewee
🙏🙏🙏
I’m moving from York to take up a Professorship at the CUNY Grad Center this fall! Graduate student training has been a focus these past years and I’m excited to help mentor next gen philosophy of animal minds in NYC!
May 14, 2025 at 4:08 AM
🙏🙏🙏
Reposted by Eric Mandelbaum
📄 NEW PRE-PRINT! 📄
How do we acquire beliefs? According to one intuitive view, we can entertain thoughts, and then choose to accept them as beliefs or reject them.
philpapers.org/rec/PIOBWW
(🧵1/10)
How do we acquire beliefs? According to one intuitive view, we can entertain thoughts, and then choose to accept them as beliefs or reject them.
philpapers.org/rec/PIOBWW
(🧵1/10)
Griffin Pion, Elliot Schwartz & Eric Mandelbaum, Believe What We Think!: The Spinozan Theory of Mind - PhilPapers
How do we acquire beliefs? According to the Spinozan model, merely having a thought entails believing it. Only through a further, effortful process can one reject automatically-accepted beliefs. This ...
philpapers.org
April 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
📄 NEW PRE-PRINT! 📄
How do we acquire beliefs? According to one intuitive view, we can entertain thoughts, and then choose to accept them as beliefs or reject them.
philpapers.org/rec/PIOBWW
(🧵1/10)
How do we acquire beliefs? According to one intuitive view, we can entertain thoughts, and then choose to accept them as beliefs or reject them.
philpapers.org/rec/PIOBWW
(🧵1/10)
Reposted by Eric Mandelbaum
Excited to share a new paper accepted to @cogscisociety.bsky.social 2025 on the cognitive representation polysemy and their use in reasoning!
Pre-print here: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Thread below! (🧵1/9)
Pre-print here: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Thread below! (🧵1/9)
OSF
doi.org
April 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Excited to share a new paper accepted to @cogscisociety.bsky.social 2025 on the cognitive representation polysemy and their use in reasoning!
Pre-print here: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Thread below! (🧵1/9)
Pre-print here: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Thread below! (🧵1/9)
Pains me to give this any boost but my lord this tidbit
The transcript of the faculty meeting that cost Katrina Armstrong her job leaked because nobody at Columbia was able to configure Zoom to prevent transcription.
freebeacon.com/campus/what-...
freebeacon.com/campus/what-...
March 31, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Pains me to give this any boost but my lord this tidbit
Congrats Shannon! Can't wait to celebrate with you in Ithaca
It's my honor to announce the 2025 winner of the Stanton Prize given out by the Society of Philosophy and Psychology (drum roll 🥁): Shannon Spaulding 🏆
Huge congratulations!! Make sure to see Shannon's prize lecture at the SPP conference at Cornell this June.
www.socphilpsych.org/meetings.html
Huge congratulations!! Make sure to see Shannon's prize lecture at the SPP conference at Cornell this June.
www.socphilpsych.org/meetings.html
March 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Congrats Shannon! Can't wait to celebrate with you in Ithaca
Quitting my job to help unravel the "Baseball Maiming Society Industrial Complex" Foul Ball Safety Now!
www.publishersmarketplace.com/jobs/view.cg...
www.publishersmarketplace.com/jobs/view.cg...
Publishing Strategist Partner – The Architect of a Truth & Reconciliation Publishing Movement (#41035) | Publishers Lunch Job Board
Position: Publishing Strategist Partner – The Architect of a Truth & Reconciliation Publishing Movement (Part Time) | Offered by: Foul Ball Safety Now (Remote) | posted Mar. 10, 2025
www.publishersmarketplace.com
March 11, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Quitting my job to help unravel the "Baseball Maiming Society Industrial Complex" Foul Ball Safety Now!
www.publishersmarketplace.com/jobs/view.cg...
www.publishersmarketplace.com/jobs/view.cg...
CUNY Cog Sci continues to be 🔥. Thanks to Charles Yang for a super interesting talk on language learning and the Tolerance Principle.
February 28, 2025 at 5:44 PM
CUNY Cog Sci continues to be 🔥. Thanks to Charles Yang for a super interesting talk on language learning and the Tolerance Principle.