mat marques, ph.d.
bicycles, coffee, and social psychology.
researches the causes and consequences of #conspiracytheories
he/him. woiworung land.
https://mdmarques.com
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.[Not loaded yet]
- I'm totally onboard with Donie's approach to listening, understanding, and trying to be empathetic to people who hold what may be considered fringe beliefs. only then can you scratch the surface and have a humanising conversation and try and understanding what's going on h/t @teflondub.bsky.social
- Why it’s time we change how we talk about conspiracy theories www.cnn.com/2025/05/03/p...
- "It's so unbelievable, because you can't imagine that someone who's the head of Health and Human Services doesn't believe that specific viruses or bacteria cause specific diseases, and that the prevention or treatment of them is lifesaving."
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Grandpa's gotten confused about what he read online again
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Literal fascism - playing this for crowds to cheer
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Joe Exotic endorsing Anthony Albanese isn't one I had on the bingo card. #auspol
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Great new paper by Stagnaro & Amsalem in NatComm: Detailed fact-based informational module about gun control leads to persistent reductions in polarization (attitudes move towards midpoint). Seeing the evidence cited by other side makes opinions more moderate www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.This is known as a “Holy Ghost”
- Pope Ghosts JD Vance at Vatican, Sends Top Cardinal to Lecture VP on Compassion europesays.com/2009702/ Pope Ghosts JD Vance at Vatican, Sends Top Cardinal to Lecture VP on Compassion Pope Ghosts JD Vance…
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Not sure I'd call it insane. Fascism is a very rational project and this fits within it. @m-b-petersen.bsky.social (but yes, of course it's crazed).
- "Advance are a bunch of billionaires who want to pursue their own interests while pretending to be the underdogs." - @anthonyklan.bsky.social read more on who is behind of the the largest, well-coordinated political disinformation campaign in Australia
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Scoop: It appears as though the Victorian Liberals have accidentally given unprecedented insight into what data they collect on voters because of a wrongly configured email provider. Fields include "Predicted Chinese", "Predicted Jewish" and more. www.crikey.com.au/20...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.⤵️This is how to cover an anti-science, conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. Other news outlets should take note. "...he’ll likely use the power and money of the federal government to prop up the long-debunked claim that vaccines cause autism."
- NEW from me: RFK Jr. made it clear at a press conference that he'd promote "environmental factors" (read: vaccines) as a cause of autism, and trotted out a new phrase, "epidemic denial," to label people who disagree with his interpretation of data. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Our secret plot has finally been revealed: Ariel Bogle and I have written a book: 'CONSPIRACY NATION: Exposing the dangerous world of Australian conspiracy theories' We have a lot to share about what we uncovered, but for now you can pre-order it here: bio.to/ConspiracyNation
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.RFK Jr. is seeking to destroy the consensus around vaccines, one of the greatest public health achievements in human history. People will die because of it.
- “According to an email obtained by The New York Times, H.H.S. intends to revise its web pages to include statements like ‘The decision to vaccinate is a personal one’ and ‘People should also be informed about the potential adverse events associated with vaccines’” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/h...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Congrats, @breznaunate.bsky.social @emrinke.bsky.social @kunkakom.bsky.social and team. Taking part in this project was not only eye-opening in terms of #metascience but also great fun. Even with shared data and code, reproducibility is not a given. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.RFK Jr. says Deep State 'is real,' accused FDA of being 'sock puppets' and uses the "R" word to describe people with disabilities The HHS secretary’s remarks shocked staffers at the Food and Drug Administration, prompting some to walk out. www.politico.com/news/2025/04...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.(Not) one of us: The overrepresentation of elites in politics erodes political trust bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.With Gen Z and Millennials combined now outnumbering Baby Boomers as the dominant voter bloc, their votes will shape the election. But do they care?
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Australia could be taking advantage of the millions of students now too scared to go to university in America. Instead both Dutton and Albanese are threatening to *massively reduce* intl student numbers.
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive. No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief. 1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.
- Suspicious of AI? Perceived autonomy and interdependence predict AI-related conspiracy beliefs "Both studies found that higher autonomy and lower interdependence increased AI-related conspiracy beliefs, while perceived threat to society mediated these effects in most cases"
- I think I am pretty close to what looks like a line of best fit there www.abc.net.au/news/vote-co...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Online Exams in a World of AI “Students are forced to choose – do they cheat, or risk getting lower marks than peers who did cheat, with consequences for employability.” #AcademicSky #UKHE
- watch out for the sociopathy and neoliberal effects on them newborn babies!
- Not quite rat penis bad, but still pretty bad. Presumably the entire article is AI generated hogwash: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 116 citations -- well done with the peer review here @springernature.com
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.I noticed that @wikipedia.org lacked a page for Questionable Research Practices (QRPs), so I started one. Please help me improve it! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questio...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.HEY APA! Didn’t you know that the first rule of fighting tyranny is DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE?! So why the fuck are you obeying in advance?!?? www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.A core element of public health involves working with the public to help them understand how they can protect themselves and their neighbors from disease. This memo (see the next post) equates this vital aspect of public communication with censorship.
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Report: Anti-Science Attitude Strongest Among Those Who Believe Turtle Has Little Apartment Inside Shell theonion.com/report-...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Ok sure I may have texted the wrong person before but I also do not posses powers to order hundreds or thousands of people to be murdered with complete impunity
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.I asked DeepSeek to develop a scale to measure addiction to addiction scale development and of course it delivered.
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Amidst the focus on anti-vaxxers, let’s not forget the biggest causes of low coverage - poverty and social exclusion. Our opinion piece in SMH www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/he...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.So the guy leading RFK Jr.'s vaccine-autism study? A total quack who was previously charged for practicing medicine without a license for using chemical castration drugs on autistic children.
- "It’s not clear how or why Geier, who is not a physician and has an undergraduate degree from the Univ. of Maryland at Baltimore County, was chosen... "He was disciplined by Maryland regulators over a decade ago for practicing medicine without a license... www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
- who's a happy boy?
- Post a ship that’s not Star Wars or Star Trek
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Excellent run-down on the governance crisis in our universities, by the inestimable Rick Morton www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/educati...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Ho et al. (2025) review three decades of work on social dominance orientation (SDO), which represents "individual differences in the preference for group-based hierarchy and inequality." BSky authors: @nourkteily.bsky.social, @jsskeffington.bsky.social, @lottethomsendk.bsky.social
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.New blog post! In which I explain the issue with mediation analysis and sketch out one way to deal with the underlying causal inference problem -- in just a bit over 1,000 words! If you have never found the time to read up on this, now is your chance. www.the100.ci/2025/03/20/r...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Meta pirated at least 101 of my books and articles, and tens of millions of others. open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.🚨 New Issue Alert! Dive into the emotional whirlwind of #conspiracy #theories with our latest PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY issue on The Appraisal Model of Conspiracy Theories. Unpack how #emotions drive reactions to conspiracies. A must-read for anyone intrigued by the #psychology of #belief.
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.herbal language processing had me laughing out loud
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Gwyneth Paltrow's Dairy Delusion. Milking conspiracy theories and JAQing off is even more harmful when it comes from celebrities. vajenda.substack.com/p/gwyneth-pa...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.🚨 Preprint! We combine our recent open dataset of #APC prices with the article counts per journal-year from #OpenAlex to estimate how much the academic community has paid in APCs over the last 5 years. A. $8.349 billion ($8.968 B in 2023 USD) $2.5B in 2023 alone. arxiv.org/abs/2407.16551 #metasci
- "The manipulation and the misinformation are happening on social media but not caused by social media. It's caused by the strategic actions of, in Australia, major fossil-fuel-funded groups who have a relatively vested interest in slowing the decarbonisation that preserves their profit-making for …"
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- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.I don't know why people find the weather in Melbourne so baffling - it's quite straightforward. We have 2,498 seasons per year.
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.The left sees gov't as a way to solve problems. The right sees gov't as THE problem. So left coalition-building is MUCH harder. Sociologist @jessicacalarco.bsky.social unpacks the difficulties involved & points to story-telling's power to help overcome them: 1/18 www.salon.com/2025/03/15/h...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.New theory paper-led by @lpummerer.bsky.social with Karen Douglas, @drdanieljolley.bsky.social & @tgkinopoulos.bsky.social The Appraisal Model of Conspiracy Theories (AMCT): Applying appraisal theories to understand emotional and behavioral reactions to CTs www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
- fact check - turns out it is a zucchini
- not everyone is pleased with a meter long pumpkin
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Members of the Republican Party continuously propose legislation that would facilitate a "cult of personality" around Trump - a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. Here is a partial list to help as we keep track of the myriad of ways democracy can erode. 🧵(1/8)
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.see, this plane got measles and was perfectly fine
- one of, if not the most, moving films I have seen in a decade. this really is as good or better than the reviews suggest. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ time.com/7204864/im-s...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.One of the most fascinating reads I had in the past few months. Congrats to the authors! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.RFK Jr: "It used to be that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn't do that ... it used to be that very young kids were protected by breast milk. Women who get vaccinated do not provide that level of immunity."
- had a great chat with my dentist today (when able!) about talking to people about fluoridation. her approach resonated with evidence-based strategies around listening, raport-building, and giving patients info and space to make an informed decision. fascinating to hear her reflections on it as well.
- nice write-up and quotes from @ealbath.bsky.social on her study investigating unmet motives and belief in conspiracy theories from the NZAVS
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Please share! Call for Research Collaborators: Cross-Cultural Study on the Continued Influence of Misinformation We invite researchers to join The Continued Influence Effect of Misinformation Across Cultures (CINEMAC) Mega-Study. More details here: forms.gle/o7mEYtZxFzsM...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.“It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment...Therefore, the award is terminated.” www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.I feel so frustrated that we are in a situation where needless research that fuels vaccine hesitancy and has already been done extensively could happen- my take on the call to reopen MMR vaccines and autism research- TL: there is NO link 🧪
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.We present: A new instrument to measure people’s science literacy. #OpenAccess in #ScienceCommunication: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... 📢 It’s a 14-item #survey scale in English, German, French and Italian covering three key dimensions of science literacy: civic, media and cognitive literacy 💡
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.We are joined by @annamerlan.bsky.social to discuss how the White House media and propaganda operation resembles the Kremlin, and the model established by Putin’s “political technologist” Vladislav Surkov in which “nothing is real and everything is possible” soundcloud.com/user-8304426...
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- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.Just published: 'Solidarity riots in the diffusion of collective action: Doing historical research to develop theory in social psychology' @bpsofficial.bsky.social @bps-social-psych.bsky.social bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by mat marques, ph.d.RFK Jr finally recommends vaccination to deal with the measles outbreak hitting Texas right now. This is quite the about face for a man who’s been spreading harmful anti-vaxx rhetoric for years. www.axios.com/2025/03/03/k...
