Social psychologist at NYU-Stern, working to roll back the phone-based childhood. Please visit https://nitter.cf/t.co/5opmFez5V6 & https://nitter.cf/t.co/7aVAmOTlnl
New York City
Joined January 2010
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Google heard the outcry from parents, teachers, and the US Senate, who don’t want Gemini pushed into classrooms. AI causes cognitive offloading, encourages cheating on homework, and enables the possibility of forming human-like relationships with a chatbot. So Google responded: They are going to make Gemini an “opt-in” choice for each school district. Great!
But then they attached a condition: if a school district does NOT turn on Gemini, then the students lose Google search, which is deeply woven into the fabric of education. This is coercion, not choice. Google can and should just restore what we all had before: Google search with no AI chatbot interaction or AI overviews.
nytimes.com/2026/11/03/us/go…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Parents significantly underestimate their children's AI use; but they are not powerless to stop it. My latest #NoMoreSidewalks episode with @JonHaidt @BrookingsInst @LetGrowOrg podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
If you are interested in the effects of media/tech on human development, democracy, and society, you must follow my NYU colleague @jayvanbavel. High quality research summaries and interpretation:
If you’ve had a sneaking suspicion that your algorithm is feeding you content specifically designed to enrage you, you might be onto something. Social media algorithms reward moral outrage, giving extreme voices more visibility than they might otherwise have and distorting our perceptions of what other people actually believe.
Meanwhile, AI chatbots are increasingly telling us what we want to hear, reinforcing our existing beliefs, while remote work and digital communication can come at the expense of the everyday interactions that build trust and strengthen relationships.
I shares ideas for bringing people together and pushing back against loneliness and isolation in an increasingly digital world. By creating healthier social norms within organizations and encouraging leaders to prioritize meaningful connections with their teams, we can start breaking down the walls that divide us and rediscover the power of us.
I discuss this topic and more on the Behavioral Grooves Podcast (and get out and vote today!)
bgpodcast.substack.com/p/the…
Tech companies push for keeping the social media age low, with a "parental consent" proviso for the youngest users. We explain why such policies do NOT help parents or kids. They keep everyone in the collective action trap... and more:
@techpolicypress
techpolicy.press/why-parenta…
Snapchat settled, rather than going to trial and letting a jury and the world see its internal communications. But so many damning quotations have already come out.
We collected them at After Babel last year; see for yourself:
afterbabel.com/p/industrial-…
Bill Maher has been so consistently great on defending free-range childhood and scorning safetyism.
Here, in 8 minutes, he basically summarizes The Anxious Generation, The TAG Movement, and Let Grow.
Thanks @billmaher!
youtube.com/watch?v=OjQZ6obD…
Important new work from the wonderful American Institute for Boys and Men
Gambling is all fun and games, until it’s not. Our phones provide a frictionless environment that can get people into real trouble & young men are bearing the brunt. @JonathanDCohen1‘s new paper outlines how to keep gambling legal, but with added guardrails:
aibm.org/policy/how-to-fix-o…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
This @Gallup poll looks remarkably consistent with @JonHaidt‘s Moral Foundations Theory.
Political disagreements can reflect different weightings of shared moral values, not just different views on policy.
New Gallup poll asks "which values the country most needs today?"
Out of a list of 12 values, Republicans put "patriotism" #1, for Dems it ranks dead last - by a lot.
Dems say "equality" is most needed, Republicans rank it 11th out of 12.
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
"Pulling in the reader from the first sentence, this book offers a concise, thoughtful roadmap for implementing Montessori education." Exc review of book co-written by my incomparable wife, Trisha Thompson-Willingham. journals.sagepub.com/pb-asse…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
A lovely review in The Christian Science Monitor. At the heart of “Artificial Intimacy” is a call to “reclaim the real.” Every time we turn to chatbots, we sacrifice our sense of agency over our own lives. There could not be a worse moment to turn away from politics, your community, and the real.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly adept at conversation, a sociologist warns against getting lulled into feeling a kinship with chatbots. They're no substitute for relationships with people, she says. #ai #books #tech csmonitor.com/Arts-Culture/B…
Honored to have shared the stage with @SenGonzalezNY whose precedent-setting bill to protect NY kids from manipulative AI chatbots will set a new strong industry standard. Kids should form relationships with other kids, not AI bots.
When signed by @GovKathyHochul, S9051B will continue New York's leadership in protecting kids from harmful tech products.
Last week two different chatbot companies were in the news. First, Character. ai filed for bankruptcy, in an effort to avoid accountability. New reporting suggests Disney asked the company to file for bankruptcy as part of their deal to acquire the technology. They didn’t want to buy the company outright because of the legal liability. Kids were harmed. That debt does not disappear in bankruptcy court.
Then eight state AGs filed coordinated lawsuits against OpenAI this week. First coordinated state action against an AI company. The allegations: deceiving parents about safety, designing products that create emotional dependency in children, and failing to protect young users from self-harm content. Nebraska’s suit is the one to watch. It’s the first enforcement action brought under a state design code law. That’s a milestone worth marking.
While CharacterAI seeks to use the bankruptcy process as a get out of jail free card, OpenAI’s defense? Parental controls. We’ve heard that before. You cannot parental-control your way out of dangerous design. The burden of proof belongs on these companies.
These stories show the AI chatbot industry is running the same playbook social media ran. Race to scale. Worry about safety later. We know how that story ends.
theguardian.com/technology/2…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
A record nobody should be celebrating.
For the first time since @theFIREorg began tracking campus deplatforming attempts, more than 200 efforts to shut down invited speakers have been recorded in a single year.
And 2026 isn't even over yet.
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Two wrongs make a right when it comes to incivility
Retaliatory incivility (i.e., incivility in response to someone else's incivility) is seen as less morally condemnable than initial incivility.
This may create a vicious circle of conflict, as each side responds with greater incivility.
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Gift link to my piece in today's @WSJFreeEx abt WHY we are overscheduling our kids.
It boils down to investing. We've been told to invest in our kids the way we'd invest in employee development, to build their human capital.
Something free--like free play, or walking to the store--is assumed to be less valuable than something you buy, like lessons. But some things that are FREE and invisible--independence and play--are as crucial to kids as AIR (also free and invisible)!
wsj.com/opinion/free-express…
@BandeljNina @michspieg @JonHaidt @LetGrowOrg
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Is a random human peer better than a highly supportive chatbot in reducing loneliness over time?
Although the chatbot “Sam” was designed to offer consistent support rooted in principles from relationship science, interacting with this chatbot did not yield the same psychological benefits as interacting with a randomly university student.
This study provides initial evidence that texting daily with a random human peer may be more effective in alleviating loneliness than texting with a highly supportive chatbot. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
In NYC? I'll be on a panel wed. morning on how AI is affecting kids.
How is AI affecting our kids? Join us on Wednesday, October 21, at 10:30am at Brooklyn Heights Library for a free event on youth & AI chatbots. Featuring Jonathan Haidt, Senator Kristen Gonzalez, & leaders from Common Sense Media, Reset Tech, & more. bklynlib.org/4iqHjDW
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
in the united states, opposition to ai isn’t fear of technology. americans haven’t suddenly become a nation of luddites.
it’s a well founded belief that those with power are not going to use ai in ways that benefit the average american.
this is not a comms problem.
it’s a trust problem.
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Politically polarized teams produce better work on Wikipedia
Research from the University of Chicago of more than 200,000 Wikipedia pages finds that collaborations bridging the political spectrum produce higher-quality work than articles edited by moderate or one-sided teams.
Wikipedia pages covering politics, social issues and science written by editors with a broader range of political affiliation rank better on Wikipedia’s own quality scale, because of diverse perspectives, increased debate and appeals to community guidelines
Balanced ideological diversity produce higher quality articles, as long as there are clear normative guidelines.
news.uchicago.edu/story/poli…
