You can find the preprint here: doi.org/10.31234/osf... 6/6
When biological life ends, many psychological and social processes continue: the living still think about the dead, imagine their views, talk about them, etc.
Most research on this has focused on paranormal phenomena, more than on the "psychology of everyday life" 2/
Excited to share a new preprint of my latest paper:
"The Social Psychology of the Living and the Dead"
In this work, we set a research agenda for exploring the social psychology of the dead as a potential lens through which we can learn about the social psychology of the living 1/
We explore the bidirectional psychological phenomena that drive the continuing bonds between the dead and the living: How thinking about the dead changes mental representations of them, but also how it can impact the living's thoughts and behavior 3/
Relationships do not simply end with death; they often transform into new psychological forms.
Still, we discuss the ways in which the psychology of the dead differs from that of the living (e.g., level of abstraction, functional value of social information) 5/
We lay out some assumptions for this agenda:
🔎 We use the same cognitive tools to think about the dead as we do for the living (e.g., projection);
🧠 Memories of deceased people are dynamic (e.g., changing over time)
💭 Thinking of the dead may shape (e.g., moral) behavior 4/
Can reading one article change your belief in free will? New studies say maybe—but the effect doesn’t last. Our beliefs might be more resilient than they seem
New work by @olivergenschow.bsky.social
@protzko.bsky.social @sebraem.bsky.social 💡