Cory ClarkUniversity of Pennsylvania | UP · The Wharton School
Cory Clark
Doctor of Philosophy
About
89
Publications
172,112
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1,843
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Introduction
Cory does research in Social Cognition, Political Psychology, Moral Psychology, and Metascience. She is currently the Executive Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project and a Visiting Faculty Scholar in the Management and Psychology Departments at University of Pennsylvania.
Personal website: www.coryjclark.com
Additional affiliations
August 2018 - June 2020
August 2016 - August 2018
August 2014 - August 2016
Education
August 2008 - June 2014
Field of study
- Social and Personality Psychology; Quantitative Methods
September 2005 - June 2008
Publications
Publications (89)
If we were naïve observers, we might think of scientists as earnest detectives-carefully sifting through the evidence, pursuing all reasonable leads, and updating their beliefs as needed. We might imagine that scientists get together, exchange notes, form brilliant and empirically accurate beliefs, and then share these state-of-the-science ideas wi...
We are in the middle of a great social experiment. The sex ratios of many important institutions in the West are changing, and few institutions more dramatically illustrate this shift than academia. For centuries, academia was primarily a male-led institution. Although many universities in the United States began admitting women in the 1800s, other...
In three studies (two preregistered; total n = 3,490 ideologically balanced U.S. adults), we examined attitudes toward 40 institutions, organizations, and groups of professionals (e.g., journalists, scientists, the Supreme Court, the World Health Organization, professors, police officers, doctors, the Catholic Church, banks, pharmaceutical companie...
Two preregistered studies from two different platforms with U.S.-based representative samples (N = 1,865) tested the harm-hypervigilance hypothesis in risk assessments of controversial behavioral science. As expected, across six sets of scientific findings, people consistently overestimated others’ harmful reactions with medium-to-large average eff...
His eldest son assassinated and his second son dimwitted and gullible, Vito’s top priority was to save his youngest and most promising son, Michael. In a meeting with the heads of the Five Families, Vito announced he would retaliate if any injury should befall Michael, even if the misfortunate were apparently as random as a strike of lightning. Few...
Three preregistered studies (N = 2,307 US-based online participants), two with representative samples, tested the harm-hypervigilance hypothesis in risk assessments of controversial behavioral science. As expected, people consistently overestimated harmful behavioral reactions to scientific findings with medium-to-large average effect sizes (and un...
A large body of research points to differences in the communal orientation of people from a
lower and higher socio-economic status (SES) background. However, direct evidence for differences in communal attitudes remains scant. In this pre-registered report, we test the hypothesis that SES impacts the incentive value of cues associated with bonding...
Two studies (total n = 1,245) explored the influence of (1) receiving public vs. private
performance feedback, (2) competing on a team vs. solo, and (3) individual differences in team competition participation on cheating behavior. Participants were given opportunities to cheat in an online trivia competition and self-reported their cheating behavi...
Our target article proposed that normalizing adversarial collaborations (ACs) will catalyze progress in the behavioral sciences (Clark et al., 2022). ACs require scholars to state their own positions precisely, address the real (not caricatured) version of their opponents’ claims, and work with their adversary to design studies that all parties agr...
Behavioral scientists enjoy vast methodological freedom in how they operationalize theoretical constructs. This freedom may promote creativity in designing laboratory paradigms that shed light on real-world phenomena, but it also enables questionable research practices that undercut our collective credibility. Open Science norms impose some discipl...
Clark and colleagues (2014) proposed a theory of motivated free will beliefs, according to which at least part of free will beliefs and attributions are caused by a desire to hold moral transgressors responsible. Recently, this theory has been challenged. In the following article, we examine the evidence and conclude that, although not dispositive,...
The conscious deliberation over multiple possibilities and the mental simulation of possible future outcomes enable individuals to make better choices. Humans likely evolved the ability to deliberate about their choices and simulate the possible outcomes of different actions. This ability is also likely to have adaptive value for human decision-mak...
Commentary on Gries, T., Mueller, V., & Jost, J. (2021). The market for belief systems: A formal model of ideological choice. Psychological Inquiry.
Commentary on Gries, T., Mueller, V., & Jost, J. (2021). The market for belief systems: A formal model of ideological choice. Psychological Inquiry.
Determinism is the theory that all events in the universe are completely caused by prior events, such that every occurrence was inevitable from the start of the universe, ranging from the intricate blast of every supernova, to the precise path each leaf travels as it flutters to the ground, to the very words we are writing in this encyclopedia entr...
Published on Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-antisocial-psychologist/202106/pro-blame-bias-the-don-corleone-principle
The social and behavioral sciences have taken a substantial reputational hit over the past decade. Some highly publicized findings have failed to replicate—and those that do replicate often do so with much smaller effect sizes (Camerer et al., 2018; Nosek et al., 2021). Plus some highly touted “science-based” interventions have failed to produce pr...
Available here: https://castfromclay.co.uk/commentary/how-liberal-and-conservative-bias-impacts-policymaking/
The Blame Efficiency Hypothesis applies insights from evolutionary psychology to resolve the apparent conflict between rationalist and intuitionist perspectives on moral judgment. First, people reserve moral condemnation for actors and actions that are likely to be deterred by moral condemnation. This includes intended and controllable actions (con...
Read here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-antisocial-psychologist/202104/the-gender-gap-in-censorship-support
In fourteen studies, we tested whether political conservatives’ stronger free will beliefs were linked to stronger and broader tendencies to moralize, and thus a greater motivation to assign blame. In Study 1 (meta-analysis of five studies, n=308,499) we show that conservatives have stronger tendencies to moralize than liberals, even for moralizati...
This essay was first published on Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-antisocial-psychologist/202103/authoritative- anecdotes-and-feeble-facts.
Facts exist out in the world independent of humans and our ability to comprehend those facts (although George Berkeley might disagree). But in the minds of humans, facts are filte...
This essay was originally published on Psychology Today:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-antisocial-psychologist/202102/are-liberals-really-more-egalitarian
This essay was originally published on Quillette: https://quillette.com/2021/02/27/the- evolutionary-advantages-of-playing-victim/
PUBLISHED FULL TEXT AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360555195_Being_Bad_to_Look_Good_Competence_Reputational_Stakes_Can_Increase_Unethical_Behavior
This essay was first published on Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-antisocial-psychologist/202101/how-we-empower-political-extremists
“They all pose as though their real opinions had been discovered and attained through the self-evolving of a cold, pure, divinely indifferent dialectic… whereas, in fact, a prejudiced proposition, idea, or ‘suggestion,’ which is generally their heart's desire abstracted and refined, is defended by them with arguments sought out after the event. The...
Modern Western societies conceive universities as places for free thought, open discourse, and the relentless pursuit of truth. Yet in recent years, many scholars have expressed concerns about increasing censoriousness on college campuses, suggesting that social justice goals have taken priority over open inquiry and truth-seeking goals. In the pre...
Many feminists and progressives argue that the West is plagued by pervasive misogyny. In fact, this claim is made with such frequency, and is so rarely challenged, that it has become part of the Left's catechism of victimhood, repeated by rote without a second thought. The only real question is how powerful and pernicious the misogyny is. Real-worl...
With a large international sample (n=8,317), the present study examined which beliefs and attitudes about COVID-19 predict 1) following government recommendations, 2) taking health precautions (including mask wearing, social distancing, handwashing, and staying at home), and 3) encouraging others to take health precautions. The results demonstrate...
Academics are a powerful group. They produce the ideas, theories, and data that form our collective human knowledge; they educate the next generation of thinkers and leaders; they are the gatekeepers to scientific journals; they are the experts called upon to advise on many of the most consequential societal issues; they determine who receives fund...
In 14 studies, we tested whether political conservatives' stronger free will beliefs were linked to stronger and broader tendencies to moralize and, thus, a greater motivation to assign blame. In Study 1 (meta-analysis of 5 studies, n = 308,499) we show that conservatives have stronger tendencies to moralize than liberals, even for moralization mea...
In a naturalistic study (n=38), participants observed a high status or low status confederate steal an Amazon gift card. Some interesting patterns emerged, however, because of the small sample size, the results of this study should be interpreted as only weak evidence for the patterns observed. Participants were more than twice as likely to report...
Full exchange can be found here: https://philpapers.org/archive/CARFWR.pdf
We argue that because of a long history of intergroup conflict and competition, humans evolved to be tribal creatures. Tribalism is not inherently bad, but it can lead to ideological thinking and sacred values that distort cognitive processing of putatively objective information in ways that affirm and strengthen the views and well-being of one’s i...
Humans evolved in the context of intense intergroup competition, and groups comprised of loyal members more often succeeded than those that were not. Therefore, selective pressures have consistently sculpted human minds to be "tribal," and group loyalty and concomitant cognitive biases likely exist in all groups. Modern politics is one of the most...
Do desires to punish lead people to attribute more free will to individual actors (motivated free will attributions) and to stronger beliefs in human free will (motivated free will beliefs) as suggested by prior research? Results of 14 new (7 preregistered) studies (n=4,014) demonstrated consistent support for both of these. These findings consiste...
Humans evolved in the context of intense intergroup competition, and groups comprised of loyal members more often succeeded than those that were not. Therefore, selective pressures have consistently sculpted human minds to be "tribal," and group loyalty and concomitant cognitive biases likely exist in all groups. Modern politics is one of the most...
Moral cognition, by its very nature, stems from intuitions about what is good and bad, and these intuitions influence moral assessments outside of conscious awareness. However, because humans evolved a shared set of moral intuitions, and are compelled to justify their moral assessments as good and rational (even erroneously) to others, moral virtue...
Science Trends article: https://sciencetrends.com/an-evolutionary-perspective-on-free-will-belief/
This is a data report for a scale that is in development called the Equalitarianism Scale, which measures perceptions of group differences. The data reported here are from 8 studies (n=3274) that tested other hypotheses, but that also included the Equalitarianism Scale. This scale contains 18 items measuring five highly related assumptions about gr...
Recent scholarship has challenged the long-held assumption in the social sciences that Conservatives are more biased than Liberals, contending that predominantly liberal social scientists overlooked liberal bias. Here, we demonstrate that Liberals are prone to bias about relatively low-status groups (e.g. Blacks, women), and specifically are biased...
Baron and Jost (this issue) present three critiques of our meta-analysis demonstrating similar levels of partisan bias in liberals and conservatives: 1) that the studies we examined were biased toward finding symmetrical bias among liberals and conservatives, 2) that the studies we examined do not measure partisan bias but rather rational Bayesian...
For years, experimental philosophers have attempted to discern whether laypeople find free will compatible with a scientifically deterministic understanding of the universe, yet no consensus has emerged. The present work provides one potential explanation for these discrepant findings: People are strongly motivated to preserve free will and moral r...
Both liberals and conservatives accuse their political opponents of partisan bias, but is there empirical evidence that one side of the political aisle is indeed more biased than the other? To address this question, we meta-analyzed the results of 51 experimental studies, involving over 18,000 participants, that examined one form of partisan bias—...
Recent scholarship has challenged the long-held assumption in the social sciences that Conservatives are more biased than Liberals, yet little work deliberately explores domains of liberal bias. Here, we demonstrate that Liberals are particularly prone to bias about victims’ groups (e.g. Blacks, women) and identify a set of beliefs that consistentl...
In this essay, we aim to counter and qualify the epiphenomenalist challenge proposed in this special issue on the grounds of empirical and theoretical arguments. The current body of scientific knowledge strongly indicates that conscious thought is a necessary condition for many human behaviors, and therefore, consciousness qualifies as a cause of t...
Both liberals and conservatives accuse their political opponents of partisan bias, but is there empirical evidence that one side of the political aisle is indeed more biased than the other? To address this question, we meta-analyzed the results of 51 experimental studies, involving over 18,000 participants, that examined one form of partisan bias—t...
This article was published at Science Trends, and is freely available here:
https://sciencetrends.com/believing-addiction-reduces-free-will-may-hamper-efforts-to-quit/
It describes experiments we published at Addictive Behaviors Reports, here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853217300019
Research has shown that people ascribe more responsibility to morally bad actions than both morally good and neutral ones, suggesting that people do not attribute responsibility to morally good actions. The present work demonstrates that this is not so: People ascribe more free will to morally good than neutral actions (Studies 1a-1b, Mini Meta). S...
Research has shown that people ascribe more responsibility to morally bad actions than both morally good and neutral ones, suggesting that people do not attribute responsibility to morally good actions. The present work demonstrates that this is not so: People ascribe more free will to morally good than neutral actions (Studies 1a-1b, Mini Meta). S...
See updated version here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325033477_Equalitarianism_A_source_of_liberal_bias
Both liberals and conservatives accuse their political opponents of partisan bias, but is there empirical evidence that one side of the political aisle is indeed more biased than the other? To address this question, we meta-analyzed the results of 51 experimental studies, involving over 18,000 participants, that examined one form of partisan bias -...
In fourteen studies, we tested whether political conservatives’ stronger free will beliefs aredriven by stronger and broader tendencies to moralize, and thus a greater motivation to assign responsibility. In Study 1 (meta-analysis of five studies, n = 308,499) we show that conservatives have stronger tendencies to moralize than liberals, even for m...
We suggest consumer research develop an integrative approach that favors neither unconscious nor conscious processes but rather appreciates the contributions and limitations of both, and how they work together. We agree that unconscious processes precede all conscious ones, but we argue that conscious thinking plays a prominent and likely indispens...
Recent work suggests that in addition to actual attitudes, people often have desired attitudes that can vary in their congruence with their actual attitudes. We explored whether desired attitudes motivate goal-congruent outcomes by impacting people's evaluative responses over the effects of actual attitudes. Across four studies, we demonstrated tha...
Punishing wrongdoers is beneficial for group functioning, but can harm individual well-being. Building on research demonstrating that punitive motives underlie free will beliefs, we propose that free will beliefs help justify punitive impulses, thus alleviating the associated distress. In Study 1, trait-level punitiveness predicted heightened level...
See updated full text here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319944911_Forget_the_Folk_Moral_Responsibility_Preservation_Motives_and_Other_Conditions_for_Compatibilism
Introduction: It is widely believed that addiction entails a loss of free will, even though this point is controversial among scholars. There is arguably a downside to this belief, in that addicts who believe they lack the free will to quit an addiction might therefore fail to quit an addiction.
Methods: A correlational study tested the relationshi...
Contrary to one assumption of CLASH, we suggest that colder rather than warm climates are the harsh, unpredictable ones, thus requiring greater self-control. We propose shifting emphasis from predictability to utility of prediction. Northern climates may be less predictable than tropical ones, making predictions and planning far more important, ins...
Indians and U.S. Americans view harmful actions as morally wrong, but Indians are more likely than U.S. Americans to perceive helping behaviors as moral imperatives. We utilize this cultural variability in moral belief systems to test whether and how moral considerations influence perceptions of intentionality (as suggested by theories of folk psyc...
We review recent research in moral psychology that demonstrates a fundamental human motivation for a morally coherent world, that is, a world in which the moral qualities of actors and actions match the moral qualities of the outcomes they produce. The striving for moral coherence explains many seemingly contradictory patterns of judgment found in...
If free will beliefs support attributions of moral responsibility, then reducing these beliefs should make people less retributive in their attitudes about punishment. Four studies using both measured and manipulated free will beliefs found that people with weaker beliefs reported less retributive, but not consequentialist, punishment towards crimi...
Conference presentation of this paper:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316164633_At_Least_Bias_Is_Bipartisan_A_Meta-Analytic_Comparison_of_Partisan_Bias_in_Liberals_and_Conservatives#share
Belief in free will is a pervasive phenomenon that has important consequences for prosocial actions and punitive judgments, but little research has investigated why free will beliefs are so widespread. Across 5 studies using experimental, survey, and archival data and multiple measures of free will belief, we tested the hypothesis that a key factor...
Rid and Wendler propose the development of a Patient Preference Predictor (PPP), an actuarial model for predicting incapacitated
patient’s life-sustaining treatment preferences across a wide range of end-of-life scenarios. An actuarial approach to end-of-life
decision making has enormous potential, but transferring the logic of actuarial prediction...
Questions
Questions (7)
Hi all,
I want to know about every adversarial collaboration ever conducted in the behavioral sciences (or even in other sciences). By adversarial collaboration, I specifically mean projects in which two or more scholars with competing hypotheses worked together to design a new study and collect new data to resolve their scientific dispute (even if they did not call this procedure an "adversarial collaboration").
I review some of them in this paper here:
These include:
Latham et al., 1998
Gilovich, Medvec, & Kahneman, 1998
Mellers et al., 2001
Bateman et al., 2005
Melloni et al., 2021
Schlitz et al., 2006; Wiseman & Schlitz, 1997, 1999
Cowan et al., 2020
Matzke et al., 2015
Corrigan et al., 2012
Van Dessel et al., 2017
Kerr et al., 2018
Alempaki et al., 2019
Cadsby et al., 2008
Koch et al., 2020
Stern & Crawford, 2021
Does anyone know of ones I missed?
I am also interested in all attempts at adversarial collaboration that failed to make it to publication (or even to data collection). But feel free to directly message me with these if you don't want to spill the drama publicly.
I am conducting a meta-analysis of meta-analyses, and one thing we want to do is compare the degree of publication bias between meta-analyses. Meta-analyses report publication bias in dozens of different ways (Egger Z statistic, Egger T tests, Egger Alpha, Egger D, Egger Beta (intercept), Egger's test (p), G2, Moderator Analysis (slope), Moderator Analysis (Q), Moderator I^2, Moderator t, Fail Safe N, P-curve value Z, Bayers Factor, Fisher's exact test, PET (p) and PEESE (p), PET (B) and PEESE (B), Begg's (z), Trim and Fill, Funnel Plot Regression Slope, Begg Rank Correlation Ranked Variances t, Funnel Symmetry/Asymmetry, Rank test p, Begg's Kendall's t, Significant Likelihood Ratio Test X^2, Peters' Significant, Regression test t).
Is there a way to convert these various metrics to a common metric for comparison in the same way various effect sizes can be converted to an r for comparison? If not all of them, can at least some of them be converted? For example, are Egger Z and Begg's z equivalent to a Z-score? And is an Egger D equivalent to a Cohen's d?
Are there any good papers that discuss and compare various publication bias metrics?