Jon Freeman

Jon Freeman

@freemanjb.bsky.social

associate professor of psychology and social neuroscientist at columbia | person perception and social cognition | data equity | 🏳️‍🌈

2.9K followers438 following54 posts

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Excellent reporting by @dangaristo.bsky.social on the NSF SBE situation, and what appears to be its de facto dismantling—funding virtually no awards since October—against the clear intent of Congress

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social

NEW: NSF has been funding research at a fraction of its historic rate. Last week, the agency finally began distributing money to its directorates and is now likely to pick up the grantmaking pace. But these allocations also amount to substantial cuts across the sciences. My reporting:

Democracy Forward & I filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Census Bureau, seeking the release of data from its testing of sexual orientation & gender identity questions in the nation's most important annual demographic survey, key to upholding LGBTQ+ rights. democracyforward.org/updates/sogi... (1/4)

Democracy Forward@democracyforward.org

We’re suing the Census Bureau to force the release of critical LGBTQ+ data. Failing to release the data = failing to include LGBTQ+ people from policy decisions impacting health care, housing, employment, education, and more resources. So we're demanding accountability.

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Refusing to release the requested data on how these questions performed undermines the Census Bureau’s scientific integrity and prevents accountability when LGBTQ+ communities are left invisible. (4/4)

Democracy Forward & I filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Census Bureau, seeking the release of data from its testing of sexual orientation & gender identity questions in the nation's most important annual demographic survey, key to upholding LGBTQ+ rights. democracyforward.org/updates/sogi... (1/4)

Democracy Forward@democracyforward.org

We’re suing the Census Bureau to force the release of critical LGBTQ+ data. Failing to release the data = failing to include LGBTQ+ people from policy decisions impacting health care, housing, employment, education, and more resources. So we're demanding accountability.

Policymakers, researchers, and multiple federal agencies requested this testing to help enforce civil rights and better understand and address disparities in health, education, employment, and other areas affecting LGBTQ+ Americans. (2/4)

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While past work has generally assumed such weapon-identification biases involve an accurate perception of the object but then a racially biased impulse that is difficult to control, our findings suggest that part of the problem is a temporary visual distortion as well. (5/6)

The results open a path for new interventions that don’t just target stereotypes but also attempt to recalibrate biased visual perception directly, with the hopes of mitigating such high-stakes misjudgments under stress and uncertainty. (6/6)

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Using neural decoding techniques, we find that when subjects saw a Black man’s face before an image of a tool, their brain’s object-processing regions shifted toward a weapon-like representation. (3/6)

These neural representational shifts predicted subjects' delays in recognizing these tools as tools, rather than weapons, suggesting an initial tendency to perceive them as weapons. (4/6)

Unarmed Black people in the US are 3X more likely than unarmed White people to be shot and killed by police. In many tragic cases, unarmed Black men were holding innocuous objects like a wrench, wallet, or cell phone when fatally shot by an officer. (2/6)

Jon Freeman reposted

The Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (@fabbs.org) is searching for a short-term technology policy fellow. Great opportunity for a new PhD interested in policy, maybe before a research postdoc or faculty position: fabbs.org/news/2025/08...

fabbs.orgWe’re Hiring: Technology Policy Fellow – FABBSLocation: Washington, D.C. (hybrid) Salary: Approximately $7,000 per month Start Date: September 15, 2025 Duration: 3 months, with potential for longer Position

In a TiCS paper, @chujunlin.bsky.social & I propose a high-dimensional model of social impressions. Existing models focus on 2–4 latent dimensions (e.g. trustworthy/warm), but they often fall apart across different contexts, cultures, & perceivers. We need a paradigm shift. shorturl.at/7GD1n (1/8)

cell.comA high-dimensional model of social impressionsPeople form social impressions from visual cues such as faces, which are argued by various models to arise from some limited set of fixed dimensions (e.g., trustworthiness and dominance). We argue tha...
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The model can explain growing findings: ▪️cross-cultural & individual perceiver variation ▪️variation by targets' race/gender/groups And makes novel predictions: ▪️"proximal" vs. "distal" traits in cascades (competent → intelligent → creative) ▪️earlier activation of putatively latent dimensions (7/8)

We think it's important to view impressions not so much as drawing on a fixed low-dimensional structure but as emerging in a combinatorial fashion out of the dynamics of a high-dimensional space. This approach may also be valuable for thinking about other dimensional models in social cognition (8/8)

In a TiCS paper, @chujunlin.bsky.social & I propose a high-dimensional model of social impressions. Existing models focus on 2–4 latent dimensions (e.g. trustworthy/warm), but they often fall apart across different contexts, cultures, & perceivers. We need a paradigm shift. shorturl.at/7GD1n (1/8)

cell.comA high-dimensional model of social impressionsPeople form social impressions from visual cues such as faces, which are argued by various models to arise from some limited set of fixed dimensions (e.g., trustworthiness and dominance). We argue tha...
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Here the trustworthiness/warmth dimension isn’t a latent mechanism or have a privileged functional/cognitive status—it’s an emergent pattern from correlated traits. That’s why it appears in PCA or factor analysis. But we argue that it’s only a mere snapshot of a fluid, high-dimensional space (5/8)

In the model, the structure of trait relationships (e.g., trustworthiness–dominance) can change due to targets or context and cultural and individual learning. Top-down factors—like goals, stereotypes, or attention—reshape the attractor landscape, influencing which traits become most stable. (6/8)

In a TiCS paper, @chujunlin.bsky.social & I propose a high-dimensional model of social impressions. Existing models focus on 2–4 latent dimensions (e.g. trustworthy/warm), but they often fall apart across different contexts, cultures, & perceivers. We need a paradigm shift. shorturl.at/7GD1n (1/8)

cell.comA high-dimensional model of social impressionsPeople form social impressions from visual cues such as faces, which are argued by various models to arise from some limited set of fixed dimensions (e.g., trustworthiness and dominance). We argue tha...
View full thread

Instead, using attractor neural networks, we propose a high-dimensional model. In the brain, social impressions would operate as dynamic trajectories in a neural-state space that can be shaped by sensory cues, conceptual associations, and higher-order social cognition. (3/8)

How does it work? You encounter another person. Features trigger many trait concepts (e.g., sociable, caring, competent), which activate each other or compete, influenced by top-down goals & higher-order processes. The network settles into a stable neural pattern, resulting in impressions. (4/8)

In a TiCS paper, @chujunlin.bsky.social & I propose a high-dimensional model of social impressions. Existing models focus on 2–4 latent dimensions (e.g. trustworthy/warm), but they often fall apart across different contexts, cultures, & perceivers. We need a paradigm shift. shorturl.at/7GD1n (1/8)

cell.comA high-dimensional model of social impressionsPeople form social impressions from visual cues such as faces, which are argued by various models to arise from some limited set of fixed dimensions (e.g., trustworthiness and dominance). We argue tha...

How do we infer countless traits? Models have treated trait perception like color vision: impressions arise from combinations of, e.g., “red” (trustworthy), “green” (dominant), & "blue" (youthful). But unlike color, there’s no evidence for this, and we question the value of latent dimensions (2/8)

Want your NIH and NSF program officers and division directors to be fired and turned into political appointees? Deadline extended: 3 days left! Already 33,000+ public comments Comments can tank a proposed rule in court. 📣 Oppose the rule with a brief comment: shorturl.at/WKuBj

Jon Freeman@freemanjb.bsky.social

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

Jon Freeman reposted

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

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It's currently at 19,430+ public comments, but the deadline is now extended to June 7. The agency may be worried the large, well-reasoned opposition could tank the final rule in court—and is buying time to flood the docket with support. Keep it coming!

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

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Then you could mention: - Any experience with NSF, NIH, or other agencies - The risk of replacing career experts with political loyalists - Why unbiased standards and the integrity & credibility of federally-funded science matters - How this could impact science, tech, public health, or innovation

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

Thrilled that @chujunlin.bsky.social is joining us this July!

Chujun Lin@chujunlin.bsky.social

🥳Excited to share that I am joining Columbia July 2025 @columbiauniversity.bsky.social Looking for🚨lab managers🚨postdocs🚨grad students! Pls REPOST🙏 We study⭐️person perception⭐️social cognition using experimental, cross-cultural, & computational methods! App👉shorturl.at/5UVPl More👉shorturl.at/q18GM

Jon Freeman reposted

Replying to @lkfazio.bsky.social

Thanks to scienceimpacts.org for mapping the impacts of cutting NIH indirect costs & making it easy for local news to focus on the impacts to their community Thanks to @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social for helping researchers write op-eds for their hometown newspapers about the impacts on science 4/

scienceimpacts.orgSCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical ResearchDeveloped by an interdisciplinary research team, this website shows how funding cuts reduce economic activity and employment nationwide

Jon Freeman reposted

🧪 Tip: You have the right to contest a grant termination, even though NSF says you don't. 🧵 On Friday, NSF terminated 402 grants (per Musk's DOGE). The notification letters had one of the most egregious violations of fed regulations I've seen so far in these cases: "not subject to appeal"

Megan Zahneis@mzahneis.bsky.social

Here's a copy of an NSF grant termination notice that went out today. "NSF is issuing this termination to protect the interests of the government pursuant...on the basis that they no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities." Not subject to appeal. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

Job alert 🚨 We’re hiring a full-time research staff assistant at Columbia starting Fall 2025! The position will focus on several topics in the lab, including the cognitive & neural mechanisms underlying dynamic social perception using fMRI & natural language processing. Link: freemanlab.org/ra2025

Jon Freeman reposted

As expected, NSF is cutting gender and sexual orientation data on U.S. STEM workforce surveys (on shaky legal ground). I'm grateful that following my request (shorturl.at/9rFMW) OMB required NSF to post an official rationale, which will be crucial to how we'll restore these questions in the future.

David Malakoff@davidmalakoff.bsky.social

NEW: Sexual orientation, gender options cut from U.S. Ph.D. graduate survey | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...