The Pain of Ghosting? People Underestimate How Bad Their Conversation Partners Feel About Not Responding [PDF]→

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Li, S., Zheng, C., Schroeder, J., (2026). The Pain of Ghosting? People Underestimate How Bad Their Conversation Partners Feel About Not Responding. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

  • Short Summary: Across three studies — recalled real ghosting experiences (N=195), imagined scenarios (N=601), and an induced live interaction (N=350) — this paper finds that people who ghost others feel worse about it than the people they ghost realize. This underestimation is larger when the ghosting is unintentional, and is reduced when the ghoster sends a brief acknowledgment (e.g., "sorry, can't talk") instead of going silent.

  • Materials, Data, and Analysis code

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Social Technology Use and Life Satisfaction in a Five-Wave Panel Study of US Adults

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Kushlev, K., Moon, K., Motyl, M., Fast, N., Schroeder, J., (2026). Social technology use and life satisfaction in a five-wave panel study of US adults. [Nature Human Behaviour Link]

  • Short Summary: Using five waves of panel data from 1,966 U.S. adults tracking use of ten common social technologies over time, this study finds little credible evidence that using any of them predicts later changes in life satisfaction, or vice versa (one modest exception: rising life satisfaction predicted more video calling in some groups). Comparing across people rather than within them, texting frequency was linked to higher life satisfaction while YouTube and TikTok use was linked to lower life satisfaction — suggesting who uses which platforms matters more than any real effect of the platforms themselves on wellbeing.

  • Materials, Data, and Analysis code

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Do Narcissists Find the “I” in Team? How Narcissism in Teams Affects Individual Performance [PDF]→

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Herndon, A. E., Sulaiman, S., Stein, D. H., Schroeder, J., & Chatman, J. (2026). Do narcissists find the “I” in team? How narcissism in teams affects individual performance. [Academy of Management Discoveries Link]

  • Short Summary: In a study of 475 MBA program executives organized into 105 study groups, this paper finds that people perform better on individually graded, group-dependent tasks when their own trait narcissism is closer to their group's average narcissism level. The results challenge the assumption that narcissists uniformly harm their teams, suggesting instead that narcissists (and non-narcissists alike) thrive when surrounded by similarly-natured teammates due to shared working norms and culture fit.

  • Materials, Data, and Analysis codes

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Spoken Disagreement Is More Constructive Than Written Disagreement [PDF]→

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Bevis, B., Schroeder, J., & Yeomans, M. (2026). Spoken disagreement is more constructive than written disagreement. [Nature Communications Link]

  • Short Summary: Spoken conversations with a disagreeing counterpart lead to greater understanding, lower conflict, more favorable impressions of one’s counterpart, and greater attitude alignment than written conversations (6 experiments).

  • Materials, Data, Analysis Code, and Preregistrations

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Gaps in Large Language Model Awareness, Usage, and Perceptions in the United States: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Survey [PDF]→

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Angrisani, M., Casanova, M., Fast, N. J., Narang, J., & Schroeder, J. (2026). Gaps in large language model awareness, usage, and perceptions in the United States: Evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal survey. [PNAS Nexus Link]

  • Short Summary: Across two survey waves spanning one year with more than 12,000 nationally representative U.S. adults, we observed marked gaps in LLM usage: groups more likely to use LLMs included men, younger adults, those with college education and higher incomes, individuals in more analytical occupations (e.g., STEM), Democratic-leaning respondents, and those with above-median cognitive ability, internet literacy, and openness to experience. These usage gaps are not declining over time; some are getting larger.

  • Data available on the Understanding America Survey website: https://uasdata.usc.edu/index.php (datasets UAS 574 and UAS 607)

  • Analysis code

  • Appendix

  • Updated figures with third wave of data (2023, 2024, and 2025 waves)

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Does Thinking About God Increase Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence in Decision-Making? [PDF]→

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Moore, D. A., Schroeder, J., Bailey, E. R., Gershon, R., Moore, J. E., & Simmons, J. P. (2024). Does thinking about God increase acceptance of artificial intelligence in decision making? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Letter to Editor), 121(31), e2402315121. [PNAS Link]

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Feeling Known Predicts Relationship Satisfaction [PDF]→

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Schroeder, J., & Fishbach, A. (2024). Feeling known predicts relationship satisfaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 111, 1-15. [Science Direct Link]

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Imperfectly Human: The Humanizing Potential of (Corrected) Errors in Text-Based Communication [PDF]→

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Bluvstein, S.*, Zhao, X.*, Barasch, A., & Schroeder, J. (2024). Imperfectly human: The humanizing potential of (corrected) errors in text-based communication. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 9(3), 332-343. [Article Link]

  • Short Summary: This paper shows that online communicators (e.g., customer service agents) who make and then correct typos are seen as more likely to be human (vs. AI) than communicators who don't make any typos or make but don't correct their typos (7 experiments).

  • Data, Materials, and Preregistrations

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Undersociality: Miscalibrated Social Cognition Can Inhibit Social Connection [PDF]→

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Epley, N., Kardas, M., Zhao, X., Atir, S., & Schroeder, J. (2022). Undersociality: Miscalibrated social cognition can inhibit social connection. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 406-418.[Article link]

  • Short Summary: This paper proposes that people are less social than is optimal for their own and others’ well-being (i.e., “undersocial”). It reviews the empirical literature demonstrating that people are undersocial and suggests 3 reasons for why people are undersocial.

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Computational Ethics [PDF]→

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Awad, E., Levine, S., Anderson, M., Anderson, S. L., Conitzer, V., Crockett, M. J., Everett, J. A. C., Evgeniou, T., Gopnik, A., Jamison, J. C., Kin, T. W., Liao, S. M., Lin, P., Meyer, M. N., Mikhail, J., Opoku-Agyemang, K., Schaich Borg, J., Schroeder, J., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., Slavkovik, M., & Tennenbaum, J. B. (2022). Computational ethics. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 388-405.[Article link]

  • Short Summary: This paper proposes a framework – computational ethics – that specifies how the ethical challenges of AI can be addressed better by incorporating the study of how humans make moral decisions.

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A Voice Inside My Head: The Psychological and Behavioral Consequences of Auditory Technologies [PDF]→

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Lieberman, A., Schroeder, J., & Amir, O. (2022). A voice inside my head: The psychological and behavioral consequences of auditory technologies. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 170, 104133. [Science Direct Link]

  • Short Summary: This paper shows that listening to a message using headphones, compared to using speakers, increases a listener's felt closeness to the communicator(s) of the message because headphones localize sound inside a listener’s head (5 experiments).

  • Data, Materials, and Preregistrations

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“Just Letting You Know...” Underestimating Others’ Desire for Constructive Feedback. [PDF]→

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Abi-Esber, N., Abel, J. E., Schroeder, J., & Gino, F. (2022). “Just letting you know...” Underestimating others’ desire for constructive feedback. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(6), 1362–1385. [APA PsycNet Link]

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Talking Shop: An Exploration of How Talking about Work Affects Our Initial Interactions [PDF]→

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Martin, S. R., Harrison, S. H., Hoopes, C., Schroeder, J., & Belmi, P. R. (2022). Talking shop: An exploration of how talking about work affects our initial interactions. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 168, 104104. [Science Direct Link]

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When Alterations are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals [PDF]→

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Stein, D. H., Schroeder, J., Hobson, N. M., Gino, F., & Norton, M. I. (2022). When alterations are violations: Moral outrage and punishment in response to (even minor) alterations to rituals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(1), 123–153.[APA PsycNet Link]

  • Short Summary: This paper documents the sacrosanct nature of rituals: Because group rituals symbolize sacred group values, even minor alterations to them provoke moral outrage and punishment. We find that the more that ingroup members believe their rituals symbolize their sacred group values, the more they protect their rituals— by punishing those who violate them (7 primary studies, 3 supplemental studies).

  • Data, Materials, Preregistrations, and Audit

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Keep Talking: (Mis)understanding The Hedonic Trajectory of Conversation [PDF]→

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Kardas, M., Schroeder, J., & O'Brien, E. (2022). Keep talking: (Mis)understanding the hedonic trajectory of conversation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(4), 717–740. [APA PsycNet Link]

  • Short Summary: This paper shows that people misunderstand the hedonic trajectory of conversation. They expect their enjoyment to decline as a conversation continues but instead experience stable or increasing enjoyment in reality (5 experiments).

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Hello, Stranger? Pleasant Conversations are Preceded by Concerns About Starting One [PDF]→

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Schroeder, J., Lyons, D., & Epley, N. (2022). Hello, stranger? Pleasant conversations are preceded by concerns about starting one. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151(5), 1141–1153. [APA PsycNet Link]

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Work Group Rituals Enhance The Meaning of Work [PDF]→

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Kim, T., Sezer, O., Schroeder, J., Risen, J., Gino, F., & Norton, M.I. (2021). Work group rituals enhance the meaning of work. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 165, 197-212. [Science Direct Link]

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A Sacred Commitment: How Rituals Promote Group Survival [PDF]→

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Stein, D. H., Hobson, N. M., & Schroeder, J. (2021). A sacred commitment: How rituals promote group survival. Current Opinion in Psychology, 40, 114-120. [Science Direct Link]

  • Short Summary: This paper proposes that rituals enhance religious group survival not only by signaling external commitment but also by fostering internal commitment toward the group in three ways: (1) enhancing belief in the group’s values (‘committed cognition’), (2) increasing the desire to maintain membership in the group (‘committed affect’), and (3) increasing contributions to the welfare of the group (‘committed behavior’).

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Human “Resources”? Objectification at Work [PDF]→

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Belmi, P., & Schroeder, J. (2021). Human “resources”? Objectification at work. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(2), 384-417.[APA PsycNet Link]

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When “Enemies” Become Close: Relationship Formation Among Palestinians and Jewish Israelis at a Youth Camp [PDF]→

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White, S., Schroeder, J., & Risen, J. L. (2021). When “enemies” become close: Relationship formation among Palestinians and Jewish Israelis at a youth camp. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(1), 76-94. [APA PsycNet Link]

  • Short Summary: This paper uses 7 years of data from Jewish Israeli and Palestinian teenagers attending a three-week summer camp (Seeds of Peace) to show that propinquity (here, being quasi-randomly assigned to share an activity group together) increases the formation of outgroup relationships more than ingroup relationships (1 longitudinal field study). Thus, at least in this setting, propinquity counteracted homophily.

  • Winner of the 2021 SPSP Cialdini Prize

  • Materials

  • Note regarding data: Due to confidentiality concerns from the Institutional Review Board, we cannot publicly post data. Interested researchers can contact jschroeder@berkeley.edu directly to learn more about the data, and to submit a joint IRB protocol for access to the data.

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