The following is a transcript of one of the most popular episodes of my People Who Read People podcast in 2022: a talk with Matthew Hornsey, who has done a lot of research on group psychology. …

This piece will be a criticism of A.R. Moxon and his @JuliusGoat Twitter account. …

I’ve thought about political polarization a lot the last few years. It’s been a frequent focus of mine for my podcast People Who Read People, and I’ve written a book about reducing American us-vs-them animosity. One thing I’ve come to believe is that a key part of reducing polarization is…

“How strange it is to be anything at all.” ‐ from Neutral Milk Hotel lyrics This is a piece that examines the idea that our awareness of, and anxiety about, the strangeness of our existence may be a key type of stressor, in existential psychology terms. This stressor might be…

My name is Zachary Elwood and I host a psychology podcast called People Who Read People (site is at behavior-podcast.com). For that podcast, I’ve done many talks with people about political polarization and the psychology that drives it. My goal has been to better understand the us-vs-them anger that we…

If broadcast TV was an opiate of the masses, is social media an amphetamine? — For an audio version, see this podcast episode. If you’re interested in political polarization, check out my polarization-related podcast episodes. Does social media play a role in amplifying our divides and increasing political polarization? Much of the thinking around this idea has focused on specific product features, like the use…

This will be a place where I examine indicators of videos being deceptive or staged. There’s only one here now but I will add to this over time. If you have ideas for interesting videos to examine, send them my way and I’d appreciate it. My experience and interest in fake/staged videos To skip to the video…

If broadcast TV was an opiate of the masses, is social media an amphetamine? — I have an abridged version of this piece here, which I recommend. For an audio reading, see my podcast. If you’re interested in polarization, check out all my podcast episodes related to that. Does it feel like everyone is becoming more angry? It’s not your imagination, and it’s not confined…

I’m using this page as a place to compile work that I’ve done related to researching and investigating deceptive online activity, including fake news and fake accounts. Who am I? My name is Zachary Elwood. My main claim to fame is that I’ve written some books on poker behavior (aka “poker tells”). You…