@JonHaidt
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Social psychologist at NYU-Stern, working to roll back the phone-based childhood. Please visit https://nitter.cf/t.co/ZjBuXdDr8I & https://nitter.cf/t.co/7aVAmOTlnl
New York City
Joined January 2010
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Jonathan Haidt retweeted
🔎 How should sociology be reformed, if at all?
These debates are crucial, and HxA members like @JukkaSavo are shaping them.
Thanks to @gayleking and @vladduthierscbs for talking with me about the formula for human flourishing, and why we are at risk of losing most of what humanity has learned over the millennia.
All related to The Happiness Hypothesis, which was re-released yesterday.
Social psychologist @JonHaidt is encouraging people to “reclaim our attention,” as rising screen time cuts back on emotional connections and “human flourishing.”
Haidt tells @gayleking and @vladduthierscbs about releasing an updated version of his bestselling book, “The Happiness Hypothesis,” and why he believes artificial intelligence is negatively impacting peoples’ sense of self-worth.
CBS earns commission on purchases through Amazon. link.amazon/B04Xizr2J
My new (old) book comes out today!
What does it take to be happy? To flourish?
@JonHaidt, New York Times bestselling author of THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS and THE ANXIOUS GENERATION, offers a path and some words of wisdom that may make you rethink your next New Years resolutions.
Learn more: hachettebookgroup.com/titles…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
What does it take to be happy? To flourish?
@JonHaidt, New York Times bestselling author of THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS and THE ANXIOUS GENERATION, offers a path and some words of wisdom that may make you rethink your next New Years resolutions.
Learn more: hachettebookgroup.com/titles…
I have a new book out today, sort of! The 20th anniversary revised edition of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.
Here's the new preface, explaining why ancient wisdom is even more important today:
afterbabel.com/p/happiness-h…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Are we really gonna have a live TV firing squad in America? Can we all just say No!!! This isn’t what America stands for. It’s not what the military stands for. At what point do we all say enough!!!! I’m saying it !
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
It is important that kids get occasionally hurt while playing. Scraped knees, bruises, small cuts.
Yes, a clinical psychologist wants your kids to get hurt more.
Since playing is inherently fun and kids don’t want to stop, it teaches them to not fall to pieces when they are physically uncomfortable.
This makes for flexible, persistent, and happy adults.
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Liberals and conservatives behave differently in everyday life--conservatives seem to be out with others at lot more while liberals stay home and doomscroll.
This study analyzed activity using smartphones to track college students and found that conservatives were more likely to be at parties, noisy places, fraternities and religious facilities. Liberals were at home, resting, doing chores, and browsing social media.
This helps explain why conservatives are, on average, happier than liberals.
The behavioral differences were small but robust, not accounted for by other plausible factors (e.g., demographics), and most pronounced in the leisure domain. psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
americans want ai governance.
why don’t their leaders?
ALT The image is a bar chart titled "There is bipartisan support for several policy objectives related to AI." It shows percentages of adults considering various AI policy objectives important, comparing responses from overall, Democrats, and Republicans. Key objectives include "Keeping AI under human control," "Protecting U.S. workers," and "Growing the U.S. economy." The chart uses different shades to denote levels of importance and shows bipartisan agreement on several issues. Data is from an AP-NORC poll conducted in September 2026.
Evidence on the harmful cognitive effects of TikTok, Reels, and other short form video keeps growing. It's not just the content, it's the attention fragmentation and the declining ability to plan for the future.
From @juliejargon
wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/t…
This longitudinal study adds to the other studies we reviewed recently, on the correlational and experimental evidence indicating harmful cognitive effects of short form videos:
afterbabel.com/p/the-many-li…
Never forget, as we search for the causes of the global decline in reading ability, that TikTok's own internal research noted that using TikTok is associated with a wide range of deleterious cognitive effects:
afterbabel.com/p/industrial-…
At the Tech and Society Lab at NYU-Stern, we have been studying the effects of many kinds of technology on kids & teens.
For the first time, we have posted all of our academic publications, tools, and data-related essays in one place. Start here:
afterbabel.com/p/tech-and-so…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
The evidence is growing: phone-free schools can create more space for learning, attention, connection, and real-world relationships.
@JonHaidt's recent article on Substack looks at what schools are seeing so far.
Read more: bit.ly/4rLUenh
Facebook’s products “harm children… and the company’s leadership knows how to make [them] safer but won’t make the necessary changes.” These were Frances Haugen’s words five years ago today in her 2021 congressional testimony.
The tens of thousands of pages of internal documents she brought out — with the help of @JeffHorwitz — opened the vault and gave the world its first real look at how Meta operates and at what they (and the other social media companies) were doing to kids and teens.
One of these documents revealed an internal Facebook study — covering thousands of teens from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Turkey, and the United States. The researchers described the qualitative part of their study like this: “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression […] This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”
Haugen’s revelations five years ago empowered survivor parents, attorneys general, and legislators to hold Big Tech accountable for their actions. 2026 would not have been such a turning point year if not for Haugen. I’m glad more people will learn her story through “The Social Reckoning.” Her bravery changed the world for the better and should inspire us all to do more to protect kids from addictive and untested technologies.
We owe Frances Haugen an immense debt of gratitude.
apnews.com/article/facebook-…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Happiness is plummeting, especially among young people.
When I see demoralizing data like this over and over again (e.g., test scores dropping, loneliness on the rise, etc), I just think we need to change course. Defending the status quo seems like such a bad option.
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Higher education is facing a serious crisis. Enrollment is starting to crater. The public has lost faith in the value of our institution.
Business as usual is not an option.
This is a great book, by the woman who has done more than anyone to illuminate how technology changes human relationships
Today is the publication day for Artificial Intimacy. There are so many moments in the life of a book. The day you finished the proposal. The day you settled on the right outline. The copyedit. The corrected pages. But there is nothing like the day that you see your book in a bookstore. All of those other landmarks fall away. In winter 1978, I stood outside Harvard Book Store, nose pressed to the window, and watched a young woman take Psychoanalytic Politics off the shelf. She looked at it and put it back. But I was content. My book, my first book, was in the hands of strangers. And now, these feelings rush back: Artificial Intimacy is in the world, and I feel humbled. hachettebookgroup.com/titles…
Jonathan Haidt retweeted
Online toxicity silences the majority and fuels power users
In online political discussions, a small fraction of highly active users typically generates the vast majority of content while most people silently observe. This vocal minority dominates the conversation, creating a distorted picture of public opinion that looks far more polarized than it actually is.
In the modern attention economy of social media, extreme or hostile content often gains the most visibility. This creates a spiral of silence among most users
A new experiment reveals that polite and constructive environments encourage silent readers to post their first comment, but the most active users are driven to post more when discussions become toxic.
So being polite and constructive is the way to create a better environment.
psypost.org/how-online-toxic…,
