NeoAcademia is a biweekly exploration of the shifting walls of the ivory tower.
I have to admit, I had mixed expectations for my conversation with Steve. As you might know, I choose guests on a whim…sometimes. I have a running list, but sometimes someone strikes me, and before I know it, we’re recording. Just like with Todd Kashdan and Tani Berlo, I saw Steve’s TikTok, and within 2 minutes knew I wanted to have him on. However, when I was prepping for the episode, I started to worry that he was gonna be an academic NPC. SORRY STEVIE! His TikTok is so neutral, that you wonder if he has a personality!
This is the thing about the term “NPC”, though. If you don’t know, it is video game shorthand for Non-Player Character. You know, the guy you walk up to and ask for directions, who has a pre-selected set of answers. The NPCs are getting better and better, and you’re less able to tell which ones are AI-operated. It’s making us question everything. The science behind this is more about free will and determinism, but if you follow this logic through, you start to wonder, am I an NPC? Is my personality programmed?
Probably, but that’s for another episode.
In this season’s final episode, we get into the rationale for his TikTok branding, and I get it. Putting yourself “out there” is always a risk, and get why Steve has chosen to mitigate risk on social media. Young academics who want to get a job and eventually get tenure have to be calculated in what they say and what they study. This is true in the corporate world as well… yet another parallel between the two. We talk about this at length throughout the episode, and I appreciate Steve’s candor and openness to having a somewhat ‘risky’ conversation about ‘risky’ conversations. :)
Show Notes
01:40 Academics on TikTok, and predicting success
06:04 Academic NPC fragility and the stigma around science communication
09:10 Publishing and the tenure track job search in psychology vs. biomedical science,
14:35 Who gatekeeps the hidden academic curriculum?
17:48 Neoacademia brainstorming about duties for academics: mentoring and sci-comm
21:33 Gatekeeping, hierarchies, metrics and heuristics in academic success
23:29 Academic mentorship: the keys to the gate
25:39 What NeoAcademia is about
28:03 The meta-psychology of @stevepsychology
29:09 The data on what goes viral
31:00 Neutral branding vs having a personality online
33:40 Why people love Lex Fridman and Joe Rogan
35:52 Gay Rams and how the left can be anti-science
38:11 Controversy in psychology around political ideology; @dankahan on Motivated reasoning
43:48 The future of creators and platforms
48:27 The idyllic undergrad experience and the mystery of academia
54:10 Thoughtful content and what if…
56:40 SciComm: The difference between Psychology, Physics, and Biology
01:00:54 Social media villains
So you’ve been publicly shamed: Jon Ronson
01:05:23 Tech worship and Even more bay area house party
01:06:57 Having an impact through research on social media
Follow Stevepsychology on TikTok!
For more resources from this episode, check out the collection Steve and I created for you. Use the password “neoacademia” for access.
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Thought experiment:
Win money for answering on Big Nerve!
How could science communication be improved on social media?
NeoAcademia Episode 11: Steve Rathje - The psychology of academic social media