Investigating the Political Mind
Thomas Costello is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at American University. He studies where political and social beliefs come from, how they differ from person to person–and, ultimately, why they change–using AI and the tools of personality, cognitive, clinical, and political science. During his doctoral training in clinical psychology at Emory University (2016-2022) and postdoctoral fellowship at MIT (2022-2024), he has published dozens of research papers in peer-reviewed outlets, including Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences. He has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, CBC/Radio-Canada, and Scientific American, among many others, and his work has accumulated millions of views and comments on social media. Thomas has garnered extramural grant support (totaling > $500,000) from organizations including Effective Ventures, Reset, and Australian Skeptics. He was awarded the Heritage Dissertation Research Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the JS Tanaka Dissertation Award from the Association for Research in Personality, and the Klarman Fellowship from Cornell University.
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., Rand, D. (in press). Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI. Science. Preprint.
Bowes, S.M., Costello, T.H., Tasimi, A (2023). The conspiratorial mind: A meta-analytic review of motivational and personological correlates. Psychological Bulletin. [Preprint].
Costello, T.H., Zmigrod, L., Tasimi, A. (2023). Thinking outside the ballot box. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Advance online publication. [LINK]
Osborne, D., Costello, T.H., Duckitt, J, Sibley, C. (2023). The causes and societal consequences of authoritarianism. Nature Reviews Psychology. [LINK]
Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Malka, A., Baldwin, M., Tasimi, A. (2022). Revisiting the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. [PDF] [Preprint]
Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M. (2022). Absolute certainty and political ideology: A systematic test of curvilinearity. Social Psychological and Personality Science. [e-copy] [Preprint]
Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Stevens, S.T., Waldman, I.W., Tasimi, A., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2021). Clarifying the structure and nature of left-wing authoritarianism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. [PDF] [Preprint] [OSF]
Costello, T.H., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2020). Social and economic political ideology consistently operate as mutual suppressors: Implications for personality, social, and political psychology. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 1425-1436. [PDF] [OSF]
Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Lilienfeld, S.O. (2020). “Escape from Freedom”: Authoritarianism-related traits, political ideology, personality, and belief in free will/determinism. Journal of Research in Personality, 86, 1-16. [PDF]
Costello, T.H., Watts, A.L., Murphy, B.A., Lilienfeld, S.O. (2020). Extending the nomological network of interpersonal sexual objectification to psychopathic and allied traits. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 11, 237-248. [PDF]
Costello, T.H., Smith, S.F., Bowes, S., Riley, S., Berns, G., Lilienfeld, S.O. (2019). Risky business: Psychopathy, framing effects, and financial outcomes. Journal of Research in Personality, 78, 125-132. [PDF]
Data Visualization
Media Coverage
Political scientists want to know why we hate one another this much. New York Times. June 19th, 2024.
AI might help solve the problem of runaway conspiracy theories. Quirks and Quarks, CBC/Radio Canada. April 20th, 2024.
Google, Facebook Should Use AI to Combat Conspiracy Theories. Bloomberg. April 18th, 2024.
Chatbots can persuade conspiracy theorists their view might be wrong. New Scientist. April 12th, 2024.
How to tell if you're a political extremist. Markham Heid. Medium (272,000 followers). November 30th, 2022.
Protecting yourself from COVID isn't a sign of mental illness. Shayla Love. Vice. January 20th, 2022.
Left-wing authoritarianism is real and needs to be taken seriously. Emma Young. British Psychological Society (Research Digest). October 1st, 2021.
How the experts overlooked authoritarianism on the left. Sally Satel. The Atlantic. September 26th, 2021.
Large study indicates left-wing authoritarianism exists and is a key predictor of psychological and behavioral outcomes. Eric Dolan. PsyPost. June 30th, 2021.
U.S. conservatives are uniquely inclined toward right-wing authoritarianism compared to Western peers. Cameron Easley. Morning Consult. June 28th, 2021.
A theory about conspiracy theories. Benedict Carey. New York Times. September 28th, 2020.
Culture beat: Left-wing authoritarians are real. Post Editorial Board. New York Post. May 29th, 2020.
Is there such a thing as a left-wing authoritarian? Andre Spicer. New Statesman. May 26th, 2020.
New study finds authoritarian personality traits are associated with belief in determinism. Eric Dolan. PsyPost. May 18th, 2020.
Opening minds. National Affairs. Kevin Lewis. May 15th, 2020.
Researchers identify key personality correlates of interpersonal sexual objectification. James Ives. The Medical News. January 27th, 2020.
How personality predicts seeing others as sex objects. MedicalXpress. January 27th, 2020.
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