Research
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My work began with theory and measurement problems in political psychology.
My recent work uses generative AI to make the person-level study of belief
systems tractable.
Working papers
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Costello, T.H., Pelrine, K., Kowal, M., Arechar, A.A., Godbout, J.-F., Gleave, A., Rand, D., & Pennycook, G. (2026).
Large language models can effectively convince people to believe conspiracies.
[Preprint]
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Costello, T.H.*, Rabb, N.*, Stagnaro, M.N., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2025).
Reducing belief in conspiracy theories as they unfold using large language models.
[Preprint]
(* shared first authorship)
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Kowal, M., Timm, J., Godbout, J.-F., Costello, T.H., Arechar, A.A., Pennycook, G., … & Pelrine, K. (2025).
It’s the thought that counts: Evaluating the attempts of frontier LLMs to persuade on harmful topics.
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Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., Willer, R., & Rand, D. (2025).
Deep canvassing using AI reduces prejudice toward undocumented immigrants.
[Preprint]
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Xu, H.G.*, Costello, T.H.*, Schwartz, J.L., Niccolai, L.M., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2025).
Personalized dialogues with AI effectively address parents’ concerns about HPV vaccination.
[Preprint]
(* shared first authorship)
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Czarnek, G., Orchinik, R., Lin, H., Xu, H.G., Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D.G. (2025).
Addressing climate change skepticism and inaction using human–AI dialogues.
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Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2025).
Just the facts: How dialogues with AI reduce conspiracy beliefs.
[Preprint]
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Costello, T.H., Waldman, I.W., & Pennycook, G.
Mapping the heterogeneity of political beliefs and rigidity. Preprint.
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Costello, T.H., Newton, C., Lin, H., & Pennycook, G.
A metacognitive blind spot in intellectual humility measures. Preprint.
Journal articles
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43. Axt, J.R., Connor, P., Hoogeveen, S., Clark, C.J., Vianello, M., Lahey, J.N., Hahn, A., To, J., Petty, R.E., Costello, T.H., Mitchell, G., Tetlock, P.E., & Uhlmann, E.L. (2026).
On the relationship between indirect measures of Black versus White racial attitudes and discriminatory outcomes: An adversarial collaboration using a sample of White Americans.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
[DOI]
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42. Pennycook, G., Costello, T.H., & Rand, D.G. (2026).
Using artificial intelligence to better understand human intelligence.
Current Directions in Psychological Science.
[DOI]
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41. Lin, H., Czarnek, G., Lewis, B., White, J.P., Berinsky, A.J., Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D.G. (2025).
Persuading voters using human–AI dialogues.
Nature.
[DOI]
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40. Boissin, E., Costello, T.H., Alonso, D.M., Rand, D., & Pennycook, G. (2025).
Dialogues with large language models reduce conspiracy beliefs even when the AI is perceived as human.
PNAS Nexus.
[DOI]
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39. Malka, A., Federico, C.M., Costello, T.H., & Panish, A. (2025).
Polarized attitudes and anti-democratic orientation: Robust evidence for paradoxical relationships among American partisans.
Political Studies.
[DOI]
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38. Lowman, K.L., Costello, T.H., & Patrick, C.J. (2025).
Creating scale measures of latent factors: A genetic algorithmic approach.
Assessment.
[DOI]
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37. Bowes, S.M., Clark, C.J., Conway, L.G., Costello, T.H., Osborne, D., Tetlock, P.E., & van Prooijen, J.-W. (2025).
An adversarial collaboration on the rigidity-of-the-right, symmetry thesis, or rigidity-of-extremes: The answer depends on the question.
Political Psychology.
[DOI]
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36. Costello, T.H. (2025).
Large language models as disrupters of misinformation.
Nature Medicine.
[Article]
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35. Binnendyk, J., Li, S., Costello, T.H., Hale, R., Moore, D.A., & Pennycook, G. (2025).
Is overconfidence a trait? An adversarial collaboration.
Psychological Science.
[DOI]
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34. Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D.G. (2025).
The problem with AI dialogue at scale — Response.
Science, 387, 1158.
[DOI]
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33. Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2024).
Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI.
Science, 385, eadq1814.
[DOI]
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32. Lilly, K., Costello, T.H., Sibley, C., & Osborne, D. (2024).
Identifying “types” of authoritarians: A latent profile analysis of left- and right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation.
European Journal of Personality.
[DOI]
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31. Holford, D., Fasce, A., Costello, T.H., & Lewandowsky, S. (2023).
Psychological profiles of anti-vaccination argument endorsement.
Scientific Reports, 13, 11219.
[DOI]
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30. Bowes, S.M., Costello, T.H., & Tasimi, A. (2023).
The conspiratorial mind: A meta-analytic review of motivational and personological correlates.
Psychological Bulletin.
[DOI]
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29. Costello, T.H., Zmigrod, L., & Tasimi, A. (2023).
Thinking outside the ballot box.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27, 605–615.
[DOI]
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28. Malka, A., & Costello, T.H. (2023).
Professed democracy support and openness to flagrant authoritarian actions in the American public.
American Politics Research, 51, 327–342.
[DOI]
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27. Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Malka, A., Baldwin, M., & Tasimi, A. (2023).
Revisiting the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis: A meta-analytic review.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124, 1025–1052.
[DOI]
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26. Osborne, D., Costello, T.H., Duckitt, J., & Sibley, C. (2023).
The causes and societal consequences of authoritarianism.
Nature Reviews Psychology, 2, 220–232.
[DOI]
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25. Costello, T.H., & Bowes, S.M. (2023).
Absolute certainty and political ideology: A systematic test of curvilinearity.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, 14, 93–102.
[DOI]
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24. Costello, T.H., & Patrick, C.J. (2023).
Development and initial validation of two brief measures of left-wing authoritarianism: A machine learning approach.
Journal of Personality Assessment, 105, 187–202.
[DOI]
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23. Clark, C.J., Costello, T.H., Mitchell, G., & Tetlock, P.E. (2022).
The road less travelled: Understanding adversaries is hard but smarter than ignoring them.
Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11, 50–53.
[DOI]
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22. Lilienfeld, S.O., Bowes, S.M., Strother, A.N., Liu, C.J., Costello, T.H., Norton, K.A., & Latzman, R.D. (2022).
On the association between grants and scholarly achievement among the world’s most eminent psychologists.
Current Psychology, 42, 29325–29336.
[DOI]
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21. Costello, T.H., Clark, C.J., & Tetlock, P.E. (2022).
Shoring up the shaky psychological foundations of a micro-economic model of ideology: Adversarial collaboration solutions.
Psychological Inquiry, 33, 88–94.
[DOI]
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20. Murphy, B.A., Casto, K.V., Watts, A.L., Costello, T.H., Tatum, J.A., Verona, E.V., & Algoe, S.B. (2022).
“Feeling powerful” versus “desiring power”: A pervasive and problematic conflation in personality assessment?
Journal of Research in Personality, 101, 104305.
[DOI]
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19. Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Stevens, S.T., Waldman, I.W., Tasimi, A., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2022).
Clarifying the structure and nature of left-wing authoritarianism.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122, 135–170.
[DOI]
[The Atlantic]
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18. Clark, C.J., Costello, T.H., Mitchell, G., & Tetlock, P.E. (2022).
Keep your enemies close: Adversarial collaborations will improve behavioral science.
Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11, 1–18.
[DOI]
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17. Bowes, S.M., Costello, T.H., Lee, C., Davis, D.E., McElroy-Heltzel, S., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2021).
Stepping outside the echo chamber: Is intellectual humility associated with less political myside bias?
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48, 150–164.
[DOI]
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16. Costello, T.H., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2021).
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.
[DOI]
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15. Avendaño, D., Fasce, A., Costello, T.H., & Adrián-Ventura, J. (2021).
Spanish adaptation of the Left-wing Authoritarianism Index.
Journal of Personality Assessment, 104, 692–699.
[DOI]
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14. Conway III, L.G., McFarland, J.D., Costello, T.H., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2021).
The curious case of left-wing authoritarianism: When authoritarian persons meet anti-authoritarian norms.
Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, 5, 423–442.
[DOI]
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13. 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.
[DOI]
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12. 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.
[DOI]
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11. Lilienfeld, S.O., Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., & Strother, A. (2020).
Has psychology found its conscience?
European Journal of Personality, 34, 529–530.
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10. Bowes, S.M., Costello, T.H., Ma, W., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2020).
Looking under the tinfoil hat: Clarifying the personological and psychopathological correlates of conspiracy beliefs.
Journal of Personality, 89, 422–436.
[DOI]
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9. Bowes, S.M., Ammirati, R.J., Costello, T.H., Basterfield, C., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2020).
Cognitive biases, heuristics, and logical fallacies in clinical practice: A brief field guide for practicing clinicians and supervisors.
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 51, 435–445.
[DOI]
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8. 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.
[DOI]
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7. Lilienfeld, S.O., Watts, A.L., Murphy, B., Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Smith, S.F., Latzman, R.D., Haslam, N., & Tabb, K. (2019).
Psychopathy as an Emergent Interpersonal Syndrome: Further reflections and future directions.
Journal of Personality Disorders, 33, 645–652.
[DOI]
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6. Lilienfeld, S.O., Watts, A.L., Murphy, B., Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Smith, S.F., Latzman, R.D., Haslam, N., & Tabb, K. (2019).
Personality disorders as Emergent Interpersonal Syndromes: Psychopathic personality as a case example.
Journal of Personality Disorders, 33, 577–622.
[DOI]
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5. Costello, T.H., Unterberger, A., Watts, A.L., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2018).
Psychopathy and pride: Testing Lykken’s hypothesis regarding the implications of fearlessness for prosocial and antisocial behavior.
Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 185.
[DOI]
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4. Murphy, B.A., Costello, T.H., Watts, A.L., Berg, J.M., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2018).
Strengths and weaknesses of two empathy measures: A comparison of the measurement precision, construct validity, and incremental validity of two multidimensional indices.
Assessment, 27, 246–260.
[DOI]
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3. Bowes, S., Watts, A.L., Costello, T.H., Murphy, B.A., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2018).
Psychopathy and entertainment preferences: Clarifying the role of abnormal and normal personality in music and movie interests.
Personality and Individual Differences, 129, 33–37.
[DOI]
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2. Murphy, B.A., Costello, T.H., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2018).
Is empathic contagion helpful or harmful? Overlooked heterogeneity in the Empathy Index.
Psychological Assessment, 30, 1703–1708.
[DOI]
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1. Lilienfeld, S.O., & Costello, T.H. (2017).
From crisis to salvation.
PsycCRITIQUES, 62, 30–34.
[DOI]
Chapters & commentaries
Chapters in edited volumes
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Costello, T.H. (2023).
The conundrum of measuring authoritarianism.
In Cobb, C., Lynn, S.J., & O’Donohue, W. (Eds.),
Clinical psychological science: The seminal work of Scott Lilienfeld.
Springer: New York, NY.
[DOI]
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Lilienfeld, S.O., Basterfield, C., Bowes, S.M., & Costello, T.H. (2020).
Nobelists gone wild: Case studies in the domain-specificity of critical thinking.
In Sternberg, B., & Halpern, D. (Eds.),
Critical thinking in psychology (2nd ed.).
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
[DOI]
Commentaries & replies
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Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D.G. (2025).
The problem with AI dialogue at scale — Response.
Science, 387, 1158.
[DOI]
-
Costello, T.H., Clark, C.J., & Tetlock, P.E. (2022).
Shoring up the shaky psychological foundations of a micro-economic model of ideology: Adversarial collaboration solutions.
Psychological Inquiry, 33, 88–94.
[DOI]
-
Clark, C.J., Costello, T.H., Mitchell, G., & Tetlock, P.E. (2022).
The road less travelled: Understanding adversaries is hard but smarter than ignoring them.
Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11, 50–53.
[DOI]
-
Lilienfeld, S.O., Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., & Strother, A. (2020).
Has psychology found its conscience?
European Journal of Personality, 34, 529–530.
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Lilienfeld, S.O., Watts, A.L., Murphy, B., Costello, T.H., Bowes, S.M., Smith, S.F., Latzman, R.D., Haslam, N., & Tabb, K. (2019).
Psychopathy as an Emergent Interpersonal Syndrome: Further reflections and future directions.
Journal of Personality Disorders, 33, 645–652.
[DOI]
-
Lilienfeld, S.O., & Costello, T.H. (2017).
From crisis to salvation.
PsycCRITIQUES, 62, 30–34.
[DOI]
Popular press
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Costello, T.H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. (2025, October 30).
Chatbots are surprisingly effective at debunking conspiracy theories.
MIT Technology Review.
[Article]
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Costello, T.H. (2023).
Curated summary: “Current research overstates American support for political violence” by Westwood, Grimmer, Tyler, and Nall (2022).
Library of Partisan Animosity.
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Costello, T.H., & Bowes, S.M. (2022, August).
Popper was right about the link between certainty and extremism.
Psyche.
[Article]
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Lilienfeld, S.O., Bowes, S.M., Costello, T.H., & Strother, A. (2020, March/April).
Intellectual humility: A guiding principle for the skeptical movement.
Skeptical Inquirer.
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Basterfield, C., Lilienfeld, S.O., Bowes, S., & Costello, T.H. (2020, May/June).
The Nobel disease: When intelligence fails to protect against irrationality.
Skeptical Inquirer.
Curriculum vitae (PDF).