Russell T. Warne, PhD - Psychologist, author, and educator

13/02/2026

Here's some heartening news: 77% of Americans say that "doing your own research" about a topic includes looking at scientific studies, according to a new poll from Pew.

This isn't the percentage who say they have done that themselves, but it shows that a lot of people are open to using scientific literature to learn about what they see or read in the media. (If you follow this page, you're probably one of them!)

Read the full report:
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2026/02/11/what-does-it-mean-to-do-your-own-research-and-how-often-do-americans-do-it/

12/02/2026

This opinion piece in the Washington Post discusses the increase in autism diagnoses. Basically, the increase is caused entirely by a broadening definition of the diagnostic label. The kid that 30 years ago was an eccentric loner obsessed with trains is now diagnosed--even if he's not really impaired.

"Between 2000 and 2016, there was a 464 percent increase in diagnoses among children with no significant functional impairment whatsoever . . . during the same time period, there was a 20 percent decrease in the prevalence of moderate or severe autism . . ."

Read more:

Most new cases reflect mild or no significant impairment. Moderate and severe cases have declined.

10/02/2026

This is why methodology matters. This map made the rounds on social media last week, and a lot of people went nuts about it. But when I looked into how the numbers were determined, I found that the map's creator did not say where the numbers came from or how they were calculated.

In short, the map is garbage. Some of the results don't even make sense:

➡️Does anyone REALLY think that New York has the 6th cheapest land in the U.S.? The idea is laughable. New York has a reputation for a lot of things, but cheap land isn't one of them.
➡️Utah and Arizona are both desert states that both have the same land use profile of 89-90% of residents living in urban areas. So, it is extremely unlikely that Utah has land that is over 45x more valuable.
➡️Many states with known high housing costs (like California and Florida) have lower land prices on this map than cheaper states, like Idaho and Nevada. This seems VERY unlikely.
➡️The map source even says that they combined residential and commercial land values. So, the map does NOT report the average cost of all land in a state, or even residential land. In fact, it's not clear what the map reports at all.

Much of the map doesn't pass the "sniff test," and a lot of people were gullible for sharing it with others. Methodology isn't sexy, but it helps you be a better consumer of data and to avoid falling for inaccurate data.

Original map source:
https://www.zippia.com/advice/acre-land-costs-each-state/

08/02/2026

If you're as old as I am, you remember the "Cow tools" comic from The Far Side. Now, a new paper in "Current Biology" reports a case study of a cow in Austria who really does use tools to scratch herself--the first known observation of a cow using tools.

Read the full article (no paywall):
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.059

07/02/2026

Another scary research fraud story, this time from The New Yorker: In 2006, "The Lancet" (one of the top medical journals in the world) published an article about a newborn baby that died from codeine passed through its mother's breatmilk. However, later investigations show that the amount of drugs in the baby's body was far too high to be passed to the baby from breastmilk. The only explanation is that the child was deliberately administered a fatal dose of codeine. Moreover, the original lead author deliberately obscured that information and instead proposed a theory that some mothers rapidly metabolize codeine into their breastmilk and that this poses a danger to their babies.

Because of this article (and supporting research that consists of fabricated data and shoddy laboratory tests), breastfeeding mothers are now advised to take fentanyl and morphine (far more dangerous to them and their babies) instead of codeine. An entire branch of toxicology has been born, and the article has been used in the criminal justice system as a defense against accusations of poisoning.

The original article (and other fake ones) remain unretracted. Last month, the journal issued an "Expression of Concern" (a note saying that an article may or may not be trustworthy) was finally issued--18 years after concerns were first publicly raised and 6 years after renewed calls to retract the article. The scientific system is broken, and lives are being endangered . . . and no one with the power to do anything seems to care.

Read this scary article for yourself:

After a newborn died of opioid poisoning, a new branch of pediatrics came into being. But the evidence doesn’t add up.

04/02/2026

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) released a new position statement in which they recommend against performing mastectomies and other so-called "gender affirming" surgeries in clients below the age of 19. ASPS says that the evidence for plastic surgery for children and adolescent with dysphoria is too weak to justify a permanent surgical intervention.

Some highlights:
"...ASPS concludes there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents. ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, ge***al, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old."

"Because the evidence base for this care pathway is very low/low certainty and increasingly suggestive of potential harm and longterm complications, downstream surgical decision-making carries heightened ethical, clinical, and legal risk."

"...plastic surgeons cannot rely on the presence of a prior medical intervention, referral, or letter of support as a proxy for surgical indication or adolescent readiness."

"...ethical decision-making should not be driven by crisis claims. Instead, the ethically appropriate posture for plastic surgeons is greater caution."

Read the full statement:
https://www.plasticsurgery.org/for-medical-professionals/health-policy/position-statements

03/02/2026

How stable are IQ scores? We conducted a study to find out!

124 volunteers took the Full RIOT twice (median time between testings = 132 days). Their RIOT IQ scores were correlated r = .923, high level of stability across the time interval (see scatterplot).

We also found a practice effect in the data: the average participant had a score increase of 3.95 IQ points. This magnitude of score gain is typical for IQ tests.

Beyond overall IQ, other RIOT scores function similarly to what we see on traditional IQ tests. The self-proctored online format does not seem to impact the stability of IQ scores.

02/02/2026

New podcast episode from RIOT IQ!

This time, my guest is Dr. James Lee (University of Minnesota). He is a behavioral geneticist that discusses with me:
✅Why we know that brain size is a CAUSE of higher IQ
✅Why the general factor of intelligence is not a statistical artifact
✅The neural connection between genes and IQ..and more

Watch here:

In this episode of the RIOT IQ Podcast, we talk with Dr. James J. Lee about why IQ is still widely misunderstood and how intelligence researchers actually th...

31/01/2026

There have been so many famous social scientists exposed as frauds in recent years: Oliver Sacks, Philip Zimbardo, Stanley Milgram, and more. My colleague Shane Littrell (from Cornell University) discusses an interesting pattern in these people's stories. Littrell points out that they all got exposed because they were honest in their private lives, and when they deposited their work in archives, researchers could find the truth.

Read more:

Famous scientist bullsh*tters were surprisingly candid behind the scenes

27/01/2026

When people ask me who the smartest person I've ever met is, one name I always mention is Steve Hsu. So, I was honored that he agreed to be a guest on RIOT IQ's podcast. This episode is jam-packed with great info, including:
➡️How A.I. helped Hsu write a new scholarly paper
➡️A new, huge study on the genetics of disease on people of Han Chinese ancestry
➡️How to harnass other people's intelligence to solve difficult problems
➡️China's ascending dominance in science and technology (and what American can do to stay #1)

Watch it here:

In this episode, we sit down with physicist and researcher Dr. Stephen Hsu to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping intelligence research, genetic...

26/01/2026

A grossly inaccurate paper in the journal "Management Science" has been cited over 6,000 times. Boston University's Andrew A. King has been trying to get it retracted, and the journal would only require a partial correction. If this story sounds familiar, it's the same experience I've had in trying to get incorrect papers retracted. Read about King's experience from his colleague Andrew Gelman (Columbia University):

This paper in Management Science has been cited more than 6,000 times. Wall Street executives, top government officials, and even a former U.S. Vice President have all referenced it. It’s fatally flawed, and the scholarly community refuses to do anything about it. Posted on January 22, 2026 9:15 A...

25/01/2026

In this interesting essay published in Quillette, Francisco Ceballos (University of Santiago at Compostela) explains inbreeding in humans, how it can arise intentionally and unintentionally, the genetic consequences, and why taboos surrounding cultural sensitivity can cause a lot of harm and suffering.

Read it here (registration required, but is free):

How kinship, culture, and genetics shaped one of humanity’s oldest taboos.