Questions often emerge when researchers tend to engage in research on topics that are personally relevant for them. For example, when someone with depression also studies it, should they disclose their personal interest? How is this type of self-relevant research—“me-search,” as it’s popularly known— perceived by the academic and scientific community? In a recent study …

Lived Experiences Can Be a Strength. So Why the Bias Against “Me-Search”? Read More »

In an age of ChatGPT, computer algorithms and artificial intelligence are increasingly embedded in our lives, choosing the content we’re shown online, suggesting the music we hear and answering our questions. These algorithms may be changing our world and behavior in ways we don’t fully understand, says psychologist and behavioral scientist Gerd Gigerenzer, the director …

A Psychologist Explains How AI and Algorithms Are Changing Our Lives Read More »

I’m Shayla Love, and you’re listening to Scientific American’s Science, Quickly. We’ve been talking about love this week, and so far we’ve maintained a pretty basic assumption: that love is good, that love makes us happier. But does it? And if so, does it bring the same amount of happiness to everyone?  [CLIP: Ending music] … Harry …

Love and the Brain: Do Partnerships Really Make Us Happy? Here’s What the Science Says Read More »

As you move through the world, it’s inevitable that your way of seeing things won’t always align with the people around you. Maybe you disagree with the way your neighbor raises her kids, or find your brother’s politics to be troubling. But you may not realize how much your core beliefs shape your perception of …

How Your Beliefs Shape Reality Read More »

In her poster presentation at ICPS 2023, Allegra Skye Anderson (left, Vanderbilt University) discussed her research on associations between parents’ depression symptoms and physiological reactivity with their children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. It seemed the rain would never stop outside, but the conversations inside SQUARE Brussels Convention Centre March 9–11 brimmed with psychological science’s blue-sky possibilities during …

“So Much Amazing Research”: Scholarship and Science Prevail at ICPS 2023 Read More »

Concert halls, movie theaters, and museums are home to a kaleidoscope of art forms, but one thing they all have in common is the potential to inspire feelings of awe. This humbling perspective has been shown to motivate adults to set aside their own problems to focus on the needs of others, and new research …

Want More Generous Children? Show Them Awe-inspiring Art Read More »

LEILA FADEL, HOST: Here’s an enduring legacy. Pink Floyd’s album “Dark Side Of The Moon” was released 50 years ago today, and it’s still on the Billboard charts. It’s the longest charting album in history. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BRAIN DAMAGE”) PINK FLOYD: (Singing) And if the dam breaks open many years too soon, and if …

Psychologist Daniel Levitin dissects Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ Read More »

How much do you remember about the past three years of pandemic life? How much have you already forgotten? A lot has happened since the “Before Times.” Canceled proms, toilet paper shortages, nightly applause for health workers, new vaccines, waitlists for getting the first jab, and more. Covid disrupted everyone’s lives, but it was truly life-changing for only a sizable subset …

Science of forgetting: Why we’re already losing our pandemic memories Read More »

Misinformation can feel inescapable. Last summer a survey from the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies found that 62 percent of people regularly notice false or misleading information online. And in a 2019 poll, almost nine in 10 people admitted to having fallen for fake news. Social psychologist Sander van der Linden of the University of Cambridge studies how …

There’s a Psychological ‘Vaccine’ against Misinformation Read More »

In the ICPS 2023 opening keynote, Susan Michie (University College London) presented the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology. AI and algorithms, sustainability and climate anxiety, individual agency and group stereotypes, active learning and productive failure—and those are just a few of the topics covered in day one alone of the 2023 International Convention of Psychological Science, …

Breakthroughs in Brussels: Researchers Share New Integrative Science at ICPS 2023 Read More »