Would babies benefit if their families received extra cash every month? Photo: Cavan Images/Alamy Stock Photo When psychologists and sociologists take a big-picture view of early childhood development, they almost always notice a correlation between income and child behavior. Specifically, children being raised in poverty tend to perform worse than higher-income children on language development, …
Continue reading Does extra cash help low-income babies’ development?
Many public health officials raise ethical concerns about requiring placebocontrolled tests of slight revisions to existing vaccines. Photo: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock Placebo effects have been in the news lately because the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced a new policy requiring placebo controlled studies for vaccines before …
Continue reading Placebo controls: When are they necessary? When are they ethical?
The article reported three evidence-based techniques for changing people's minds. Photo: Caftor/Shutterstock In our era of extreme political polarization, people's attitudes seem entrenched. However, a new BBC article proposes some ideas for changing others' minds, under the headline "The Simple Trick to Change Other People's Minds." The author's essay focuses on three simple tricks. One …
Although optimism feels good, it's more effective to also anticipate what might go wrong. Photo: Jacob Lund/Shutterstock This article, entitled "the problem with optimism," discusses one of my favorite theories of psychological motivation and goal pursuit--Gabrielle Oettingen's theory of "mental contrasting with implementation intentions" (or MCII). (The popular press article might be paywalled, so try …
How could you test the hypothesis that the most successful pro athletes are more creative than average? Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images The Eagles are the most local team to my university (the University of Delaware is less than one hour from Philly), so we were excited when they won the Super …
Continue reading Some sports psychology behind the Eagles’ Super Bowl win
Most humans have only vestigal muscles that could help them prick up their ears like this cute pooch. Photo: Mary Swift/Shutterstock The adorable dog in the photo is paying attention. "Lifting the ears up straight is, in almost every species, a clue that the animal is putting some work into it. They're paying close attention, …
Continue reading Prick up your ears! (Oh, I forgot…you can’t!)
How does the design of the study make it possible to test if bonobos have theory of mind? Photo: Sergey Uryadnikov/Shutterstock Typically-developing human children point. Pointing can mean that I want to make sure (for example) that you notice the baby rabbit outside, or I want to tell you that you dropped your fluffy scarf …
To do: Decide whether each study's variables are manipulated or measured. Check! GoodStudio/Shutterstock I wouldn't be able to get through my week without a to-do list. And now my habits are validated by this new story about research on to-do lists, which comes from the BBC News. The journalist summarizes a series of studies for …
A body-scan meditation might prevent mindless trips to the fridge.Photo: F8 studio/Shutterstock Do you consider yourself an emotional eater? If you'd like to reduce your susceptibility to emotional eating, here's something to try. It's also a good chance to practice one of the simple experiments. The research was summarized by a journalist for PsyPost. …
Correlational and experimental research seems to converge on the conclusion that stress causes gray hair. Photo: Kunlathida6242/Shutterstock Can stress turn your hair gray? Here's a story on gray hair research, written by a New York Times science journalist. In our culture, we certainly believe that gray hair can be caused (in some cases at least) …