Senders of gratitude letters benefit from writing them, and recipients "feel great" when receiving them. Photo credit: Rawpixel/Deposit Photos This example comes from the subfield of positive psychology, and the study of gratitude. One technique studied by positive psychologists is the practice of writing a gratitude letter to a person who has influenced you. According …
Category: Identifying Claims
Evidence-based tips for well-being during a pandemic
Dr. Santos provides evidence-based ways to enhance well-being during this pandemic. Credit: Yale University How can people enhance their wellbeing during the Coronovirus pandemic? Dr. Laurie Santos (pictured) has been meeting with several news outlets, sharing evidence-based tips from her psychology of well-being class at Yale University. A version of the course is also offered …
Continue reading Evidence-based tips for well-being during a pandemic
Screen time (again!)
The effect of screen time on well-being is likely to depend on moderators such as what's on the screen, when it's used, and who's using it. Photo: Eric Nathan / Alamy Stock Photo I can't promise this is the last article on screen time research that I will blog about. But this long-form piece by …
Does loud music make you eat bad food?
That sounds delicious, thank you! Photo credit: Nathan Motoyama/EyeEm/Getty Images June is food month on the ERM blog! This story's about the headline, Loud music makes you eat bad food?!?!?Whaaaaaaatever! QRock 100.7 was one of several news outlets that had fun describing this study for its readers. Let's find out what kind of study was …
Claim: Standing up at your desk could make you smarter
I have a standing desk in my office. Am I getting smarter as a result? An editorial summarizes some of the evidence. I'm standing at my desk as I compose this post....could that make my writing go better? Yes, according to an editorial entitled, "Standing up at your desk could make you smarter." The editorial …
Continue reading Claim: Standing up at your desk could make you smarter
Start next semester with a fake-news lesson
Credit: IFLA.org (Open source image) Most research methods instructors hope their course will teach students to be better consumers of information. They want to not only help students read empirical journals; they also want to help students become critical thinkers about anything they encounter in the "real world" of the Internet. Maybe you'd like to …
Continue reading Start next semester with a fake-news lesson
Classifying claims about play
National Public Radio has a new series of stories on play in children and animals. In this report, they interview scientists who have studied how play affects the brain. The scientists in the interview do not go into much detail on the methods that they have used to study play. However, the article provides a …
Why is the US ideologically segregated?
People in the United States tend to live in ideological clusters--there are "red" states and "blue" states, or at least red counties and blue counties. Political ideologies are not simply randomly distributed around the country--instead, most people live close to people who share their political beliefs. Political clustering represents an association--there is an association between …
More than half of US teens text while driving…
This recent story from msnbc.com reports that "nearly 60 percent of teens text while driving." From the story: An anonymous national survey conducted last year found that 58 percent of high school seniors said they had texted or emailed while driving during the previous month. About 43 percent of high school juniors acknowledged they did …
Continue reading More than half of US teens text while driving…
Can you eat dessert at breakfast to lose weight?
The causal headlines are bearing some great news-- "How Dessert for Breakfast Can Help You Lose Weight" or "Dessert at breakfast may help dieters." The press is buzzing about a recent study from Tel Aviv University. Here's the abstract from the journal article. The researchers randomly assigned people to one of two low-calorie diets. Women …
Continue reading Can you eat dessert at breakfast to lose weight?