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The Evolutionary Brilliance of the Baby Giggle
My son was 14 weeks old when he made his first unmistakable whole-body belly laugh. In the months that followed, his laughter was accompanied by playful provocations — grabbing my hair and shrieking with delight, blowing mouthfuls of mashed bananas skyward and squealing when they landed on the floor. These incidents signaled something more than laughter: An early sense of humor was emerging, initiated by him, months before the other milestones that parents await in the first year. For me as a mother, this was delightful, but as a developmental psychologist, I was perplexed. Despite my Ph.D., I’d never come across research on infant laughter or humor.
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Dr. Oz Says Drinking Is a ‘Social Lubricant.’ Some Experts Worry About That.
The psychologist first became intrigued by the phenomenon decades ago, while he was setting up an experiment about the effects of drinking on anxiety and heart rate. Women had been excluded from many such studies, so Michael Sayette, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, asked five female volunteers to come into the lab and drink, allowing him to set blood alcohol benchmarks for his experiment. ... “Dr. Oz is right — it is really about talking and smiling and connecting,” said Kasey G. Creswell, an associate professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
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Science Policy Statements
APS is dedicated to advocating for issues that impact psychological research. This page serves as a collection of recent sign-on letters APS has endorsed to support or raise concerns about key matters affecting psychological research and the global psychological science community.
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APS Calls for Bipartisan Support for Psychological Science
On February 7, 2025, APS began sharing a statement with federal lawmakers, encouraging them to sustain the bipartisan investment in scientific research.
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A Message to APS Members
The following email was sent to APS Members on February 11, 2025.
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APS Comments on Framework for NIH Reform
On August 15, 2024, the Association for Psychological Science shared initial reactions and suggestions with the Energy and Commerce Committee.
