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The Loneliness Curve
When Surgeon General Vivek Murthy went on a nationwide college tour last fall, he started to hear the same kind of question time and again: How are we supposed to connect with one another when nobody talks anymore? In an age when participation in community organizations, clubs and religious groups has declined, and more social interaction is happening online instead of in person, some young people are reporting levels of loneliness that, in past decades, were typically associated with older adults. ...
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Innovation 2.0: Multiplying the Growth Mindset
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that people wrote you off? Maybe a teacher suggested you weren’t talented enough to take a certain class, or a boss implied that you didn’t have the smarts needed to handle a big project. In the latest in our “Innovation 2.0 series,” we talk with Mary Murphy, who studies what she calls “cultures of genius.” We’ll look at how these cultures can keep people and organizations from thriving, and how we can create environments that better foster our growth.
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Striving to Connect
One Wednesday in May 2023, a small group gathered at an outdoor café in Barcelona, Spain, sipping coffee in the late morning sunshine and talking about their lives. They reflected on how to use their time and the struggle to find meaning. Although their interactions may have seemed unremarkable to anyone passing by, the group’s meeting was part of a carefully designed experiment, aimed at alleviating a painful experience: loneliness. ... High rates of loneliness and isolation have led some public officials, including U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, to declare an “epidemic.” But whether loneliness is spiking isn’t so clear.
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How to Overcome Polarization on Climate Action
Liberals and conservatives don't agree on much, including when it comes to combating climate change. But there is one surprising behavior where partisans from both ends of the spectrum seem to have more common ground than previously thought: planting trees. Our new research suggests that finding climate actions with bipartisan support is already possible–even in a country as politically polarized as the United States. Planting trees matters; that’s why we measured it. As trees grow, they slow climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing it, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.
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Want to Remember More? Make More Mistakes
Whether we are trying to master a new language or play a musical instrument, the pain of making mistakes is a big obstacle, especially early in the learning curve. But novices become experts only when we push ourselves to the edge of our abilities, and errors are both inevitable and essential for moving forward. ... Curious about the power of tests as a learning tool, cognitive psychologists Henry “Roddy” Roediger and Jeff Karpicke had hundreds of students memorize excerpts from a test-preparation book for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
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Compassion is making a comeback in America
Think back to the United States as it was a year ago, a decade ago, a generation ago. Is the US a more caring or less caring nation now than it was back then? If you think Americans have lost their compassion, the data would be on your side — until recently. Since the late 1970s, psychologists have measured empathy by asking millions of people how much they agreed with statements such as “I feel tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.” In 2011, a landmark study led by researcher Sara Konrath examined the trends in those surveys.
