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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of recent articles including research on gender equality, racial equality, misinformation, and much more.
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The Best Years of Your Life Are Probably Still Ahead
Laura Carstensen's favorite lecture of the year is the one when she tells undergrads at Stanford University that—contrary to what they've probably been told and believe—these are not the best years of their lives. Those come much, much later. “I look out at a sea of 100 students sitting in a classroom, and I love the look on their faces. It’s just such relief,” says Carstensen, a professor of psychology and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity.
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How Putting Your Thoughts Into Words Can Rewire Your Brain
Ordinary and universal, the act of writing changes the brain. From dashing off a heated text message to composing an op-ed, writing allows you to, at once, name your pain and create distance from it. Writing can shift your mental state from despair and feeling overwhelmed to grounded clarity — a shift that reflects resilience. ... In the 1980s, psychologist James Pennebaker developed a therapeutic technique called expressive writing to help patients process trauma and psychological challenges. With this technique, continuously journaling about deep thoughts and emotions related to something painful helps create mental distance from the experience and eases its cognitive load.
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2025 Mentorship Cohort Includes Nearly 100 Members From 15 Countries
This year’s cohort includes 43 mentors and 56 mentees, representing 15 countries, including Australia, Spain, Taiwan, and Cameroon.
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Phone And Computer Time May Actually Be Good for Your Aging Brain
You might think spending time on your smartphone or computer is bad for your brain. Indeed, “brain rot” — the slang term for a mental decline caused by mindlessly consuming social media or digital dreck — was Oxford Dictionary’s 2024 Word of the Year. ... “What’s surprising about it is how consistent our findings were,” with no studies finding technology use being harmful to cognition, said Michael Scullin, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University and an author of the analysis.
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The Screen That Ate Your Child’s Education
The standardized test scores of American students had been rising for decades. Then they began to slide, dropping to their lowest point in two decades in 2023 and 2024. This is not a problem confined to the United States. Worldwide, the performance of 15-year-olds in math, reading and science reached a nadir in 2022. These dismal results are at least partly a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Missed instruction during those years may still be having an impact on academic performance. But that’s only part of the story. The decline in test scores started well before the pandemic, around 2012.
