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Laurie Santos: Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness
On “The Interview,” Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist and a professor at Yale, says that Americans think about happiness in unique ways, and they have for a long time.
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What Do Human and Machine Minds Have to Offer Each Other?
Former Editor-in-Chief and APS Fellow Robert Goldstone (Indiana University) pulls together a collection featuring voices at the intersection of psychology and AI.
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How to Have Deeper Conversations With Anyone
Most people slide into Robert Roble's car, pop in their earbuds, and signal that they'd rather not talk. Roble has spent eight years and nearly 12,000 Lyft rides trying to change their minds. By the time he pulls up to their destination, a surprising number have taken their earbuds out, and some have told him it was the best conversation they'd had in weeks. While many of us assume strangers want to be left alone, Roble is cheerful proof that we’re often wrong—and that the distance between small talk and real talk is shorter than it looks. ... What Roble figured out by trial and error, researchers have measured.
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Emily Finn: Young American Scientist Studying How People Interpret the Same Things Differently
Neuroscientist Emily Finn often trawls Reddit for disagreements about television shows, movies, books or podcasts—any narratives that “evoke really different reactions in different people,” she explains. She is fascinated by the way individuals can walk away from the same story with vastly different takes. “What’s different across the brains of people who ultimately arrive at really different interpretations?” she asks. That question is especially relevant in a time of increasing political polarization, as people’s perspectives on the world sharply diverge.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of recent research covering alcohol use, adolescent development, executive function and more.
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What Can a Tornado Teach Us About Kindness?
One evening back in May of 2011, tornado sirens went off in a small city in Southwestern Missouri called Joplin. Thousands of homes were destroyed in the tornado, about a third of the town's 50,000 residents were displaced and around 160 people died. And in the months following the tornado, the town became known not just for the destruction, but the kindness and cooperation that led to its recovery. So how is it possible that people's worst moments can lead them to think about others? Scientists who have studied behavior after mass traumas say, disasters can spark an outpouring of kindness and form powerful bonds between strangers.
