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This Chatbot Pulls People Away From Conspiracy Theories
Shortly after generative artificial intelligence hit the mainstream, researchers warned that chatbots would create a dire problem: As disinformation became easier to create, conspiracy theories would spread rampantly. Now, researchers wonder if chatbots might also offer a solution. ... The new findings challenge the widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories. The DebunkBot, built on the technology that underlies ChatGPT, may offer a practical way to channel facts. “The work does overturn a lot of how we thought about conspiracies,” said Gordon Pennycook, a psychology professor at Cornell University and author of the study.
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Whole Foods CEO Swears By 1 Productivity-boosting Strategy: ‘I Don’t Get Stuck in Meeting After Meeting’
Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel has one primary tactic that keeps him productive, he says: time blocking. ... Having a packed calendar can lead to less productivity, according to Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos. Feeling too busy can cause worse job performance and burnout, she said at the South by Southwest festival in March. “I think we feel strapped for time because we think working ... as much as we work all the time is essential for achieving the things we want to achieve in life,” Santos said. To stave off this problem, Santos recommended giving yourself more time to work uninterrupted while not packing your calendar to the brim with agenda items.
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Teen Brains ‘Aged’ During Covid Lockdowns, New Research Suggests
“The pandemic was dramatic and unexpected, of course, but dramatic and catastrophic in a way, not only for physical health, but mental health,” said lead researcher Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. Covid lockdowns, such as school closures, canceled sports activities and stay-at-home orders, prematurely aged teen brains by as much as four years, researchers from the University of Washington found. ... Lead researcher Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS, said that after Covid lockdowns began in 2020, they couldn’t do brain scan follow-ups until 2021.
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How to Break Up With Your Career
The path out of love is rarely straightforward. This is true whether we’re ending a marriage or saying goodbye to an entirely different relationship—the one we have with our career. Relationship scientists have spent decades documenting the process of falling out of love: what the emotional roller coaster feels like, how psychological biases keep us from understanding our breakup behaviors, how we fail to prepare for our next relationship.
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What You Should Know About the ‘Silent Epidemic of Suicide’
More than 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2022 — that’s one death every 11 minutes, and more than any other year dating to back at least 1941, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On top of that, 13.2 million people seriously considered suicide, 3.8 million planned it and 1.6 million attempted suicide. Though rates among 10- to 24-year-olds in the US have declined, these stats are a glaring reminder that “the silent epidemic of suicide” isn’t over, said Dr. Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association.
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Could ‘Season Creep’ Affect Human Behavior?
You might have noticed that the seasons don’t quite behave like they used to. In some places, fall and spring seem to fly by, while winter and summer are much longer and feel more intense. This shift is known as season creep, where the timing of the seasons starts to shift. ... SciFri guest host Rachel Feltman is joined by Dr. Michael Varnum, social psychology area head and associate professor at Arizona State University, to discuss these questions.
