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Despite Good News, You’re Not Feeling Better. There’s A Reason Why.
For those on the left and right who welcomed Biden's election, the inaugural transition seemed like the moment to finally leave behind the psychological toll of the deception, bullying, and deadly incompetence that characterized the Trump administration.
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Humans Are Pretty Lousy Lie Detectors
Member/Author: Christiane Gelitz On television, it all looks so simple. For a fraction of a second, the suspect raises the corner of his mouth. He is happy because he thinks the investigators are wrong about where he planted the bomb. But when his interrogator mentions the correct place, the terrorist’s face betrays a flash of rage. And he shrugs his shoulders as he pronounces his innocence. The evidence is open-and-shut as far as the expert is concerned: The suspect’s body language contradicts his words. He is lying. The expert on microexpressions in the TV series Lie to Me is the alter ego of Paul Ekman, age 86, a world-renowned researcher of lying and emotion.
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Journals Singled Out For Favoritism
When Didier Raoult published several studies last year purporting to show the promise of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, critics quickly denounced his methods. Raoult, a microbiologist at Aix-Marseille University, now faces disciplinary action by a French medical regulator, and the drug has largely been discredited as a COVID-19 treatment. But some researchers had another concern: Raoult’s astonishingly prolific publication in the journal New Microbes and New Infections, where some of Raoult’s collaborators serve as associate editors and editor-in-chief. Since the journal’s creation in 2013, Raoult’s name appeared on one-third of its 728 papers.
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Who Won’t Shut Up In Meetings? Men Say it’s Women. It’s Not.
APS Member/Author: Adam Grant The Japanese Olympic Committee was discussing steps for bringing more women onto boards in sports. The male leader of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee voiced a grave concern: “When you increase the number of female executive members, if their speaking time isn’t restricted to a certain extent, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying.” The man was Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister of Japan. He resigned from the Tokyo committee last Friday over the remarks, which he’d made at a virtual meeting Feb. 3. When people make claims about behavior in groups, my job as an organizational psychologist is to look at the evidence.
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Evolution Could Explain Why Psychotherapy May Work for Depression
A consensus has emerged in recent years that psychotherapies—in particular, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—rate comparably to medications such as Prozac and Lexapro as treatments for depression. Either option, or the two together, may at times alleviate the mood disorder. In looking more closely at both treatments, CBT—which delves into dysfunctional thinking patterns—may have a benefit that could make it the better choice for a patient. The reason may be rooted in our deep evolutionary past.
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When Should You End a Conversation? Probably Sooner Than You Think
While studying for his master’s degree at the University of Oxford, Adam Mastroianni confronted a fear common to many party goers: Would he get stuck in a conversation with no polite way out? Then, Mastroianni had another thought: Perhaps his future conversation partner had the same concern. “What if we’re all trapped in conversations because we mistakenly think the other person wants to continue?” he says. Now, 5 years and one scientific publication later, Mastroianni has discovered both fears are well-founded: Most conversations don’t end when people want them to. ...
