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The Hidden Forces Shaping Your Choices
Every day, we make countless choices—but are these decisions guided by desire or design? This hour, TED speakers on what shapes the food we eat, how we power our homes, and how we communicate. Guests include food systems expert Sarah Lake, infrastructure engineer Deb Chachra, cross-cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand, urban planner Jeff Speck, and Tempe resident Ignacio Delgadillo.
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Why Talking Behind Someone’s Back Isn’t Always Bad
Frank McAndrew has heard it more times than he can count. Someone finds out he studies gossip and says, with great indignation: “I never gossip.” His first thought, every time? “You must be the most boring person in the world.” McAndrew, an evolutionary psychologist at Knox College in Illinois who’s spent decades studying the science of talking behind people’s backs, has a message for the self-appointed gossip-free among us: You’re almost certainly wrong about what gossip is, and you’re definitely wrong about whether it’s bad. Most of us think of gossip as a character flaw—petty, mean-spirited, something to be ashamed of.
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AAAS Names 13 APS Psychological Scientists as 2025 Fellows
The 13 psychological scientists listed below account for all but one of the individuals in the Section on Psychology.
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Nine Tips to Help You Cope During Turbulent Times
Some scientists believe that we might even benefit from learning about the ways other cultures name their feelings, many of which do not have a direct English translation. Take the Finnish concept of sisu, for example, which is a sort of "extraordinary determination in the face of adversity". "You can think of the words and the concepts they are associated with as tools for living," said neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett at Northeastern University in Boston. ... Since our worries tend to fixate on the future, rather than the past, it can also be used to focus our attention on preparing and problem-solving. It can also motivate us to take action.
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My Anxiety Is Keeping Me Up. How Can I Get Some Sleep?
According to recent polling from the American Psychiatric Association, Americans are feeling anxious — about current events, job security, finances, the future. You don’t have to be in the center of a storm (proverbial or literal) to be affected by it, said Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychology, public health and medicine at the University of California, Irvine. Distressing news, coming at us constantly through our phones, TVs and radios, can be associated with anxious thoughts, she said.
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Brain Game May Reduce Risk of Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias
A certain type of brain training appears to prevent or delay dementia by some 25% in people older than age 65, according to new research. Surprisingly, it wasn’t memory or problem-solving tasks that moved the needle — it was an interactive computerized game that tested the ability to recognize two separate images in faster and faster sequences. The game shows the user one of two vehicles in a desert, town or farmland setting. Next, a Route 66 sign appears briefly along the periphery, surrounded by additional distracting road signs. To do the training accurately, the player must click on the correct car or tractor and the location of the Route 66 sign.
