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Friendship, on Demand
Friendship is particularly vulnerable to the alienating force of hyper-individualism. It is the most voluntary relationship, held together primarily by choice rather than by blood or law. So as people have withdrawn from relationships in favor of time alone, friendship has taken the biggest hit. The idea of obligation, of sacrificing your own interests for the sake of a relationship, tends to be less common in friendship than it is among family or between romantic partners. The extreme ways in which some people talk about friendship these days imply that you should ask not what you can do for your friendship, but rather what your friendship can do for you.
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Is Information or Motivation to Blame for Partisan Beliefs?
What we believe is determined by more than just the facts we are exposed to, according to a new study in Psychological Science.
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5 Ways to Resist the Urge to Keep Looking At Your Phone
So you want to reclaim your time and attention by spending less time on your phone. How do you do that when your phone is designed to suck you in and keep you scrolling? ... That can cut down phone time by removing the temptation to scroll before bed, in the middle of the night and when you first wake up in the morning. Plus, this change might help you sleep, says Jean Twenge, a psychologist and the author of 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-tech World. Research has shown that just having your phone or computer near your bed — even in airplane mode — can cause lower-quality sleep, says Twenge. When your device is nearby, it's easier to pick up.
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Do You Really Need Closure?
Getting ghosted. Being fired. Losing a parent. When difficult things happen, our first instinct is often to seek answers. Why did this happen? How could this be? What will it take to feel better again? In short, we seek closure — and the more satisfying it is, the better. Experts say that closure may help some people heal. A resolution can make it easier to “transcend that particular event and move on to other things,” said Arie W. Kruglanski, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland. But is closure always necessary? And is it always possible? Dr. Kruglanski and other experts say the concept can be both useful and detrimental. ...
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The Dieting Myth That Just Won’t Die
... The theory is also inherently appealing, in that most people don’t like avoiding tasty food; they can easily believe that doing so would be harmful. No wonder, then, that the idea spread far among clinicians and everyday Americans. Social media supercharged the theory, enough that many people now believe that placing any limits on your diet could be dangerous or harmful, Ashley Gearhardt, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, told me.
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How the 2008 Recession Shifted Class Identity
A new study explores how the economic and social class of Americans changed after the Great Recession.
