For many of us, the past year has disrupted deeply ingrained habits. Some people report exercising less, others are drinking more. As we look forward to life returning to some semblance of normal, it’s worth considering what scientists have learned about how to create good habits and break bad ones. Habits are like More
At first, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 seemed like enough of a reward. You got the satisfaction of protecting your health and that of the people around you, plus the knowledge that soon you would be able to socialize with other vaccinated people without wearing masks. But as demand for the More
Our perceptions of risk, as many insurance adjusters and sports teams with comfortable leads know, could be better. Academics study this. For a 2013 Assn. for Psychological Science paper, 101 college students, in exchange for extra credit, were placed in a room with a tarantula (American research universities are the envy More
When you need to engage and persuade people on an issue or topic that matters deeply to them, it’s natural to leverage logic and reason as a way of ensuring your message is heard. However, there are limitations to a wholly rational approach. As members of a team responsible for More
More than 169 million Americans have received one or both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, but demand is falling off rapidly. Doses administered peaked at an average of 3.3 million per day in mid-April but are now down to under 1.5 million per day. To meet the goal of getting at least one shot More
This time last year, the United States seemed stuck on a COVID-19 plateau. Although 1,300 Americans were dying from the disease every day, states had begun to reopen in a patchwork fashion, and an anxious nation was looking ahead to an uncertain summer. Twelve months later, the situation is very different. More
