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People hate small talk so much that some hosts have started banning it from their parties
We’d just left a crowded birthday party when a friend told me he admired the way I made small talk. It’s painful for him, he said, to do the idle chit-chat thing with every new
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Childhood Friendships May Have Some Health Benefits in Adulthood
Time spent with friends in childhood is associated with physical health in adulthood, according to data from a multi-decade study of men.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring visuospatial perspective taking while reading, childhood origins of environmental behavior, and the psychological mechanisms underlying engagement in social issues on Twitter.
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How Reciprocity Can Magnify Inequality
A series of studies show that people tend to reciprocate others’ actions in ways that increase disparities in wealth.
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Dial P for Privacy: The Phone Booth Is Back
For much of the 20th century, the phone booth was a steadfast and essential installation of modern life, from bustling cities to tumbleweed-strewn desert gas stations. Tippi Hedren was attacked in one in “The Birds,”
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Politeness can sometimes hurt more than it helps
Ryan — a brilliant, enthusiastic young scientist — spent a two-year layover in my neuroscience laboratory between his undergrad studies in Vancouver, B.C., and graduate school on the East Coast. On his last day in