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Neuroscience Could Be the Key to Getting People to Wear Masks
OPINIONS ABOUT WEARING masks and maintaining social distancing are sharply divided, largely along red and blue lines. Conservatives Republicans are the least likely to wear a mask, according to poll data from Pew Research. Some neuroscientists believe that lessons
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Americans Are Determined to Believe in Black Progress
APS Member/Author: Jennifer Richeson For two days in early June, as America was erupting in sustained protests over the killing of a Black man, George Floyd, by police in Minneapolis, the most watched movie on Netflix
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The World’s Getting Better. Here’s Why Your Brain Can’t Believe It.
Life has improved for most people around the world over the past generation, temporary pandemics aside. The rub is that you can’t get anyone to believe the good news. And the result is a toxic political environment—and the potential collapse of
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Public Shaming Has Become a Common Pastime During the Pandemic. But It Doesn’t Really Work
Public shaming, in this era of rapid judgment and ensuing internet outrage, is nothing new. But the pandemic has made it a popular pastime. Runners have been berated for exercising without masks. City dwellers have been criticized for congregating
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Safetyism Isn’t the Problem
APS Member/Author: Pamela Paresky As America debates when and how to reopen, those concerned about the side effects of the lockdown have begun to use the word “safetyism” to characterize what they consider extreme social-distancing
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Why We’ve Been Saying ‘Sorry’ All Wrong
Academics are sorry that apology research is floundering. New discoveries on apologies rarely appear because the studies are challenging to design, not unlike determining whether woodpeckers get headaches, or boiling the ocean. Cindy Frantz, a
