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In case you missed them – 10 of the best psychology links from the past week.

05 July 2013

By Christian Jarrett

1. The expression and perception of human emotion is the same the world over, right? Lisa Barrett doesn’t think so as this Boston magazine feature article about her research and theories explains. Not everyone liked the way the article presented Barrett as a lone warrior fighting established theory – check this scathing blog post from Michael Kraus. (also here’s more on universality of emotional expression from the Digest archive).

2. What does dopamine really do? Great overview by Bethany Brookshire in Slate is sure to get your own dopamine flowing (forgive me).

3. How to find passion in your life … Eric Barker highlights useful guidance from Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Pink and other people not called Daniel.

4. We thought it would never happen but it looks like the British Summer is here. Stuart Jeffries for the Guardian takes a look at psychology research on links between weather and wellbeing (much of the article is derived from this blog post by US PhD student Amie Gordon). Includes the revelation that apparently 50 per cent of us are not affected emotionally by the weather.

5. Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell looks back at the heartbreak and joy of learning that his son had autism.

6. Has trauma got an upside? Mark Obbie at the Pacific Standard takes a look at post-traumatic growth.

7. How easy is it to fake mental illness? Sam Judah for BBC news magazine.

8. Steve Pinker was the cast away on the latest edition of BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs.

9. “It’s trendy to say choice overload is making us ill,” says Matt Ridley taking aim at the claims of several TED-presenting psychologists. “It’s also cobblers”.

10. “Hikikomori” is a sad and curious phenomenon in Japan that describes thousands of cases of complete withdrawal by young men from society. Claudia Hammond and William Kremer investigate in this BBC article that accompanies the final episode in Hammond’s excellent BBC World Service series on mental health around the world (airs this afternoon at 3.30 BST).