Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
Psychology is arguably the poster child for the replication crisis, but other fields suffer from similar issues too. At Science, Cathleen O’Grady examines the efforts by ecologists to tackle their own field’s reproducibility problems, and how they are learning from the experience of psychologists.
Continue reading “Gloomy Evenings And Dark Traits: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
An interview technique known as “Asymmetric Information Management” provides a pretty effective way to spot liars, writes researcher Cody Porter at The Conversation. The method basically involves explaining to the interviewee that it will be easier to figure out if they are lying or telling the truth if they provide longer, more detailed statements, Porter explains. Liars will tend to withhold information to try and hide their lie, while truth-tellers will provide detailed information as requested.
Continue reading “Lie Detection And Conspiracy Theories: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
A recent study finds political differences in how much stock people put in expert evidence versus personal experience. Liberals tend to see evidence from experts as more legitimate, while conservatives place more equal value on both, write the researchers Randy Stein, Alexander Swan and Michelle Sarraf at The Conversation. This was true even though the scenarios in the study were completely apolitical, the team adds, suggesting that the findings pick up on fundamental differences in worldview between the two camps.
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
Christmas is likely to be very different this year, with many family reunions potentially taking place remotely. But why do we struggle so much with the idea of a “digital Christmas”? David Robson takes a look at what the psychology has to say at The Observer.
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
In the UK, the clocks went back last weekend and we’re now faced with dark, gloomy evenings. But around the world, many countries have decided that the time has come to abolish clock changes. And there are good reasons for doing so, Beth Malow tells Diana Kwon at Scientific American: changing the clocks throws our circadian rhythms out, which can affect our sleep and stress response
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
You’ve probably heard tales of people who are suddenly able to speak a language they didn’t know while hypnotised. It goes without saying that the evidence doesn’t really support these claims — but it’s interesting that linguistics seems to attract this sort of pseudoscientific idea. At Knowable Magazine, Charles Q. Choi discusses “fantastic linguistics” with historical linguist Sarah Thomason.
Continue reading “Chummy Chimps And Linguistic Legends: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
For the first time, researchers have looked at what happens in the brain when people take the psychedelic drug salvinorin A, from the plant salvia divinorum. The team found that the drug disrupts the default mode network, a set of areas that are normally synchronised when we’re not engaged in any particular task, similar to the effects found for the “classical” psychedelic drugs like psilocybin. But the subjective effects of salvinorin A are quite different to the effects of those other drugs, leaving some researchers questioning how important the default mode network really is to the psychedelic experience. Daniel Oberhaus, who participated in the trial, has the story at Wired.
Continue reading “Thirsty Mice And Virtual Reality: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
If you want to get on a cat’s good side, it’s worth mastering the art of the “slow blink”. Cats “smile” by blinking slowly, and now researchers have found that they respond positively to humans who do the same. Participants who performed a slow blink were more likely to receive one from their cat, reports Sara Rigby at BBC Science Focus. Cats were also more likely to approach an experimenter who had just slow-blinked.
Continue reading “Body Language And Spooky Science: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
Displaying empathy towards others seems like an obvious virtue — but it can have a dark side, writes Richard Fisher at BBC Future. Empathising with a single, identifiable individual can divert time and money away from causes that could benefit many more people, for instance. And bad actors can harness our tendency to empathise with those who are similar to us in order to get us to act aggressively towards the out-group.
Continue reading “Conspiracy Theories And Winter Wellbeing: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
Many birds have impressive cognitive abilities such as good memory, tool-making talents, and problem-solving skills — yet they don’t have the part of the brain called the neocortex which is key to those abilities in mammals. But now researchers have discovered that a region of the pigeon brain called the pallium seems to be organised in a similar way to mammals’ neocortex, reports Virginia Morell at Science, suggesting it is responsible for bird cognition.
Continue reading “Backpacks And Bird Brains: The Week’s Best Psychology Links”
