Would you ever hand over your private messages for the sake of scientific research? These days, so much of our social lives happen through texts and social media messages. These interactions are all rich sources of data that social psychologists and other researchers would love to study to better understand real-world social behavior. As a […]
Every so often, I get random chest pain and immediately spiral – is this it? Am I having a heart attack? Then I remind myself that I’m 25, probably overcaffeinated, and maybe just a little stressed. This type of irrational leap (thankfully) isn’t unique to just me. In fact, doctors are trained to avoid jumping […]
You’ve heard the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which captures the idea that beauty is subjective. The same could probably be said about truth, especially when it comes to memory. Perceptions of how accurate a communicated memory is aren’t necessarily shaped by how accurate the memory actually is, but by the […]
It’s easy to think of mental states like depression or anxiety as lists of unrelated symptoms. Even though it’s helpful to think about each individual symptom, it’s also important to remember that symptoms can be related to each other in complex ways. That’s the main idea behind network psychometrics, where psychologists examine the relationships between […]
Have you ever played one of those candy jar guessing games where the goal is to accurately estimate how many candies are inside to win them all? As a kid, I always tried my hardest to guess correctly because my mom rarely let me have candy. No matter how hard I tried, my guesses were […]
When I’m trying to focus on reading scientific articles, my eyes keep drifting to my phone beside me—even when it’s face-down, on silent. No notifications, no vibrations, nothing calling for my attention … yet, I still look. Once I stash it in a desk drawer and it is out of sight, I can successfully focus […]