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When We Can Hug Again, Will We Remember How It Works?
... As the weeks of coronavirus quarantine stretched into months, hugs are among the many things isolated people found themselves aching for. Hugs are good for humans — perhaps more valuable than many of us realized, until we found ourselves missing them. Research has shown that hugs can lower our cortisol levels during stressful situations, and can raise oxytocin levels and maybe even lower our blood pressure. A 2015 paper published in Psychological Scienceeven found that study subjects who got more hugs were less likely to get sick when exposed to a cold virus than those who weren’t hugged as often. ...
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Yes, You Should Smile Behind Your Mask. Here’s Why.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, I always smiled at other runners as we crossed paths. Now that we’re wearing masks, I rarely bother. And when I do, I have no idea whether the intended recipient even notices. ... This sense of connection supports our well-being, whether we realize it or not.
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New Content From Perspectives on Psychological Science
A sample of articles on construct validation, regulation of thoughts and behaviors, cognitive-intervention research, psychopathology and “better-safe-than-sorry” processing, differences in status, power, and self-esteem, and visuospatial short-term memory.
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New Content from Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on Bayesian analyses, how laypeople can predict replication outcomes, the interpretation of cumulative small effects, percentages of people as effect sizes, and a commentary on the validity of measures in social and personality psychology.
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A New Study Shows Fake News May Benefit Your Memory
During the workday, we are flooded with emails, texts, and other social media. And with the advent of photo shopping and political leaders who don’t divulge the truth, it’s often difficult to know what to believe anymore. Hence, the term fake news has caused many people to become skeptical about what they read or see on television news feeds—even the authentic news. But a new study says we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Not all news is fake, and even if a story turns out to be fake news, there’s value in it, according to a study in the journal Psychological Science.
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How Solitude and Isolation Can Affect Your Social Skills
Neil Ansell became a hermit entirely by accident. Back in the 1980s, he was living in a squat in London with 20 other people. Then someone made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: a cottage in the Welsh mountains, with rent of just £100 ($130) per year. This was a place so wild, the night sky was a continuous carpet of stars – and the neighbours were a pair of ravens, who had lived in the same cedar tree for 20 years. The catch was that the scenic views came with extreme isolation – by standards achievable in the UK, anyway. He lived on a hill farm inhabited by a single elderly tenant, miles from the nearest village.
