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Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic?
Last month, Britain appointed its first “minister for loneliness,” who is charged with tackling what Prime Minister Theresa May called the “sad reality of modern life.” Public-health leaders immediately praised the idea — and for good reason. In recent decades, researchers have discovered that loneliness left untreated is not just psychically painful; it also can have serious medical consequences. Rigorous epidemiological studies have linked loneliness and social isolation to heart disease, cancer, depression, diabetes and suicide.
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Cognitive Ability and Vulnerability to Fake News
“Fake news” is Donald Trump’s favorite catchphrase. Since the election, it has appeared in some 180 tweets by the President, decrying everything from accusations of sexual assault against him to the Russian collusion investigation to reports that he watches up to eight hours of television a day. Trump may just use “fake news” as a rhetorical device to discredit stories he doesn’t like, but there is evidence that real fake news is a serious problem. As one alarming example, an analysis by the internet media company Buzzfeed revealed that during the final three months of the 2016 U.S.
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Anne Treisman, 1935-2018
APS Past Secretary and William James Fellow Anne Treisman, who developed a classic psychological model of human visual attention, has died.
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Experimenters’ Expectations May Shape Priming Results
How do your expectations about an interaction affect the outcome? In any social situation, the beliefs you’ve developed over time can influence the way you behave towards and react to a conversation partner. Although you
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of articles exploring neuropsychological assessment, gender differences in stress reactivity and its relationship with depression, and social-support figures and fear extinction.
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The Surprising Secret to Breaking Through a Mental Block, According to Science
When you're wrestling with a tough decision or you're trying to solve a hard problem, you might assume you just need to think harder. But concentrating harder won't force a 'eureka moment' when you're experiencing a mental block. Instead, your best option might be to step away from your project and busy yourself with another task. Clean the house, pay some bills, or take a nap and you just might experience a spark of genius as the solution seems to magically come to you. --- In a 2010 study published in Psychological Science, researchers examined how an incubation period affects choices.