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Why People Become Overwhelmed by Conspiracy Theories — and How To Help Them
“I pray you will not be a journalist for the deep state,” Albert Samaha’s mother told him when he began working as a reporter for BuzzFeed News. As her son was publishing research on COVID-19 outbreaks and Donald Trump’s attempt to challenge the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, the mother took to Twitter to suggest that George Floyd was — contrary to what the government supposedly wanted her to think — alive and in hiding. Samaha spent years trying to pull his mother out of the so-called rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, he wrote in a March BuzzFeed article, but has yet to succeed.
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Simone Biles Rejects a Long Tradition of Stoicism in Sports
Ten years ago, or even five, an athlete of Simone Biles’s stature might have been reluctant to admit that she struggled with pressure, much less to have withdrawn in the middle of an Olympic competition. “People might have labeled an athlete mentally weak,” Hillary Cauthen, a clinical sports psychologist in Austin, Texas, said on Tuesday, hours after Biles, the greatest gymnast in history, had bowed out of the women’s team event at the Tokyo Games, and one day before she said she would also skip the all-around individual competition. But a shift in cultural acceptance began to take place in 2015-16, when the N.C.A.A. created a mental health initiative, Cauthen said.
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Resilience Will Bring Women Back to Work — Realism Will Help Them Thrive
For the past year and half, I, like so many Americans, have looked forward to the return of many of the activities the pandemic put restrictions on: seeing extended family and friends, travel, going out to eat, and most especially seeing all my students on campus again. But despite the “Great Reopening” being finally here, many Americans are feeling anxious about the transition — especially women, who have been the most dramatically impacted by the blending of home and work life during pandemic shut downs. A recent American Psychological Association poll found that half of people say they feel uneasy about adjusting to in-person interaction post pandemic. And this makes sense.
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Joy: Why Traffic On Poetry Websites Has Increased During The Pandemic
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST: Traffic on poetry websites has been way up during the pandemic. No surprise - research shows reading and writing poetry can reduce stress and feelings of isolation. NOEL KING, HOST: NPR's online app, the Joy Generator, has some tools to help you engage with poetry, which is not just about feeling good; it's also good science. Keith Holyoak teaches psychology at UCLA. KEITH HOLYOAK: Among cognitive psychologists, I'm one of the few who's also a published poet. MCCAMMON: Holyoak also has written a book about poetry's effect on the brain.
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From Stress to Distress: Virginia Tech Professor on the Expectations on Simone Biles to Win
Mental health experts are taking a closer look at the reasons why U.S. gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the women’s team final at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo over stress. A Virginia Tech professor weighs in. “We have a culture now that might make this more common,” psychology professor Dr. Scott Geller told WTOP. Geller said it’s possible that expectations on Biles to win evolved from stress that is typically used to motivate an athlete. “If our cognitive appraisal says ‘I’m not in control,’ now we have distress,” Geller said. “That’s debilitating and hurtful both psychologically and physically.” ...
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What Makes a Champion
What explains exceptional human performance? This podcast sheds light on the power of diversification.
