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Americans Exaggerate Their Home State’s Role in Building the Nation
Research on “collective narcissism” suggests many Americans have outsize notions about how much their home states helped to write the nation’s narrative.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: The Link Between Self-Dehumanization and Immoral Behavior Maryam Kouchaki, Kyle S. H. Dobson, Adam Waytz, and Nour S. Kteily The authors explored the relationship between one’s own immoral behavior and self-dehumanization. In several studies, they asked participants to describe a situation in which they did something ethical or something unethical (e.g., lying, cheating) and then measured dehumanization by using a scale focusing on two central dimensions of humanity: the abilities to have self-control and to experience emotion.
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The Question Dividing U.S. Soccer Fans: Is It OK to Root for Mexico?
American soccer fans had eight months to mull the question. Between the time the U.S. national team collapsed in World Cup qualifying last October to the moment the tournament kicked off here this month, they needed to decide which team to side with in the U.S.’s absence. For many, the answer was more obvious than a sombrero on the subway: American fans should support their neighbor to the south, Mexico. But they ran into vocal opposition from fans who think cheering for El Tri amounts to high sports treason. After all, Mexico is the U.S.’s fiercest soccer rival in the region—decades of hostility between the teams couldn’t simply be suspended for the summer.
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To Counter Loneliness, Find Ways to Connect
A four-minute film produced for the UnLonely Film Festival and Conference last month featured a young woman who, as a college freshman, felt painfully alone. She desperately missed her familiar haunts and high school buddies who seemed, on Facebook at least, to be having the time of their lives. It reminded me of a distressing time I had as an 18-year-old college sophomore — feeling friendless, unhappy and desperate to get out of there. I didn’t know it then, but I was in the age bracket — 18 to 24 — that now has the highest incidence of loneliness, as much as 50 percent higher than occurs among the elderly.
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“Find your passion” is bad advice, say Yale and Stanford psychologists
Your passion isn’t out there, waiting to be discovered. It’s not a mysterious force that will—when found—remove all obstacles from your path. In fact, psychologists argue in a new study that the pithy mantra “find your passion” may be a dangerous distraction.
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Suicides Have Increased. Is This an Existential Crisis?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released startling new statistics on the rise of deaths by suicide in the United States, which are up 25 percent since 1999 across most ethnic and age groups. These numbers clearly point to a crisis — but of what kind? Many argue that this is a crisis of mental health care, that people are not getting the services they need. The proposed solution is better therapies, more effective antidepressants and greater access to treatment. This assessment may be correct.
