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Other People Don’t Think You’re a Mess
We all have weaknesses, and all know hardship. But it’s difficult, even on a good day, to admit we are struggling, to ask for help or to apologize when we are out of line. After a year and a half of overwhelming stress caused by a global pandemic, many of us have become even more familiar with feeling vulnerable and have grown adept at avoiding difficult conversations. We may blow up to let off steam, for instance, and not take responsibility for the harm our actions cause. Or we may sulk when people close to us fail at guessing our needs.
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Learning a New Skill Can Be Hard. Here’s How to Set Yourself Up for Success
This is one of my favorite questions to ask people: What was the last thing you taught yourself how to do? I (Rommel) like it because the answers are usually less about the actual skill and more about the motivation behind learning it. It's a question I leaned on a lot when I was booking contestants on the NPR game show Ask Me Another. But I don't really get to ask it anymore. Maybe it's because I'm in my 30s and I'm not meeting as many new people these days. The pandemic might also be a factor. Plus, Ask Me Another recently ended, and it got me thinking about my time on the show and "the question" that so often cracked people open in a really interesting way. ...
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of research on antagonism in daily life, metarepresentation and autism symptoms, computational linguistics in suicide prevention, using acoustics to predict schizotypy, a model for mental health diagnostic, and sibling alcohol use and suicide.
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Much of What You Know About Groupthink Is Wrong
Everyone knows the concept of groupthink. A tightly knit and overconfident set of decision makers form an insular echo chamber, fail to see the big picture, and end up making disastrous decisions. By now, most of us think we have a good sense of the sorts of conditions that cause groups to fall into this trap. But how good is that understanding? Let’s start with a thought experiment. If you had to guess, which of the following teams is the most likely to fall prey to the pathologies of groupthink? ...
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New Research in Psychological Science
A sample of research on working memory, counter-argumentation strategies, attitudes toward political opponents, students returning to school from juvenile detention, natural disasters and relationship satisfaction, racial labels and their implications, and how a sugar tax can decrease sugary-drink buying.
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The COVID Communication Breakdown
On paper, the U.S. federal government was well prepared for COVID-19. Personnel tasked with emergency preparedness held posts at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the National Security Council. The executive branch had budget authority to supply the Strategic National Stockpile. There was a “pandemic playbook” for dealing with high-consequence infectious diseases. By any measure, though, the federal government botched its response to COVID-19. It mobilized slowly for a disease that was spreading rapidly.
