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The Dark Side of Academia: Common Negative Experiences No One Talks About
Academic life is not just about discovery and excitement. Seven scholars share some common negative experiences in academia that no one talks about.
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For Introverts, Lockdown is a Chance to Play to Our Strengths
Yesterday morning I spent an hour doing a jigsaw puzzle, followed by a game of Scrabble, fortified by tea and scones. For once, there was no one I had to see and nowhere I had to be. The way we live now has split us in two. For introverts, it’s largely business as usual. But for my more extroverted friends, who are clamouring for Zoom calls to fill the gaping hole the pub has left in their lives, it’s a deeply testing time. I’m an introvert, which means I need time alone to recharge. This doesn’t mean I hate socialising, but it may well mean I will feel stressed and fatigued if I’m not left on my own for a while afterwards.
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Covid-19 Crisis: Gretchen Chapman, PhD on the Psychology of Vaccinations
Podcast interview with APS Member Gretchen Chapman. Gretchen Chapman, PhD researches how we make decisions about vaccines. She is a Professor in the Social & Decision Sciences department at Carnegie Mellon University and works across disciplines in both fields of judgment and decision making as well as health psychology. She is the recipient of an APA early career award and an NJ Psychological Association Distinguished Research Award, a fellow of APA and APS. She is a former senior editor at Psychological Science, a past president of the Society for Judgment & Decision Making, the author of more than 100 journal articles, and the recipient of 20 years of continuous external funding.
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The Choices Before Us: Can Fewer Options Lead To Better Decisions?
Podcast interview with APS Member Sheena Iyengar. To many people, an abundance of options is a good thing, a symbol of freedom and control. You get to choose whether to spend your Saturday at a movie or a baseball game. You decide whether to try the new restaurant down the block, or to stay in and cook. It's your call whether to take the job with higher pay, or the one with the better work-life balance. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has eliminated these and other options that we used to take for granted. And for many of us, this sudden contraction of choice has been a struggle.
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Bring Back the Laugh Track
Right now, I'm imagining your laughter. Stephen Colbert had meant that as a joke when he addressed the comment to the camera in a mostly-empty studio, during the brief period when late night TV taped in their normal venues but without live audiences, before the quarantine ax fell completely. The comment, delivered as a sort of punchline after a skit about the closure of Broadway, earned chuckles from those within earshot: Late Show technicians, the house band, maybe even a few writers who'd strayed into the theater. But watching it again today, Colbert's delivery feels a little sharper, a little less funny, a little more desperate.
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Scientists Have Discovered Why We Love Darth Vader
Star Wars has brought us some of the most iconic villains of all time. It’s so much fun to watch Emperor Palpatine’s scheming and Darth Vader’s brutality. But why do we enjoy bad guys so much? Science says we like them because we resemble them. There is a lot to like about Star Wars villains. First, there are the catchy personal theme songs of the big players. And unlike today’s gritty nuanced bad guys, Star Wars baddies seem to be having a lot of fun. Once they embrace the dark side of the force, the Sith and the imperial military commanders who serve them are gleeful. Their delight is palpable as they blow up planets and crush the resistance.
