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Crises Like The Pandemic Don’t Make People Less Optimistic
One of the most startling things about people is the way they always think things are going to get better. It doesn’t matter how ugly things get, humans are incurable optimists. And the older people get, the more positive they feel about the future. That’s why the elderly are actually kicking our behinds when it comes to handling the coronavirus pandemic. When ChumbaWamba sang these words, they expressed something fundamental about human nature, “I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never gonna keep me down.” Recent research has been chock full of studies showing just how resilient we really are.
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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on developmental disorders, the development of regret and its impact on decisions, a framework for understanding emotions, how to improve children’s language, and a new model of working memory.
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How to Be an Ethical Scientist
APS Member/ Author: Leah H. Somerville True discovery takes time, has many stops and starts, and is rarely neat and tidy. For example, news that the Higgs boson was finally observed in 2012 came 48 years after its original proposal by Peter Higgs. The slow pace of science helps ensure that research is done correctly, but it can come into conflict with the incentive structure of academic progress, as publications—the key marker of productivity in many disciplines—depend on research findings. Even Higgs recognized this problem with the modern academic system: “Today I wouldn't get an academic job. It's as simple as that.
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Why We Grow Numb To Staggering Statistics — And What We Can Do About It
COVID-19 has now killed more than 148,000 people in the U.S. On a typical day in the past week, more than 1,000 people died. But the deluge of grim statistics can dull our collective sense of outrage. And part of that has to do with how humans are built to perceive the world. "With any kind of consistent danger, people get used to situations like that," says Elke Weber, a professor of psychology and of energy and the environment at Princeton University. "When you live in a war zone, after a while, everyday risk becomes just baseline. Our neurons are wired in such a way that we only respond to change.
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How Lockdown May Have Changed Your Personality
There wasn’t just one lockdown – we all had our own experience. Some people were forced into months of unbroken solitude, others trapped for weeks on end with an estranged spouse. Some saw it as a positive experience – a welcome opportunity to slow down, go for walks and relax with a loving partner, or enjoy quality time with the children. Whichever way the lockdown played out, there has been one near universal aspect to the past months – it abruptly disrupted our daily routines and living arrangements in ways that would not normally occur. Will this strange time have left its mark on us, not just superficially, but deep down?
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Creativity And Diversity: How Exposure To Different People Affects Our Thinking
There is great comfort in the familiar. It's one reason humans often flock to other people who share the same interests, laugh at the same jokes, hold the same political views. But familiar ground may not be the best place to cultivate creativity. Social scientist Adam Galinsky has found that people who have deep relationships with someone from another country become more creative and score higher on routine creativity tests. "There's something about deeply understanding and learning about another culture that's transformative," Adam says. In one study, Adam and his colleagues tracked business school students during a 10-month MBA program.
