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As dating apps grow in popularity, people still feel some stigma
The Washington Post: Online dating: More and more people are doing it, but no one wants to talk about it. On the record, that is. A recent Pew study found that 11 percent of American adults have used online dating sites or mobile apps — a figure that was just 3 percent five years ago. Among Internet users who were currently single and looking for a partner, 38 percent had tried online dating. ... “I think people don’t like to admit that they are having trouble in their romantic life,” said Eli Finkel, a social psychology professor at Northwestern University. “That concern is misplaced. It is totally normal to figure out who is compatible for you.” Read the whole story: The Washington Post
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A New Focus on Depression
The New York Times: When will we ever get depression under control? Of all the major illnesses, mental or physical, depression has been one of the toughest to subdue. Despite the ubiquity of antidepressant drugs — there are now 26 to choose from — only a third of patients with major depression will experience a full remission after the first round of treatment, and successive treatments with different drugs will give some relief to just 20 to 25 percent more. About 30 percent of people with depression have some degree of treatment resistance. And the greater the degree of resistance, the more likely a future relapse, even if the patient continues taking the drug. ...
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Why Some Communities Police Themselves, While Others Don’t
The Atlantic Cities: A few months after I moved to my current neighborhood, I witnessed a driver get out of his car and attack a pedestrian. While I'm still not clear on what sparked the incident, from what I could make out, the pedestrian had walked in front of the man's car at an intersection (not an uncommon occurrence in a pedestrian-friendly D.C. neighborhood). The incident involved more person-on-property violence than person-on-person violence, but it was nevertheless a gratuitous and frightening overreaction on the part of the driver. A half dozen or so people on the street, myself included, had stopped walking to watch the scene unfold. But none of us did anything.
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Laying Money on the Line Leads to Healthier Food Choices Over Time
People are more likely to choose healthy options at the grocery store if they use the risk of losing their monthly healthy food discount as a motivational tool.
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Kids may be ready for math earlier than you think, new research suggests
The Washington Post: Children as young as 3 can understand the meaning and value of multi-digit numbers and might be more ready for direct math instruction when they begin formal schooling than previously believed, according to new research by developmental psychologists. “Contrary to the view that young children do not understand place value and multi-digit numbers, we found that they actually know quite a lot about it,” said Kelly Mix, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University and a lead investigator on the study.
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Alarm Clock Sets Off A Real Wake-Up Call
NPR: I mean reality always has its uses. This is Roy Baumeister, president of the Society for the Study of Motivation, who for many years has tracked how psychologists view reality. Well, the assumption for a long time was that mental health meant seeing the world as it is. For decades, according to Baumeister, the belief in psychology was that reality was an important thing to understand and that people who were mentally troubled - for instance, depressed people - just couldn't really grasp reality. Their view of the world, it was believed, was deeply negatively skewed.
