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New Year’s Resolutions Are Notoriously Slippery, but Science Can Help You Keep Them
Every January nearly half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. We resolve to eat better, exercise more, get organized, spend less money, and so on. Unfortunately, several studies suggest that most of these resolutions don’t stick. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’ve made a resolution this year and would like help keeping it, you’re in luck: Ayelet Fishbach, one of the world’s foremost researchers on the science of motivation, has written a book designed for you. Fishbach is a social psychologist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and author of Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation.
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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on how animals learn, sexual- and gender-minority mental health, acculturation and immigration, emotion in social learning, stigma and treatment success, motor performance and learning, prosocial behavior, and social networking and well-being.
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Psychic Numbing, Explained; Oneida Indian Nation Uses Art for COVID-19 Remembrance
More than 800,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. But the number of deaths barely seems to register for many. Psychologist Paul Slovic has studied a phenomenon he calls "psychic numbing" for years. And, in response to the pandemic's threat to Indigenous communities, Oneida Indian Nation located in central New York unveiled an art installation called "Passage of Peace." Oneida leader Ray Halbritter joins us to discuss. ...
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How to Help a Loved One Through Sudden Loss
Over the past several years, the husbands of three of my friends died suddenly at the age of 50. These experiences helped educate me on how to be supportive in the face of an unexpected loss. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever be on the receiving end of such support. But that happened when I lost my son, Garrett, to suicide in September 2017. Since Garrett’s passing, I have been amazed at the generosity of my community. One friend paid to have my home’s gutters cleaned and windows washed. Our family’s veterinarian refused to let us pay for her pet care services for a year. Another friend gave us keys to her lake house to use when we needed to get away.
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New Research in Psychological Science
A sample of research on the development of political attitudes, dominant leaders, sustained stress and aging, gender gaps in self-presentation, the neural representations of romantic partners, facial impressions, cognitive conflict and aging, and refugees’ identity.
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How Disgust Explains Everything
Two distinguished academics walk into a restaurant in Manhattan. It is their first meeting — their first date, in fact — and the year is 2015. The man wears a down jacket against the icy winter evening. The woman has a shock of glossy white hair. The restaurant is on a cozy corner of the West Village and has foie gras on the menu. What the man doesn’t know is that the interior of his down jacket has suffered a structural failure, and the filling has massed along the bottom hem, forming a conspicuous bulge at his waist. As they greet each other, the woman perceives the bulge and asks herself: Is my date wearing a colostomy bag? They sit down to eat, but the woman is distracted.
