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Your Cynicism Isn’t Helping Anybody
When I describe “cynics,” you might conjure up a certain type of person: the toxic, smirking misanthrope, oozing contempt. But they are not a fixed category, like New Zealanders or anesthesiologists. Cynicism is a spectrum. We all have cynical moments, or in my case, cynical years. Cynicism—the belief that all people are selfish, greedy, and dishonest—is a natural response to a world reeling from social division, rising sea levels, and countless other problems. But that doesn’t mean it helps us. Cynics suffer at basically every level scientists can measure.
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Chatbots Are Primed to Warp Reality
More and more people are learning about the world through chatbots and the software’s kin, whether they mean to or not. ... Pataranutaporn and his fellow researchers recently sought to understand how chatbots could manipulate our understanding of the world by, in effect, implanting false memories. To do so, the researchers adapted methods used by the UC Irvine psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who established decades ago that memory is manipulable. ... Loftus, who collaborated on the study, told me that one of the most powerful techniques for memory manipulation—whether by a human or by an AI—is to slip falsehoods into a seemingly unrelated question. ...
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What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?
There are many flavors of friendship. Most U.S. adults say they have pals who fit into specific niches in their lives, like gym friends or work friends. These relationships may come and go as life circumstances change, fading away when someone switches jobs or loses interest in a shared hobby. ...
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Do You Have a Case of the ‘September Scaries?’
If January is the Monday of the calendar year, then summer is clearly its weekend — June is its Friday, July its Saturday and August its lazy, delicious, fretful Sunday. Which is why so many of us currently find ourselves in the grips of the “September Scaries.” ... You could also try “microdosing” a few September tasks this week, said Christian Waugh, a professor of psychology at Wake Forest University who studies positive coping mechanisms. Slow transitions are always easier than rapid ones, he said. He also recommended ditching the “good-bad dichotomy” of summer fun versus September obligation.
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‘Button’ Dogs Do Understand Words — And Not Just From Their Humans
Videos of “button dogs” often go viral on social media as they tap soundboards with prerecorded words such as “walk,” “park” or “mom.” But are the pets really communicating or are they just well-trained? ... Clive D.L. Wynne, professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, said dog cognition differs from how humans perceive words. “From the dogs’ behavior, the researchers deduced that the dogs ‘understood’ what words related to going outside and playing meant, but not the words for food,” he said.
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What Superfans Know That the Rest of Us Should Learn
... After all, so many of us lack community. Data from Cigna finds 58% of Americans are lonely. Religion is fading. Work doesn’t love us back. Maybe letting ourselves be obsessed with that highly specific and possibly weird thing we love is the answer. ... Loneliness, meanwhile, is like thirst, says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience who directs the Social Connection & Health Lab at Brigham Young University. We’re social beings, biologically wired to crave being part of a group. If that’s gone, our mental and physical health can suffer, she says, leading to depression, Type 2 diabetes, even early death.
