-
Are You Lying More in the Pandemic? Some Certainly Are
As much of the United States moves toward reopening in phases, some people are enjoying little bites of pre-pandemic life, such as dining in restaurants, exercising in gyms and learning in classrooms. With the gradual return comes a set of intrusive health questions: Are you experiencing any symptoms? Have you been exposed to anyone who has tested positive for the coronavirus? Answering those questions is where it gets tricky. People usually tell one to two lies a day, according to a 1996 university study.
-
The Clocklike Regularity of Major Life Changes
Transitions are some of the most difficult periods in our lives. Even when we choose them, the disequilibrium they bring can be painful or frightening; when they are imposed upon us, they are even more distressing. We have been awakening to the reality that the coronavirus pandemic is not a temporary affliction, but an involuntary transition from one way of life to another. Our jobs and personal lives are shifting and, in many cases, will never fully return to “normal.” The only certainty is that, even if a vaccine or cure comes along in the next few months or years, the future won’t look like the past. You may never go back to work like before. Dating may never be the same.
-
The Best Job Interview Question, According to Angela Duckworth of “Grit” Fame
I once managed to land a job offer by casually referencing my admiration for Leonard Cohen during the interview. Also, they needed someone immediately and I was available. This is not the right way to hire anyone, but it’s not unusual, Angela Duckworth, the psychologist and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance explained in a recent episode of No Stupid Questions, a smart new podcast by the crew behind the Freakonomics growing media empire. What social scientists call an unstructured interview—or “a random walk through topics” as Duckworth says—are common.
-
New Content From Perspectives on Psychological Science
A sample of articles on women in psychological science, behavior regulation, political slant of research, culture in the study of brain and development, updating beliefs and mental health, and the science of virtue.
-
Online Research: From Funding to Data Collection
Three experts share their experiences and knowledge about conducting online research: from applying for funding to creating experiments and collecting data.
-
Facts v Feelings: How to Stop Our Emotions Misleading Us
By the spring of 2020, the high stakes involved in rigorous, timely and honest statistics had suddenly become all too clear. A new coronavirus was sweeping the world. Politicians had to make their most consequential decisions in decades, and fast. Many of those decisions depended on data detective work that epidemiologists, medical statisticians and economists were scrambling to conduct. Tens of millions of lives were potentially at risk. So were billions of people’s livelihoods. In early April, countries around the world were a couple of weeks into lockdown, global deaths passed 60,000, and it was far from clear how the story would unfold.