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Optimism: Is It A Personality Trait, Or Could People Possibly Learn It?
Research shows that optimism is correlated with various good outcomes: higher life expectancy, better recovery rates, success at work. But is optimism a personality trait, or could it be learned? ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: There's a lot of research showing that optimism is correlated with all kinds of good outcomes like increased life expectancy, better recovery rates from heart operations, even success in work. But optimism, particularly right now, can be hard to come by. So NPR's Alix Spiegel decided to ask, can we choose it? ALIX SPIEGEL, BYLINE: There's so much packed into the simple word optimist, a whole galaxy of complicated meanings and judgments.
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Forced Social Isolation Causes Neural Craving Similar to Hunger
The need for connection-- to form and maintain at least a minimal number of positive, stable, intimate relationships-- is a fundamental need that affects our whole being, permeating our entire suite of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. While voluntary solitude can be great fodder for creativity, and being alone doesn't necessarily indicate loneliness, what happens when people are forced into isolation and are severely deprived of this fundamental human need? Surprisingly, while the physical and mental health effects of loneliness are well documented, there is a lack of research on the consequences of severe forced isolation.
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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on fake news and aging, emotion regulation in psychopathology, brain structures, information search, and spouse’s death.
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New Research in Psychological Science
A sample of research on economic behavior, motivation interventions in education, perception, neural representations of procedural knowledge, empathy and romantic relationships, and stereotype-threat in chess.
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New Content From Perspectives on Psychological Science
A sample of articles on gun ownership and coping, eyewitness and suspect identification, disruption of the gender/sex binary, refugee integration, and personality traits and proenvironmental attitudes.
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Black Americans Support the Floyd Protests. Whites Are Divided. Here’s Why.
APS Member/Author: Fabian G. Neuner After a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets, both across the United States and around the world. Americans’ reactions both to Floyd’s death under officer Derek Chauvin’s knee and to the ensuing protests have followed a familiar script. Some see it as further evidence that U.S. policing is deeply racist; others think protesters are overreacting to officers trying to do their jobs. Opinion largely divides along racial lines, with some variation by party affiliation. Why do black and white Americans have such different perceptions of what happened?
