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To Survive the Coronavirus, the United States Must Tighten Up
US officials have been implementing a wide range of public health measures to mitigate the damage being wrought by the deadly new coronavirus. While social distancing, better hygiene, and flat-out travel bans may help, we have yet to address one of our biggest vulnerabilities: America’s traditionally loose culture. The decentralized, defiant, do-it-your-own-way norms that make our country so entrepreneurial and creative also deepen our danger during the coronavirus crisis. To fight this pandemic, we can’t just shift our resources; we have to shift our cultural patterns as well. Already we can see signs of panic and egocentric behavior.
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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on intelligence and mental speed, the link between sexualization and objectification, socioeconomic disparities in education, education and reasoning ability, the connection between social status and health, collective emotions, and the risk for depression.
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The Psychology of Coronavirus Fear—and How to Manage It
Let’s start with the obvious: Covid-19, the disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus, is scary. It’s spreading fast, there is currently no vaccine or preventative treatment for it, and we don’t know how deadly it actually is. Under these circumstances, it’s understandable that people would be frightened. But some of the public anxiety exhibited in the past weeks has been disproportionate to the risk posed by Covid-19 as we understand it today. Globally, about 3,500 people have died of the disease since the outbreak began in the fall of 2019.
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The Psychology Behind Why Toilet Paper, of All Things, Is the Latest Coronavirus Panic Buy
Masks were the first to go. Then, hand sanitizers.Now, novel coronavirus panic buyers are snatching up ... toilet paper? Retailers in the US and Canada have started limiting the number of toilet paper packs customers can buy in one trip. Some supermarkets in the UK are sold out. Grocery stores in Australia have hired security guards to patrol customers. An Australian newspaper went so far as printing eight extra pages in a recent edition -- emergency toilet paper, the newspaper said, should Aussies run out. Why? Toilet paper does not offer special protection against the virus. It's not considered a staple of impending emergencies, like milk and bread are.
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Warren Succeeded Because Voters Saw Her as Caring. That’s Also Why She Failed
Last summer, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign was ascendant, comedian Ashley Nicole Black asked on Twitter whether Warren had a plan to fix Black’s love life. Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who for months had been pushing policy proposals for issues ranging from maternal mortality to green manufacturing, responded, “DM me and let’s figure this out.” (The subsequent phone call was reportedly very helpful.) When Warren’s main rival on the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), had a heart attack in the fall, she not only sent him kind get-well messages: She sent his staffers dinner and cookies while he was recovering in the hospital.
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When it Comes to Happiness, Research Finds Jobs to be More Important Than Marriage
What’s the secret to happiness? It’s an age-old question — and one that is addressed in a new study in the academic journal, Psychological Science. A team of researchers led by Andrew Jebb of Purdue University analyzed data from over 1.7 million people worldwide to uncover the keys to happiness across the human life span. Interestingly, they found employment to be a stronger predictor of happiness than marriage. “For all measures and regions, employed people had higher subjective well-being than unemployed people, with differences that usually peaked around age 50 years and were lower at younger and older ages,” state the researchers.
