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Can Big Science Be Too Big?
Modern science is largely a team sport, and over the past few decades the makeup of those teams has shifted, from small groups of collaborators to ever larger consortiums, with rosters far longer than that of the New England Patriots. Answering big questions often requires scientists and institutions to pool resources and data, whether the research involves detecting gravitational waves in deep space, or sorting out the genetics of brain development. But that shift has prompted scientists to examine the relative merits of small groups versus large ones. Is supersizing research projects the most efficient way to advance knowledge? What is gained and what, if anything, is lost?
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Effective Self-Control Strategies Involve Much More Than Willpower, Research Shows
Leading behavioral scientists propose a new framework that outlines four types of self-control strategies.
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How Smartphones Are Affecting Our Relationships
The allure of smartphones, and their impact on our relationships, might be the result of our evolutionary history, researchers suggest.
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A Psychologist Explains Why 2018 Felt Like the Longest Year Ever
You might think that a year as chock full of newsworthy events as 2018 would feel like it blazed by in a flash. Yet for many of us, January feels like it was eons ago. So did 2018 fly by, or did it drag on? The answer is, strangely, both. Humans have a complicated relationship with time. Unlike physical matter and energy, we have no organ that directly detects time. Instead, our brains judge time indirectly, mostly through two processes—attention and memory. When we think about how time is currently progressing, time judgments are based primarily on attention.
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Considering Your Opponent’s Perspective Isn’t Likely to Change Your View
It's a piece of advice we've all received at one time or another: Don't judge someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes. It's based on the assumption that seeing things from another person's perspective can open our minds and bring us closer together. New research contradicts that axiom. It finds that temporarily adopting the point of view of a political opponent can actually harden our original positions. "Despite its well-known benefits, perspective-taking can inhibit, rather than facilitate, openness to change," writes a research team led by psychologist Rhia Catapano of Stanford University.
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What the ‘10-Year Challenge’ Might Say About You, and Me
Earlier this month out of nowhere came the “How Hard Did Aging Hit You Challenge” that flooded Instagram and Facebook. The game, better known as the “10-Year Challenge,” couldn’t have been easier: Simply post two photos side by side — an early profile photo from 2009 next to a recent one — as proof positive of how you’ve aged. Or, in many cases, miraculously not aged. It was fun to watch, especially considering how good many of my friends looked. I posted on their feeds. “Ageless!” “Gorgeous X2.” And, “Which is which?” The whole exercise seemed harmless, if a bit self-involved, despite some concerns about privacy.
