Psychology news

• Sound advice from John Cage | Letters

  27-12-2024 18:11
  
  Readers offer their views on getting rid of earworms using the composer’s 4’33”In her letter (Want to get rid of a earworm? Try John Cage, 22 December), Joan Friend says she has listened to different versions of 4’33’’ and that “they all sound the same”. This is impossible, because the whole point of the piece is that during it we hear the sounds all around us.Composed after Cage had experienced an anechoic chamber, a room without echoes where
  
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• Make a much shorter to-do list! 15 quick, simple ways to avoid overwhelm

  01-01-2025 12:00
  
  From weightlifting to woodland walks, Guardian readers and health experts share their tried-and-tested ways to keep burnout at bayOverwhelm can come from multiple worries going round and round in our heads like a washing machine, which can deplete our energy. A helpful strategy is to set aside 10 to 15 minutes each day for “constructive worrying”, where you write down your concerns. You can then apply cognitive strategies such as “if, then” planning (“if X happ
  
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• Xavier Mulenga on how to know when to quit alcohol – podcast

  31-12-2024 15:00
  
  Thinking of breaking up with the booze?Addiction specialist and psychiatrist Xavier Mulenga tells Bridie Jabour the common reasons people think they can’t quit and the steps you can take to reduce your alcohol intakeYou can support the Guardian at theguardian.com/fullstorysupportYou can subscribe for free to Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast Full Story on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Read more: Continue reading...
  
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• Rise in talk about killing in films raises health concerns, researchers say

  30-12-2024 17:00
  
  Study finds small but significant increase in characters talking about murder or killing over past 50 yearsTalk of homicide is on the rise in films, researchers have found, in a trend they say could pose a health concern for adults and children.A study found that over the past 50 years there had been a small but significant increase in movie characters talking about murdering or killing. Continue reading...
  
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• Daniel Kahneman remembered by Daniel J Levitin

  30-12-2024 15:00
  
  5 March 1934 – 27 March 2024
  The neuroscientist celebrates the Nobel-winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow – a psychologist whose elegance of thought helped reveal the foibles of human reasoningRead the Observer’s obituaries of 2024 in fullDaniel Kahneman was a brilliant scientist who marvelled at his own errors in thinking. “The essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the s
  
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• Is it true that up to half of people have no inner monologue? I investigated | Arwa Mahdawi

  30-12-2024 12:00
  
  Our brains are miraculous and weird things, and it turns out everyone has different ways of processing the worldSometimes I like to start a column by asking myself: should this really be a column that will live on the internet forever, for all and sundry to see? Or is this really an airing of my many neuroses that is better shared privately, with a therapist?Not infrequently the answer is the latter. But therapy is expensive and comment is free, so I’m afraid, dear reader, that you’r
  
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• Colin Robson obituary

  29-12-2024 17:34
  
  My husband, Colin Robson, who has died aged 89, pioneered the degree of behavioural sciences, combining psychology and sociology, in the 1970s. The fifth edition of his textbook Real World Research, originally published in 1993, came out earlier this year.Born in the village of Almondbury, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the only child of Mary (nee Addy) and Raymond Robson, a clerk in the council rates office, he attended King James’s grammar school in the village, remaining loyal to hi
  
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• Does life feel like it’s speeding up? How to slow down time in 2025

  29-12-2024 11:00
  Time flies when you’re… in a boring routine, according to research, which shows that new experiences, from foreign travel to a walk in nature, can alter our perception of timeIt’s the time of the year for endless cliches. From “tis the season” and “the gift that keeps on giving” to “new year, new you”, there’s nowhere to hide from tired old phrases. One of my favourites is “Christmas comes around quicker each year” –
  
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• How owls helped me conquer my fear of the dark

  28-12-2024 16:00
  
  With the aid of the birds I was able to learn to love the nightAs a child I was afraid of the dark, as so many children are. Not the dark in and of itself, but what I was certain it contained: bad spirits, bad people, monsters with ill intent. The dark hid creatures with talons and teeth, or men with weapons who would use them to sneak up on an unsuspecting child and do them harm. The dark let curses slip out of buildings or hedges and attach to a child walking past. I kept myself bounded within
  
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• Canadian researchers trial nature trick to boost mood in winter

  25-12-2024 17:00
  
  Volunteers asked to go about normal routine while paying more attention to natural worldThe start of a new year: a time for optimism, ambitious plans to improve the world, and the grim suspicion that the first couple of months may well be a miserable slog through the deepest of winter’s gloom.But for those who fear the cold and dark ahead, help is on the horizon. Researchers in Canada are investigating a simple trick they hope will boost flagging spirits even when the days are short and fr
  
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• Middle children are more cooperative than their siblings, study suggests

  23-12-2024 21:00
  After decades of debate, one of largest ever studies on birth order suggests it does actually make a differenceThe debate has raged for more than a century: does birth order help to shape personality, or are conscientious firstborns and creative youngest children flawed stereotypes based on flimsy evidence?After decades of contested claims, a handful of recent studies found there was little evidence for meaningful differences. But in a study published on Monday, psychologists have pushed back an
  
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• Cut sentences in half to tackle prisons crisis | Letters

  23-12-2024 18:15
  
  Paul Collins on how to improve the criminal justice system, and Ellie Dwight on an understaffed and ineffective probation serviceIn the 1990s, judges attending Judicial Studies Board seminars would hear the late David Faulkner, a humane and immensely knowledgable Home Office star, explain how German prison sentences were so much shorter than ours, with no corresponding increase in offending. Politicians, terrified of being pilloried for being soft on crime, have never taken any notice. The probl
  
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• Paul Gordon obituary

  22-12-2024 18:47
  
  My colleague and friend, the psychotherapist, author and campaigner Paul Gordon, has died aged 70. While eschewing the limelight, Paul was an influential figure and unique voice in the world of psychotherapy. His political commitment and determination to improve people’s lives led him to train as a psychotherapist at the Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies in London in the late 80s, and later at the Philadelphia Association, founded in 1965 by RD Laing and colleagues in order to
  
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• Want to get rid of a earworm? Try John Cage | Letters

  22-12-2024 18:02
  
  Readers respond to an article by Elle Hunt on the science of unshakeable tunes I have suffered from constant tinnitus for 30 years, and when it was joined by earworms it became almost unbearable (Tortured by an earworm? How to get it out of your head, 16 December). I read of the “cure” of listening to something else, but all that did was to replace it with something perhaps more irritating.Then I got to wondering: what would happen if I listened to silence? It wasn’t music
  
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• Canada to Hold Antisemitism Forum Following Recent Incidents

  22-12-2024 07:52 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - Top Stories NewsCanada will hold a forum on combatting antisemitism in February—news that comes as police investigate a fire at a Montreal synagogue and gunshots aimed at a Toronto Jewish girls school. Before these incidents, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said in an interview his "impression is that antisemitism as a problem is worse in Canada than the United States." In 2023, there were 900 police-reported hate crimes against Jewish people in Canada
  
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• Belief in a lottery curse is comforting, but winning lots of money does make you happy | Martha Gill

  21-12-2024 18:30
  
  The notion that vast windfalls inevitably bring misery is based on a handful of sad casesDoes winning the lottery wreck your life? When it was revealed earlier this week that an anonymous Briton had won £177m in the November EuroMillions draw – making them the third biggest national lottery winner ever – the Mail Online announced it with all the impartiality of a bad fairy at a christening: “Other big winners”, the second half of the headline ran, “have faced
  
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• The joy of trivia: ‘We wrote our book together to intrigue each other’

  21-12-2024 16:00
  
  After midlife burnout came a rediscovered curiosity for two friends and writersIt was the early 2000s, we were in our 20s and had both started as assistants at the same company. We bonded over excruciating induction sessions, where we had to reveal things like which cartoon character we most identified with (B: Danger Mouse; E: Marcie from Peanuts). We laughed a lot, but we also worked really hard – and pushed each other to do new things. Twenty years later, with six children between us as
  
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• Arno Rabinowitz obituary

  20-12-2024 20:41
  
  My father, Arno Rabinowitz, who has died aged 90, was a pioneering educational psychologist and a widely admired mentor, counsellor and confidant. His existence was down to a confluence of luck: his mother, Tilly, was one of three siblings evacuated from eastern Europe in the early 1920s during the pogroms against Jews. These three were “Ochberg Orphans”, fortunate recipients of the philanthropy of another émigré, the industrialist Isaac Ochberg, who enabled Jewish orph
  
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• Unraveling the Power and Influence of Language

  20-12-2024 08:31 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Association for Psychological ScienceFraming matters. For instance, when a story about cancer is framed as a "battle" rather than a "journey," people tend to view the diagnosis as more fatal. Indeed, research on framing goes well beyond health and psychology—it now extends to economics and government policy. This multidisciplinary area of research is spotlighted in the latest issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, which explores the power and influence of language.
  
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• Large Study Finds No Link Between Antibiotics and Dementia

  20-12-2024 08:31 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthGiven that the gut microbiome is important for overall health—including cognitive function—researchers have been concerned that antibiotics could have a harmful long-term effect on the brain, especially because older adults are frequently prescribed antibiotics. New research suggests, however, that antibiotic usage is not related to dementia. The results, based on 13,571 healthy people over 70, were published December 18, 2024, in the...
  
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• Biases in AI Can Amplify Our Own Biases, Research Suggests

  20-12-2024 08:30 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top SocietyArtificial intelligence systems tend to absorb human biases and amplify them, causing people who use that AI to become more biased themselves, finds a new study. Human and AI biases can consequently create a feedback loop, with small initial biases increasing the risk of human error, according to findings published in Nature Human Behaviour. The research was based on a series of experiments with over 1,200 study participants interacting with AI...
  
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• Rights Group Says Israel's Deprivation of Water in Gaza Is Act of Genocide

  19-12-2024 13:27 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Google News - HealthHuman Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by denying them clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of extermination and genocide. In its report, the group concluded that "Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an 'act of genocide' under the Genocide Convention of 1948."
  
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• Teens With Reduced Response to Rewards at Higher Risk of Depression

  19-12-2024 13:26 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthA new study has found that a reduced neural response to receiving rewards in teens predicts the first onset of depression, but not anxiety or suicidality. This prediction is independent of pre-existing depressive or anxiety symptoms, as well as age or sex, which are already strong risk factors for depression. The study, published by a Canadian research team, is a step toward using brain science to understand and assess mental health risks.
  
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• Could Tariffs Help Fight Climate Change?

  19-12-2024 13:26 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - World NewsU.S. president-elect Donald Trump says he's a "big believer in tariffs," and has threatened a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico unless they curb the flow of drugs and migrants across the border. Trump says tariffs are a powerful tool to get "other things outside of economics." Could that include getting countries to cool the planet? Canada and the U.S. are now discussing "carbon tariffs" as a way to achieve climate goals.
  
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• Adopting an Anti-Inflammatory Diet to Improve Mental Health

  19-12-2024 13:26 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: U.S. News and World ReportThe connection between nutritious foods and physical health has been drilled into us since our parents told us to eat our vegetables. But studies have also found that avoiding unhealthy foods can help with mental health. Healthy foods provide essential nutrients that support brain function, protect against cognitive decline, and influence mood and cognition. What's the link between food and mental health? One is chronic inflammation.
  
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• Church Breakup Over LGBTQ Issues Linked to Deadly Violence in Nigeria

  19-12-2024 13:25 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: U.S. News and World ReportA religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze, according to United Methodist News Service. The news service said the reported violence on Sunday stemmed from a split in the worldwide United Methodist Church over its decision to repeal LGBTQ bans—and the ensuing formation of the new Global Methodist Church by breakaway conservative churches.
  
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• Inflammatory Dietary Habits Linked to 84% Higher Risk of Dementia

  19-12-2024 13:24 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Google NewsInflammatory dietary habits linked to 84% higher risk of dementia Medical Xpress Cognitive decline: 4 nutrients may reduce brain iron buildup with age Medical News Today Research finds the MIND diet may reduce the risk of cognitive decline. Psychology Today UNL researchers delving into which foods help slow aging of brain KOLN Dementia Incidence Linked to Inflammatory Foods Medpage Today.
  
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• Trouble in Arctic Town As Polar Bears and People Face Warming World

  19-12-2024 12:42 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: BBC News - Science and EnvironmentThe town of Churchill, Canada, is known as the polar bear capital of the world. Every year, the Hudson Bay thaws and forces the bears on shore. Yet the bear population has dropped from 1,200 in the 1980s to just over half that number, largely due to climate change, say experts. And as the sea ice continues to melt earlier each year, the bears are spending more time on land, introducing a new challenge: increased human-bear interactions.
  
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• App Helps Alleviate Mental Health Symptoms in Bereaved Parents

  19-12-2024 12:42 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthA new study has found that an app can help parents mourning the loss of a child. The study, published in the journal Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, was based on data from 248 Swedish parents who had lost a child in the last 10 years. Half received access to the app, and the other half had to wait three months to use it. Parents who used the app reported reduced symptoms of prolonged grief and post-traumatic stress, and also had fewer negative...
  
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• Recommendations to Minimize Bias in Medical AI Technologies

  19-12-2024 12:34 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science DailyA new set of recommendations aims to improve the way datasets are used to build artificial intelligence health technologies and reduce the risk of bias. An international initiative called "STANDING Together (STANdards for data Diversity, INclusivity and Generalizability)" has published recommendations after surveying more than 350 experts from 58 countries. The recommendations aim to ensure that medical AI is safe and effective for everyone.
  
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