Zoom, Facebook, group text messages: This past year, technology has sometimes felt like the glue that’s kept many of our relationships alive. More and more, we talk to each other with technology in between us. Jeff Hancock, PhD, director of the Social Media Lab at Stanford University, discusses how this is affecting human communication, including whether people are more likely to lie online, whether the versions of ourselves that we present on social media are authentic, how artificial intellige...
May 19, 2021•33 min•Ep. 142
In recent years, research on the power of growth mindset has made the leap from the psychology lab to popular culture. Growth mindset is the belief that a person’s intelligence and abilities can grow and improve with practice, and researchers have found that brief exercises that increase growth mindset can help keep students motivated when they face challenges, improve their grades, and even increase college graduation rates. But scaling up those interventions from the research lab to diverse re...
May 12, 2021•32 min•Ep. 141
For people with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or HSAM, every day is memorable. Ask them what they were doing on this date 10 years ago, and they’ll be able to tell you. Markie Pasternak, one of the youngest people identified with HSAM, and Michael Yassa, PhD, director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California Irvine, talk about what it’s like to have this ability, what we know about how the brains of people with HSAM store and retrieve t...
May 05, 2021•39 min•Ep. 140
What if the way you think about your brain and how and why it functions is just plain wrong? Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and author of the book “7 ½ Lessons About the Brain,” discusses myths about the brain and her theory that it evolved not to think but to control our bodies, and that emotions are not something we experience, but things that the brain creates in order to make sense of the signals it receives from the world. Are you enjoying Sp...
Apr 28, 2021•39 min•Ep. 139
Over the past several years, climate change has moved from an abstract idea to a reality in many Americans’ lives – a reality that we are increasingly worried about. An APA survey found that two-thirds of American adults said that they felt at least a little “eco-anxiety,” defined as anxiety or worry about climate change and its effects. Dr. Thomas Doherty, a clinical and environmental psychologist in Portland, Oregon, and Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo, a public health researcher who studies how environmen...
Apr 21, 2021•36 min•Ep. 138
Despite the fact that so many people profess to dislike making small talk, it turns out that talking to strangers and acquaintances can actually strengthen our mental health and enrich our lives. What do we gain from meeting new people? What have we been missing out on this past year as COVID-19 has restricted these social interactions? And how can we become better at talking to strangers? We discuss these questions with Gillian Sandstrom, PhD, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University o...
Apr 14, 2021•42 min•Ep. 137
It’s too soon to know what effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the suicide rate in the United States, but even before the pandemic, that rate had been increasing in recent years, particularly among young people. Dr. Jill Harkavy-Friedman, PhD, the vice president of research for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, discusses what may be behind this rise, how psychologists and other researchers are developing interventions to help those at risk, and what you can do if you’re worried...
Apr 07, 2021•33 min•Ep. 136
What is it about puns that tickles our funny bone? Or dad jokes? How about a person slipping on a banana peel? What could possibly tie all these very different things together under the heading “humor”? Just in time for April Fool’s Day, we explore that question with Peter McGraw, PhD, a marketing and psychology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of the Humor Research Lab, also known as HuRL. McGraw discusses his “benign violation” theory of humor, when it’s too soon to...
Mar 31, 2021•41 min•Ep. 135
The COVID-19 pandemic is a grim reminder that infectious diseases have been a danger throughout human history–so much so that the threat of infection has actually helped shape human evolution. Disgust, wariness of strangers, cultural norms around food and cleanliness–all of these behaviors may have evolved at least in part to keep us safe from infectious disease. Researchers call this suite of protective mechanisms the behavioral immune system. University of British Columbia psychologist Mark Sc...
Mar 24, 2021•30 min•Ep. 134
Many people around the world have lost their sense of smell this past year due to COVID-19. Before the pandemic, scientists had already begun to gain a deeper understanding of how sophisticated our sense of smell is and how it is intertwined with our mental and physical health. Now, the pandemic is giving that research new urgency. Pamela Dalton, PhD, of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, discusses what we know about how our sense of smell works, the connections between smell, emotions and memor...
Mar 17, 2021•34 min•Ep. 133
When the world shut down in March 2020, few people imagined how different things would still look one year later – or that more than 500,000 Americans and 2.5 million people around the world would die from complications of COVID-19. APA’s Stress in America survey has been tracking the mental health toll this past year as Americans have dealt with lost jobs, shuttered schools, social isolation and the illness and death of loved ones. Vaile Wright, PhD, a clinical psychologist and the senior direc...
Mar 10, 2021•25 min•Ep. 132
Meditation practices date back thousands of years and are a part of nearly every major religion. But it’s only in the past couple of decades that researchers have begun to use the tools of modern science to explore what is happening in the brain when people meditate and how meditation might benefit our mind and body. Richard Davidson, PhD, director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin and a pioneer in the scientific study of meditation, discusses what scientists have le...
Mar 03, 2021•31 min•Ep. 131
From movie plots to ad campaigns to viral videos, if they feature twins, they grab our attention every time. But it’s not only the general public who are fascinated with twins. Over many decades, twins have garnered attention from psychologists and other researchers because of what they can tell us about how our genes and environment interact to make us who we are. Nancy Segal, PhD, a professor of psychology and director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton, talks...
Feb 24, 2021•27 min•Ep. 130
As a species, humans have an extra-long childhood. And as any parent or caregiver knows, kids are expensive—they take an extraordinary amount of time, energy and resources to raise. So why do we have such a long childhood? What’s in it for us as a species? According to Alison Gopnik, PhD, of the University of California, Berkeley, the answer is that kids are the "R&D division of humanity," with brains optimized to explore the world and seek out new knowledge and experiences. Gopnik discusses her...
Feb 17, 2021•46 min•Ep. 129
For psychologists, romance, attraction and love are not just the stuff of poetry – they’re also a subject for research. What are the qualities of a successful relationship? Why do some relationships endure while others fail? What do we gain from our relationships? How do we know which ones are worth holding onto or when it’s time to quit? Gary Lewandowski, PhD, a professor of psychology at Monmouth University, delves into these questions and discusses how understanding the science of relationshi...
Feb 10, 2021•24 min•Ep. 128
Who among us wouldn’t want to improve his or her brain? To see better, to hear better or to improve one's memory? The field of brain training has attracted controversy as commercial companies have heavily marketed brain training products that aren’t necessarily backed by science. But some researchers believe that brain training research does hold promise for developing games that can help people -- including older adults who want to keep their memories sharp, athletes who want to improve their ...
Feb 03, 2021•26 min•Ep. 127
After a lifetime of thinking that she was just a little bit bad at remembering people, Sadie Dingfelder learned that she had prosopagnosia, a disorder more colloquially known as face blindness. Harvard psychologist Joe DeGutis, PhD, who runs the research study that Dingfelder participated in, joins her to discuss how people with face blindness see the world, why it’s such an interesting disorder to study, and promising treatments that his lab is exploring. Are you enjoying Speaking of Psychology...
Jan 27, 2021•42 min•Ep. 126
Over the past 20 years, the field of positive psychology has grown from a fledgling idea to a worldwide movement. Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Former APA president Martin Seligman, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of positive psychology, joins us to discuss what positive psychology has to say about flourishing in tough times, such as a pandemic. Are you enjoying Spea...
Jan 20, 2021•48 min•Ep. 125
This past year, COVID-19 and the U.S. elections have provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories—with sometimes disastrous consequences. Karen Douglas, PhD, of the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, discusses psychological research on how conspiracy theories start, why they persist, who is most likely to believe them and whether there is any way to combat them effectively. Are you enjoying Speaking of Psychology? We’d love to know what you think of the podcast, what you would change a...
Jan 13, 2021•36 min•Ep. 124
Many of us are brimming with good intentions right now, determined to eat more healthily, get organized or fulfill our other New Year’s resolutions. But by February we’ll have reverted back to our old ways. Why is it so difficult to make these lasting behavioral changes? Wendy Wood, PhD, of the University of Southern California, discusses the research on how habits drive our behavior, why habits are so difficult to break, and how we can harness the power of habit to make the behavioral changes w...
Jan 06, 2021•34 min•Ep. 123
We’re taking a holiday break, so we’re revisiting one of our favorite episodes from this past year. Back in the spring we talked to University of Florida psychologist Erin Westgate about the surprisingly fascinating topic of boredom. What is boredom? Is it always bad to be bored? What can we do to infuse even boring times with meaning? Links Erin Westgate, PhD Music "Emotional Piano" by tictac9 via freesound.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 30, 2020•41 min
These days, Republicans and Democrats don't just disagree with each other's political opinions -- many view members of the other party as immoral and even abhorrent. Eli Finkel, PhD, a social psychologist at Northwestern University in Chicago, led a group of social scientists who published a paper in the journal Science about the causes and consequences of this deepening rift. Finkel studies American politics, romantic relationships and the intersection of those two concepts. He joins us to disc...
Dec 16, 2020•28 min•Ep. 122
The simulated shock generator for Stanley Milgram’s famed studies on obedience, artifacts from the Stanford Prison Experiment, and a curious machine called a psychograph that promised to read your personality by measuring the bumps on your head--all of these items are on display at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. The center’s mission is to preserve and interpret psychology’s historical record. Director Cathy Faye, PhD, talks about the ...
Dec 02, 2020•33 min•Ep. 121
For many people, the holiday season can be a time of stress rather than joy even in the best of times. And this year, of course, the holidays will be different for everyone, as the coronavirus pandemic forces us to forgo holiday gatherings and family visits. Elaine Rodino, PhD, discusses the "holiday blues" and how to get through the season, this year and every year. Links Elaine Rodino, PhD Music "A Christmas Tale" by lena_orsa courtesy of freesound.org Sponsor APA 2020 Virtual Learn more about...
Nov 24, 2020•18 min
In our increasingly diverse country, many workplaces have implemented diversity training programs aimed at fostering cohesion, mutual respect and understanding among employees of different backgrounds. Calvin Lai, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses what we can learn from psychological research about whether diversity training works and what makes for effective training. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 18, 2020•29 min•Ep. 120
More than one-third of young adults ages 18 to 23--the older members of Gen Z--said that their mental health was worse right now than at the same time last year, according to APA's Stress in America survey. That's a higher number than any other age group. Emma Adam, PhD, a developmental psychologist at Northwestern University, discusses why the stresses of 2020 are hitting young adults so hard, why the pandemic's effects on teen stress seem to be more mixed, and how stress may affect this genera...
Nov 04, 2020•30 min•Ep. 119
When you open the newspaper, turn on the nightly news or scroll the Internet, is what you are reading and seeing true? How do you know? What is “fake news” and why does it seem to be everywhere? Dr. Dolores Albarracin explains why fake news is so compelling, and what it takes to counteract it. "Countdown News Intro" by chimerical via Freesound.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 28, 2020•31 min
Scientists are racing to develop a safe, effective, vaccine for COVID-19 – but will people be willing to take it when it's available? We already have a flu vaccine, but less than half of Americans get it each year. Gretchen Chapman, PhD, a cognitive psychologist who studies health behavior, discusses why people choose to get vaccinated–or not–and how policymakers can encourage vaccination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 21, 2020•27 min•Ep. 118
Many Americans see this as the most consequential election in recent American history. What will shape voters’ decisions and actions this year? Jon Krosnick, PhD, director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University, discusses the psychological forces at play when people decide whether to vote and whom to vote for. He also talks about his recent research that finds Americans are increasingly concerned about climate change. Links: Jon Krosnick, PhD Credits: Music bed "Dramat...
Oct 07, 2020•50 min•Ep. 117
Among the thousands of apps that aim to help people with everything from stress to anxiety to PTSD to sleep problems, how many are based on solid scientific research? How many live up to what they promise? And how can you choose from among all the options? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 23, 2020•31 min•Ep. 116
