Posts by Neil Petersen
Social Anxiety May Disrupt Conversational Synchrony
Although people with high levels of social anxiety don’t necessarily leave as bad an impression as they think, there is some evidence that those without social anxiety receive more favorable assessments overall when meeting new people. As the authors of a recent study point out, this is the irony of social anxiety: being afraid of…
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Are Today’s Teenagers the Most Bored Ever?
Today’s teenagers have an abundance of digital diversions and instant gratifications at their disposal. Yet for this richness of entertainment options, adolescents in recent years might be more bored than their historical predecessors, at least according to a newly published study. The study surveyed over 100,000 eighth-, tenth- and twelfth-graders between the years 2008 and…
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Tendency to Feel Awe Bodes Well for School Success
The more psychologists learn about awe, the more they’re coming to see it as an emotion that brings out some of the best of human behavior. Awe seems to drive scientific inquiry, with scientists being more prone to awe and non-scientists becoming more interested in science when they experience awe. Feelings of awe can also…
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Testing Berry Smoothies as a Brain Superfood
Berries commonly star on lists of “brain-boosting” foods. As I’ve talked about before, there’s some evidence for the idea that berries can enhance cognitive functioning, although it’s not an open-and-shut case. The latest study to examine the relationship between berries and brain functioning comes in liquid form – specifically, in the form of a 400…
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Quality and Quantity of Social Interactions Both Matter for Happiness
It seems obvious that having fulfilling social interactions with other people makes a difference in how happy we are. Less obvious is what makes for fulfilling social interactions, and how that varies from one person to the next. When psychologists study people’s social interactions and relationships, there’s always a question of whether quantity or quality…
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When Teachers Procrastinate
Students aren’t the only ones who put off doing schoolwork. Every exam that a student procrastinates on studying for is also an exam that a teacher can procrastinate on grading. A recent study dived into the topic of teacher procrastination by interviewing 27 teachers in Germany. Of those, 16 teachers said they had a problem…
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Stress Beliefs Might Matter for Stress Response
People seem to have real differences in how we react to the stressful situations we inevitably encounter in everyday life. Given that stress is intertwined with mental and physical health, figuring out what interventions might help people respond to stress more constructively is a key topic for psychology researchers. A new study in Annals of…
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How Narcissism Changes From Young Adulthood to Middle Age
Once a narcissist always a narcissist? That is, more or less, the question that researchers asked in a study that tracked people’s levels of narcissism from age 18 to 41. Although we sometimes talk about “narcissists” as if they’re a separate group of people, psychologists usually measure narcissism as a personality trait that everyone has…
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Self-Compassion, Self-Coldness and Seeking Help
There’s a good chance you’ve heard about self-compassion, which has been increasingly seen as important by psychologists in recent years. Even if you haven’t, you probably have some intuitive understanding of what it is and why it might be important for mental health. A related idea that’s less talked about is self-coldness. Where self-compassion is…
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When Is It OK To Use Deception in Psychology Studies?
There are white lies, there are truly harmful lies, and then there are lies told for the sake of science. Scientists don’t always agree on whether the latter are acceptable, or how often. Many psychology experiments involve lying to participants. Of the studies I’ve written about on here, I’m sure there are plenty of examples,…
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