Posts by Neil Petersen
Praising Hard Work Can Make Infants More Persistent
When you were a kid, maybe you read The Little Engine That Could, a story about a modest train locomotive whose persistence pays off. One possible reason for this story’s popularity is that many parents see persistence as a core ingredient for life success to pass on to their children. This emphasis on hard work…
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Phubbing Destroys Relationships
Consider this your annual AllPsych public health announcement about the negative effects of phubbing. In early 2018, I wrote about the dangers of phubbing – that is, of snubbing people by going on your phone. A year and change later, there’s more research out on the topic. That research gives us new evidence that everything…
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Where Do Pointing Gestures Come From?
Pointing is a basic type of human communication. Before they start talking, babies start pointing. A pointing gesture can mean different things, such as “look at that?” or “what is that?” or “I want that!” There’s something fundamental about these uses of pointing. Even apes use pointing for multiple functions such as drawing someone’s attention…
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Anxiety and a First Depressive Episode
Sometimes mental health conditions are buy-one-get-one-free. Anxiety and depression are an example of two conditions that often come in a package deal. Recently, researchers in China designed a study to learn a little more about what it means when anxiety and depression team up. They focused on people experiencing a first episode of depression who…
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The Top Reasons for Divorce
The odds of a marriage splitting up are basically as good as a coin flip. In the United States, almost half of married couples are headed for divorce. Unlike the results of a coin flip, a divorce is often something you can see coming. With divorce so common, maybe you’ve wondered what the top reasons…
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Why You Shouldn’t Drink and Click
Alcohol is something that doesn’t go with certain activities. Driving is the most obvious example. And it turns out that browsing the internet may be another one. A new paper titled Combined Use of Alcohol and the Internet: Associated Features suggests that people who drink while using the internet are setting themselves up for regrets.…
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Are Video Games Linked to Aggression? Researchers Can’t Agree
Whether violent video games go hand-in-hand with violence in real life seems like exactly the kind of question we should send over to the psychology researchers. And psychology researchers do have an answer. Actually, they have several different answers that contradict each other. First, I’ll give you the results of the most recent study published…
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Why Do People Gossip?
Gossip can range from benign to harmful, and it occurs in a variety of settings from the workplace to our personal lives. So what makes this behavior so pervasive? A new study from researchers in Germany has some answers to this question. Let me tell you about all the juicy details you just have to…
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A Tip to Find Meaning in Stressful Situations
When we encounter stressful situations in life, sometimes we’re able to turn them into something more than stressful situations. They can become stressful situations that add something to our life and that have meaning. How to actually do this is the challenge, of course. Generally, it requires finding a new perspective on the stressful situation…
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The Psychology of Eating Insects
The next big thing to hit the dinner table isn’t necessarily going to be so big, and it might just have six legs. According to a recent report from investment bank Barclays, edible insects are on pace to become a $8 billion market by 2030. Predictably, that got people’s attention. Eating insects will soon go…
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