Behavioral Psychology
How to Enforce Social Distancing? Your Answer Might Depend on Who’s Breaking the Rules
An ethical question raised by the pandemic is what to do about people who don’t take it upon themselves to follow public health recommendations. Generally, there are two approaches: educate people and punish them. The first involves informing people about the consequences of not following public health advice while the second is about imposing penalties…
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The Most and Least Enjoyable Daily Activities During Quarantine
Finding activities that bring positive emotions into your life has always been important, but it gained a new urgency when daily life was turned upside down by the pandemic. With lockdowns going into effect, everyday activities like working and socializing started to look different than they had before for many people. And some entirely new,…
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Do Different Addictions Have the Same Risk Factors?
From substance use to compulsive behaviors, addiction can take a variety of forms. Given that range of possible addictions, psychology researchers are still trying to figure out the extent to which different types of addictive behaviors share similar roots. A new study from researchers at Bar-Ilan University and UCLA provides some new data for exploring…
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Narcissism Linked to Voter Turnout, Political Activity
Say what you will about narcissists, but at least they turn out to do their civic duty. That’s according to a new paper titled Narcissism and Political Participation from researchers in the United States and Denmark, who surveyed several thousand adults across both countries. The researchers found that people who score as having higher levels…
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Looking at the Evidence for Health Warnings on Food and Alcohol
Scientists can show that some behavior has negative health consequences, but the question then becomes how to convince the public to actually engage in that behavior less. We know, for example, that consuming too much unhealthy food and alcohol causes health problems, but that knowledge itself hasn’t put an end to health conditions caused by…
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Meaning in Life and Drinking
Finding sources of meaning in life sounds like neither an easy task nor one that looks the same from one person to the next. But it is one that seems to be key to mental health. From increased resilience to sharper memory, a sense of purpose in life goes hand-in-hand with a range of cognitive…
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Lockdown Might Be Changing People’s Sleep Patterns
If you feel like social distancing is keeping you awake at night, you could be right. A new survey of 1,310 adults in Italy during the country’s total lockdown points to a range of effects that lockdown might have for sleep habits. At the end of March, participants in the study took an online survey…
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Study Shows Benefits of Dry January
We’re only in May, but it’s never too late to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, right? After all, 2020 probably can’t be over soon enough! For those contemplating a January self-improvement kick, a new study offers some food (but definitely not some drink) for thought. Increasingly popular is the phenomenon of Dry January,…
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Personality Influences People’s Environmentally Friendly Behaviors
With a constant stream of news about coronavirus, it’s easy to overlook the disconcerting news that continues to come out regularly about another global crisis: climate change. Most recently, a study was released suggesting that the number of extreme heat and humidity events with the capacity to kill human beings has doubled since 1979. For…
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COVID-19 Might Be Changing People’s Intentions of Becoming Parents
The new way of life brought about by the current pandemic has many people rethinking their long-term plans, and that may include reevaluating their desire to have children. According to a new study in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the effect of COVID-19 on people’s intention of having kids might work in both…
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