Technology
In Neighborhoods With Faster Internet, Children Feel Worse About Their Lives
Who wouldn’t want a faster internet connection? Kids who want to feel good about their lives, maybe. A new analysis of data from 6,300 children carried about by researchers at University of Sheffield has come up with the finding that in neighborhoods with faster broadband speed, children and teenagers report feeling worse about their lives.…
Read MoreIs Your Phubbing Hurting Your Kids?
“Phubbing” is an invented word for a phenomenon we all know to be quite real: the act of snubbing someone by burying your face in a smartphone. Psychologists have previously tied phubbing to worse mental health and less social connectedness. Now, a study adds evidence that phubbing can be bad for families too, with parents’…
Read MoreWhat Search Trends Tell Us About Anxiety
There are different ways people might choose to cope with anxiety. Talking to a mental health professional. Taking up meditation. Or maybe, Googling it! A new study from researchers in Australia and Hong Kong suggests that a lot of people who are feeling anxious take to Google to learn more about anxiety, and that fluctuating…
Read MoreEmoji Use Correlates With Dating Success
With the rise of smartphones and online dating, texting with potential dates has become an important part of seeking out a relationship. Now, a new study suggests that having a good emoji game goes together with dating success. In a series of experiments, researchers at Indiana University and Lake Forest College surveyed people about their…
Read MoreWould You Rather Be Replaced at Work by Another Human or a Robot?
That’s a bleak choice, and it’s exactly the choice researchers in Germany and the Netherlands gave people in a recent study on the psychology of job replacement. OK, the researchers didn’t actually remove people from their jobs for the sake of science. That would be taking it a little far. But they did ask people…
Read MorePhubbing 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…
Read MoreWhy 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.…
Read MoreWhat Do Internet Addiction and Smoking Have in Common?
No, that question isn’t the beginning of a bad joke. But it could be the beginning of a psychology study. In fact, a team of researchers in China recently did take it as the starting point for a study. In attempting to answer the question, they honed in on one factor that has previously been…
Read MoreAwe, the Unknown and Science
Think of an experience you’ve had that inspires awe – seeing the night sky or a stunning landscape, for example. Part of that feeling is probably a sense of wonder at the vastness, the complexity and the mystery of the universe we live in. On some level, feeling awe is about appreciating how small we…
Read MoreSocial Ostracism Linked to Internet Addiction
To understand people’s online behavior, it’s worth looking at what’s happening in their offline lives. That’s one takeaway from a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research showing a relationship between social ostracism and internet addiction. Previous research has suggested that social factors play into excessive internet usage. As the authors point out, studies…
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