Relationships, Community, & Social Psychology

The Demographics of Humor

Humor is a funny thing. Different people use it in different ways. I’ve touched on this topic in some previous blog posts. People with high self-esteem, for example, tend to use humor ...
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/ / Behavioral Psychology, Humor, Politics, Positive Psychology, Social Psychology

Switching Off Your Phone Half an Hour Before Bed Might Improve Sleep, Memory

I’m not going to bother telling you not to use your phone before bed. Partly because you’ve probably heard that advice before, and partly because it would be hypocritical of me to ...
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/ / Cognitive Psychology, Cyber Psychology, Health Psychology, Memory, Sleep, Social Media, Social Psychology

When People Lie Because the Truth is Unbelievable

From white lies to more malicious fibs, people bend or hide the truth for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons, it turns out, is that sometimes the truth is so ...
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/ / Honesty, Relationships, Social Psychology

Friends Cooperate More Efficiently After Exchanging Gifts

As I’ve written about before, people give gifts for a range of reasons – sometimes simply to do something nice, sometimes because they want to influence others. A new study from researchers ...
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/ / Cognitive Psychology, Friendships, Gratitude, Positive Psychology, Social Psychology

Two Ways to Use Social Media

In my last post, I talked about how children in neighborhoods with faster internet apparently evaluate their lives more negatively. That study is one of several that has explored a possible link ...
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/ / Clinical Psychology, Emotion-Affective Psychology, Social Media, Social Psychology

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 ...
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/ / Children, Clinical Psychology, Cyber Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Emotion-Affective Psychology, Internet, Social Psychology

What Sets Good Liars Apart?

Everyone can lie, but not everyone can lie well. In fact, some research suggests that the demeanor of a liar is the most important factor in whether lies are detected, possibly more ...
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/ / Behavioral Psychology, Honesty, Relationships, Social Psychology

“Thank You” Can Change How People See You

If your parents told you to always say your thank yous when you were growing up, chances are they understood on some intuitive level that these two simple words carry a lot ...
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/ / Gratitude, Performance Psychology, Relationships, Social Psychology, Work

What Social Connections and Financial Security Mean for Retirement

Given the choice, most of us would probably rather retire with a broad social network and a deep bank account. Of course, the choice isn’t entirely up to us, since there are ...
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/ / Depression, Older Adults, Retirement, Social Psychology

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 ...
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/ / Anxiety, Clinical Psychology, Language, Relationships, Social Psychology