Relationships, Community, & Social Psychology

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 ...
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For those who find first dates confusing, not to worry. We have science to help us figure out what’s going on! What does it mean, for example, when you’re on a dinner ...
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When we say that someone is "warm," we can mean that in a literal, physical sense. We might also be saying that they’re friendly, sociable and kind. This link between temperature and ...
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With great power doesn’t necessarily come great honesty. It turns out that wealthier people are more likely to engage in several different kinds of unethical behavior. A 2012 study showed, for example, ...
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If there’s one thing people never lack, it’s biases in how we think. One of these biases is what psychologists call the false consensus effect, where people tend to overestimate the extent ...
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Maybe you’ve heard that social media usage is linked to lower life satisfaction. But what does that mean? There are multiple ways social media and life satisfaction could be "linked": People with ...
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We typically think of gossip as something frivolous. But "idle gossip" might not be so idle. Gossip can be a social bonding mechanism, and workplace gossip in particular might help people cope ...
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To some extent, we all judge based on first impressions. But that doesn’t mean we judge accurately. A new study from researchers at University of Bologna suggests that our initial judgments about ...
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A compassionate disposition and a desire to see someone get their "just deserts" might not seem to go together. But a new study suggests that people who are more compassionate also prefer ...
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The way we typically think about it, social anxiety involves a fear of being evaluated negatively by other people. Which is true. But an interesting line of research suggests that people with ...
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