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Even when you know it’s fake: The strength of the placebo effect
Almost everyone has heard about the placebo effect – the finding that treatment that have no particularly relevant effect (like a sugar or vitamin pill, or a behavioral equivalent) can make patients feel better. The placebo effect is actually the reason that all FDA approved drugs have to go through a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial…
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Underestimating How Often Others Experience Negative Emotions May Lead to Increased Loneliness and Decreased Life Satisfaction
A series of recent studies suggests that people consistently underestimate the prevalence with which others experience negative emotions – and that this error may lead to increased loneliness, more brooding over personal problems, and decreased life satisfaction. The authors of these studies propose at least two reasons why individuals may underestimate the frequency with which…
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Neurodiversity and Autism
“She’s autistic.” I explained to the cashier as ten year old Peggy ran her hand lovingly along the wall of the skating rink and screeched about Teletubbies. “Artistic?” The cashier was confused in a way that few people would be now, six years later. Autism has become a well known word for a condition that…
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Is ADHD a real disorder?
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that approximately 5 percent of children have a specific deficit in attention compared to children of their same age and sex, many people still question whether ADHD (and some still call it it’s former name: ADD) is a real disorder. A recent article in the New York Times takes on this…
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Accurate Representations of Science: Whose Responsibility Is It?
Here’s a question that’s been on my mind lately: Whose job is it to make sure that the non-scientist consumers of science get it right? I’ve had a few discussions with various psychologists about this lately and they frequently bring up two answers to this question: (1) It’s the consumer’s job. I heard from a…
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Women’s Health and Perceptions of Gender
For many pressing health issues, including HIV/AIDS, cancer (in particular lung cancer), and suicide completion, women have lower rates than men. Women are the minority at birth, but the number of women (in the national surveys) far surpass men in survival rates across the lifespan, with a broad gender difference easily noticed when visiting my…
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Online Sexual Predators – Myths… and Facts
A few years ago, the popular NBC television show Dateline aired a special called To Catch a Predator, using hidden cameras to film a “parade” of men who had approached teenage girls online for a sexual liaison. The men thought they were coming to the teenager’s house when her parents were not home. After the men entered the…
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Is bullying going digital? Cyber Bullying Facts
The suicide of a young girl named Phoebe Prince in January of 2010 received a great deal of media attention. Phoebe was the victim of bullying, manifested online by classmates who posted disparaging remarks about her on Facebook. A few months ago, digital bullying was again in the news when Tyler Clementi, an 18-year old…
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What Can Effect Sizes Do for You? A Quick Tutorial for a Deeper Understanding of Psychological Research
I listen to a lot of podcasts in which various psychological articles are often discussed (e.g., stuff you should know, radiolab, etc.). As a psychologist, I am often frustrated when a podcast mentions a study’s finding (e.g., having a sister is associated with better self-esteem than having a brother) but then says something like this:…