Children absorb much from their environments. Although the impact of parental conflicts and fights on children has been greatly studied, the impact of positivity has yet to fully be explored.  In this episode, Under the Cortex features Brian Don from the University of Auckland who recently published an article on this topic in APS’s journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.  APS’s Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum chats with Don about his new theory, the Interparental Positivity Spillover...

Anxiety is common in children. What methods effectively alleviate their anxiety? How do parents influence the treatment process? Can parents positively affect the treatment outcomes?  In this episode, Under the Cortex features Wendy K. Silverman from Yale University School of Medicine and Jeremy W. Pettit from Florida International University who have recently published an article on this topic in APS’s journal Clinical Psychological Science.  Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum starts the...

Using irony is a common practice in everyday speech. What’s the main purpose of doing so? What skills are necessary to best understand irony?  In this episode, Under the Cortex features Penny Pexman from Western University. The conversation with Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum raises questions about the cognitive, social and emotional benefits of verbal irony. According to Pexman’s research published in APS’s journal Current Directions, cognitive flexibility and emotion recognition are crucial...

Are you passionate about music? As we explore new songs, part of the excitement comes from successfully predicting their outcomes, as suggested by scientific research.  In this episode of Under the Cortex, APS’s Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum hosts music researchers who delve into the rewarding experience of accurately predicting tunes. Nicholas Kathios and Psyche Loui from Northeastern University, along with Matthew Sachs from Columbia University, discuss their recently published article in...

Have you ever found yourself wondering if someone you're interested in feels the same way about you? If they laugh at your jokes, recent research suggests that it might be a sign that they're into you.  In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Norman Li and Kenneth Tan from Singapore Management University about their new paper in Psychological Science titled “The role of humor production and perception in the daily life of couples: An interest-indicator perspective.”   APS’s Özge G....

What are the important considerations that researchers should take when they work with underrepresented communities?  In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa and Luz Garcini in follow up to their thought-provoking appearance in APS’s Science for Society Webinar, “Helping Underrepresented Populations Through Community-Oriented Research.” Dr. Rodriguez Espinosa, PhD., MPH, is a native of Habana, Cuba, and a clinical psychologist by training. She is an Assistant...

In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Jeremy Foust from Kent State University about his new paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science titled “Information Avoidance: Past Perspectives and Future Directions.” The conversation with APS’s Özge G. Fischer-Baum starts with defining information avoidance and then explores some of the factors that impact whether someone will choose to avoid information. Foust and Fischer-Baum also dive into me-search and how social media has or has not...

How do parents adjust their behavior in the context of neurodiversity?  Under the Cortex features Alexandra Sullivan (University of California, San Francisco), a psychological scientist who studies the link between parenting and developmental delays. In this episode, Sullivan and APS’s Özge G. Fischer-Baum discuss parenting strategies with an inclusive approach.  Sullivan also recently published an article on this topic in APS’s journal Psychological Science.  If you want to know more about...

Attachment is a recent popular topic that has entered the public eye, but psychological researchers have been investigating attachment patterns for decades. What is the relationship between early attachment personality disorders? Is there an overlap?   APS’s journal Clinical Psychological Science features an article with a new perspective into how attachment style can be linked to personality disorders. In this episode of Under the Cortex, the two psychological scientists who wrote the...

What goes viral social media and why? Do people value information-based content less favorably than misinformation? Why do we click more on polarizing content than neutral information?    In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Dr. Steven Rathje from New York University. Rathje’s research explores what people think about social media content and what motivates their online behavior.  Rathje and APS’s Özge G. Fischer-Baum explore the implications for societal change, in-group and out-group...

Under the Cortex biweekly hosts authors of peer-reviewed articles. In this week’s episode, we do things a little differently, take a step back, and explore what happens on the editorial side of scientific publishing.  Simine Vazire, the incoming Editor-in-Chief of APS’s journal Psychological Science, joined Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum to discuss her plans to further advance the practices of inclusivity in APS’s flagship journal, she highlighted the current disadvantages in academic publishing...

What is risky drinking? What’s the cognitive profile of risky drinkers? If we know more about how risky drinkers think, is it easier to develop models for preventive measures?  APS’s Özge G. Fischer Baum approaches these questions with a cognitive lens in an interview with Elizabeth Goldfarb from Yale University. Fischer Baum and Goldfarb discuss how risky drinkers generalize and overgeneralize categories differently from the general population. The conversation evolves into ideas about...

How does gun violence affect the youth? What are the developmental outcomes of being exposed to gun violence? Do lockdown drills provide a solution, or do they further create anxiety for children?  In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Dr. Amanda Nickerson, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. She highlights the developmental pathways and risk factors for being exposed to gun-related violence. Lockdown drills are on the table for discussion and Nickerson’s research does...

What is the logic behind using trigger warnings? Do they improve learning outcomes?   In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Victoria Bridgland of Flinders University to explore her meta-analysis results on trigger warnings. Bridgland’s meta-analysis indicates that, contrary to popular belief, trigger warnings do not have a negative or positive effect on learning outcomes but do increase anticipatory anxiety.   The conversation with APS’s Özge G. Fischer-Baum evolves into implications for...

Is it true that you are only as old as you feel? Is age really just a number? Is 40 the new 30?    In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Markus Wettstein of Humboldt University of Berlin. Wettstein’s research explores the perception of subjective age in adulthood and gender, as well as generational differences in feeling young.  The conversation with APS’s Özge G. Fischer-Baum evolves into implications for health benefits, general well-being, and possible cross-cultural differences....

Does our geographical location shape our thinking? Does water access have an effect on our decision-making habits? Do we choose to live in the moment because of environmental factors?  In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Dr. Hamid Harati, The University of Queensland, and Thomas Talhelm,University of Chicago. Through their international collaboration, the two scholars explore how our ecological environment can shape our decision-making skills. As they compare two cities in Iran, Yazd and...

Did you know that loneliness is different from social isolation? Psychologists define loneliness as a subjective concept which is related to one’s own expectations.   In this episode, Under the Cortex hosts Samia Akther Khan, PhD candidate from King’s College London, whose research examines the feeling of loneliness across lifespan. The conversation with APS’s Özge G. Fischer-Baum focuses on the difference between loneliness and social isolation and highlights six key social relationship...

Psychology PhDs have skills broadly relevant for teaching, industry, and government. They are integral to producing basic research and evidence-based solutions for policy and industry. Only about half of psychology PhDs are hired in academia, but psychology graduate training in the United States has largely retained the classic graduate training model of a direct path to an academic job. It's time to change that, says APS President Wendy Wood. 

At the height of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, the Association for Psychological Science joined countless other organizations around the world in turning to podcasts to share findings and conversations. The result is Under the Cortex, which now celebrates 100 episodes in which psychological scientists help us understand some of their most interesting and impactful new research. This special episode is a bit of a greatest hits compilation, featuring clips from six of our favorite episodes to...

Scientists usually expect childhood to be nurturing, safe, and characterized by high levels of caregiver investment. However, evidence from history, anthropology, and primatology can challenge this view. Throughout human evolution, children have faced threats and deprivation, at varied levels across space and time. And these varied levels of exposure to adversity—which over time were higher than is typical in industrialized societies—likely favored a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, or...

How can our habits of thinking make us vulnerable to deception? What characteristics of information make it more likely to manipulate us? And how can we spot deception before it’s too late? In this episode of Under the Cortex, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris join APS’s Ludmila Nunes to answer these questions and more, drawing from their brand new book: Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It. Daniel Simons is a cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at...

  Pervasive misconceptions about and bias against drug use in the United States have led to clinical norms that pathologize any use of certain kinds of drugs. This bias has harmful consequences. For instance, conflating substance use with substance disorder is used to justify curtailing certain people’s rights, which has broad consequences. Treating drug use as a brain disease reveals clinician bias. How can these misconceptions, and the actions they lead to, be corrected? And how can...

Cognitive psychology studies universal processes such as memory, decision making, or emotions, for example. However, the theoretical, epistemological, and methodological assumptions that support the field’s longtime focus on studying “cognitive universals” might have resulted in a science of human cognition based on the performance and behavior of people who are predominantly White, English-speaking, and socially dominant. In other words, scientific racism has likely influenced the study of...

Consensually nonmonogamous relationships are defined by explicit mutual agreements to have multiple emotional, romantic, and/or sexual relationships. But is there really a type of person who engages in this type of relationship? And are these relationships actually lower in quality compared with monogamous relationships? Research has revealed several misconceptions about consensually nonmonogamous relationships and patterns of how others judge people in these relationships.  In this episode...