
Selected Media
Videos


How to break the cycle of negative thoughts during a pandemic
Good Morning America
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Cracking the Code
ABC Australia - Four Corners
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Why Does a Broken Heart Physically Hurt?
CBS Evening News
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FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out
Good Morning America
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Why your most important relationship is with your inner voice
The Guardian
Your internal monologue shapes mental wellbeing, says psychologist Ethan Kross. He has the tools to improve your mind’s backchat
Read MoreWhy You Should Talk to Yourself in the Third Person
VICE
Evidence suggests that there are real benefits of talking to yourself in the third person—in your head, not out loud.
Read MoreHow to Stop the Negative Chatter in Your Head
The Wall Street Journal
A neuroscientist explains how to curb unhelpful thoughts.
Read MoreWhat to Do When You Can’t Catch a Break
The New York Times
Researchers say the key to breaking the cycle is to detach yourself from the frustrations you feel — without pretending the pain doesn’t exist.
Read MoreFacebook Is Changing. What Does That Mean for Your News Feed?
The New York Times
Lab research motivates changes to Facebook’s newsfeed.
Read MoreWhy Talking About Yourself in the Third Person Could Help Control Your Emotions
World Economic Forum
During stressful times, talking to yourself in the third person could help you control your emotions.
Read MoreThe Power of Pretending: What Would a Hero Do?
The Wall Street Journal
We tend to think of self-control and will power as if they were intrinsic, as if some people just have more control than others. But our attitude, what psychologists call our “mind-set,” may be as important as our abilities.
Read MoreHave Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
The Atlantic
More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been.
Read MoreThe ‘How Are You?’ Culture Clash
The New York Times
Psychologists at the University of Michigan have shown that, while Russians are, indeed, more prone to brooding than Americans, their open embrace of negative experiences might ultimately be healthier, resulting in fewer symptoms of depression.
Read MoreThe Benefits of Talking to Yourself
The New York Times
The fairly common habit of talking aloud to yourself is what psychologists call external self-talk. And although self-talk is sometimes looked at as just an eccentric quirk, research has found that it can influence behavior and cognition.
Read MorePain, Heat, and Emotion with Functional MRI
New England Journal of Medicine
The studies conducted by Wager and colleagues serve as an example of how functional neuroimaging may help clinicians assess clinical symptoms, such as somatic and emotional pain, that were previously thought to be impenetrable.
Read More‘Self Talk’: When Talking to Yourself, the Way You Do It Makes a Difference
The Wall Street Journal
Researchers say talking to yourself, out loud, is more common than many of us might care to admit. Psychologists call it “self talk” and say how we do it makes a big difference in both our mood and how we think about ourselves.
Is Facebook Luring You Into Being Depressed?
Nautilus
In many ways, social networking sites are giant experiments on one of our species’ most essential characteristics: our social nature. So it shouldn’t be a surprise there are unintended consequences. “No one constructed something to make people feel bad or good,” says Ethan Kross, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan. “But, what we’re looking at is, how does it actually play out and impact people in daily life?”
Read MoreThe Voice of Reason
Psychology Today
Everyone engages in self-talk. But much depends on the way we do it. Scientists now find that the right words can free us from our fears and make us as wise about ourselves as we often are about others.
Read MoreOn Instagram, the Summer You’re Not Having
The New York Times
A recent study measured the emotional effects of Facebook use, finding that passively using the platform (scrolling through your feed and looking at people’s posts the way you would on Instagram) enhances envy, which in turn makes people feel worse over all.
Read MorePronouns Matter When Psyching Yourself Up
Harvard Business Review
Some people seem to have an amazing ability to stay rational no matter what. They efficiently make good, clear decisions while the rest of us waste energy doing things like panicking about upcoming tasks, ruminating pointlessly, or refusing to move on from our failures. What makes these people so different and can we be more like them?
Read MoreIntrospective or Narcissistic?
The New York Times
Psychologists and others have given some thought to this question. The upshot of their work is that there seems to be a paradox at the heart of introspection. The self is something that can be seen more accurately from a distance than from close up. The more you can yank yourself away from your own intimacy with yourself, the more reliable your self-awareness is likely to be.
Read MoreIs the World More Depressed?
The New York Times
We have recently learned that Facebook leads people to feel less good in the moment and less satisfied with their lives. The authors of a University of Michigan study speculate that what drives that outcome is social comparison. Other people post flattering photographs and funny comments while your own life just feels so dull.
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