The Best of British Psychological Society

Do humans always want more, or are we sometimes just happy with our lot? This debate has long raged in multiple disciplines: economics, politics, and even philosophy. And whether an unlimited desire…

By Emma Young. People call ideas they already consider unbelievable “conspiracy theories”, rather than being influenced by the label to stop believing them.

By Emma Young. Psychology provides some intriguing insights into how best to handle conversations, to turn strangers into new friends, and new friends into life-long confidantes.

«So, go on, next time you’re with a stranger, why not try striking up a conversation — it’ll probably go better than you think»

By Emma Young. Caffeine restored vigilant attention to regular levels – but had barely any impact on another type of performance that is important for all kinds of jobs.

The findings have practical implications for how the learning-by-teaching approach is applied in education and training. By Christian Jarrett

By Emily Reynolds. Time management skills more strongly correlated with wellbeing than with academic or job performance in meta-analysis.

By Emma Young. But timing matters: students only benefited if the second viewing was immediately before a test.

«These new results certainly suggest that this isn’t right: double-time viewing was just as good as normal viewing. It seems, then, that as long as the material can still be accurately perceived and comprehended, it’s okay to speed up playback.»

By Matthew Warren. People with aphantasia also show deficits when describing hypothetical future events.

By Emma Young. But top performers do offer more advice, which can be misinterpreted as a sign of quality.

By Emily Reynolds. “Excellencism” predicted higher creativity and increased openness, while perfectionism predicted lower scores on these measures

By Matthew Warren. Study is one of first to work with industry to obtain real data about people’s playing habits.