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An analysis of studies into counseling therapies for depression – such as cognitive-behavioural therapy – has found that the effect of such approaches has been overestimated because studies that show a strong effect of the treatments are getting published over studies with more modest results. In 117 studies, “talking therapies” had an average effect of 0.67 [...]
A third of Chinese children experience high levels of school-related stress, and these kids are about five times more likely to have the physical symptoms of stress – that is, headache or abdominal pain – then their less frazzled peers. Thanks to the combination of China’s recent economic growth – with the increased opportunities for [...]
When I was at the Science Museum Lates event this week, I attended a talk on the perception of music by researchers from the Music, Mind and the Brain group at Goldsmiths, University of London. The first half of the talk was by Lauren Stewart, a cognitive neuroscientist, who outlined how the brain understands music. Music [...]
Professor Richard Wiseman, psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire and author of Quirkology, is today undertaking the first ever scientific experiment to be conducted using Twitter. The experiment is designed to test the existence of a psychic ability known as ‘remote viewing’ – the alleged ability to psychically identify a distant location. Prof Wiseman is pretty [...]
A study published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology has found that women judged solely on their appearance are marked out as less competent than those judged on a broader basis. In this research, 133 undergraduates – 96 women and 37 men – were asked to judge either Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin [...]
Do you give cash to people who aren’t your direct family or close friends, including people on the street begging for money? A new study in PLoS One suggests that such charitable behaviour will eventually lead to major depression. Author Takeo Fujiwara found that financial altruism towards someone other than a family member or close [...]
Many patients with cancer feel that their attitude towards the ‘fight’ is an important part of beating the disease, but maintaining a positive perspective is pretty tough in the face of a life-threatening malignancy. A large, population-based study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has now found that psychosocial factors such as fighting spirit [...]