People are less willing to help, date, or work with those holding different moral values. All this sounds like bad news for democracies like ours. But recognizing peer disagreement can promote respectful discussion, a #psychology professor explains: https://theconversation.com/perceived-consensus-drives-moral-intolerance-in-a-time-of-identity-driven-politics-and-online-bubbles-242088
@psychology
Cognitive psychologist Arryn Robbins looks into the surge of AI-generated images online or "AI slop," how they can exploit us and what we can do to spot them in the wilds of social media.
"And this is where we come to our current Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr. He points at the increase in children diagnosed with autism as a crisis in need of a solution. He blames vaccines for our “disability,” flying fearlessly away from the current scientific consensus. This is incredibly damaging to us, as individuals and as a community, regardless of age or severity.
The vast majority of us -- assuming that we don’t also have other, more disabling conditions -- do not want to be seen as suffering from a mistake. We are who we are not because of vaccines or bad mothering. Our existence is a feature, not a bug. Genetics is the primary cause of autism, if you want to understand why it happened to this or that individual. More generally, autism is one of the ways to be human. The idea that autism can be cured or overcome is as insulting as the idea that gay people can be cured or that to be successful women should act more like men. We don’t want to be cured; we want to be accepted and allowed to be who we are. RFK Jr. stands for the opposite of that. Whether he understands it or not, he is guilty of inciting hatred and self-hatred against our community.
We defy simple categorization. The vast majority of us aren’t intellectually deficient. We have all the emotions and empathize with others. We see allistic social rules and cues, body language and facial expressions, and those linguistic tics and mannerisms that enforce social pecking orders. But other things speak to us more loudly. We’re intensely curious, so we ask indelicate questions. We want to get to the heart of the matter, so we don’t pad our words with softeners. We want the world to make sense, and often go out of our way to make it so, even when those around us don’t notice, care, or do anything about it."
https://www.theamericansaga.com/p/guest-post-one-autistic-man-explains
Are labels like autism and ADHD more constraining than liberating? A clinician argues diagnosis has gone too far
Beautiful #dream last night. I was lost, floating in a calm ocean, no land in sight. A dolphin - one of my spirit animals - came to save me.
It floated underneath, nudging me onto my stomach, pointing me to the right, hovering its fin beneath my hands. I wrapped my hands around the fin - slippery, hard to hold.
That is all. It felt like I was eventually rescued. I woke up, told myself: "Remember this, it's important." Interpretations welcome! 
**Computational analysis of US congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition**
“_We find that evidence-based language has continued to decline since the mid-1970s, together with a decline in legislative productivity. The decline was accompanied by increasing partisan polarization in Congress and rising income inequality in society._”
Aroyehun, S.T., Simchon, A., Carrella, F. et al. Computational analysis of US congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition. Nat Hum Behav (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02136-2.
#OpenAccess #OA #Article #DOI #Language #Linguistics #Psychology #Politics #USPol #USA #US #UnitedStates @psychology @linguistics
Ethics of classical conditioning
https://campbelllawobserver.com/the-ethics-and-implications-of-classical-conditioning/
The article mentions "imprisonment." Though prisons are not involved, I see no doubt that *childhood* has a definite aspect of captivity.
I believe classical conditioning deserves a lot of attention from the field of #psychology with regards to #autism.
My personal story involves pervasive stress spanning #criticalPeriods, and I'd really like to know how to address it.
@actuallyautistic #actuallyAutistic
Memory manipulation is the stuff of sci-fi. Someday it could be real.
From Science News: "Scientists are experimenting with strengthening or weakening memories."
Registration may be required: https://flip.it/v8QwAD
You have the right to consent to a conversation.
I learned this with my abuser, who didn't think I had this right. I also didn't think I had this right, part of my childhood conditioning, but once I realized I did and started to assert boundaries, I quickly learned that he didn't think I had this right. He accused me of all kinds of things (like abuse, manipulation, avoidance, punishment) when I said things like, "I don't want to talk about this right now. We can discuss it tomorrow when I'm feeling better." I was drinking his kool-aid, so he did manage to pull me back in many times, until I fully absorbed that I DO in fact have the right to withdraw my consent to talk.
You can consent to touch. You can consent to sex. You can consent to being in the presence of someone. You can consent to talk to someone. Anything else is coercion.
If someone does not like you withdrawing consent (for anything), and this is a dealbreaker for them, then the responsible thing for them is to make decisions about their own damn self. Maybe they need more sex, or more talk, or whatever than you can consistently give them. The mature thing is for them to accept the situation and decide their own boundaries. Maybe even, "I need someone who wants the same things I do, so I will find a different relationship." No fuss, no drama.
It's also ok to discuss this with them, not as a threat or as a way to change their behavior, but in order to negotiate the needs of both in the relationship.
That isn't manipulation, so long as you're not trying to *control* someone's behavior... that's just you accepting someone as they are and withdrawing your own consent or setting more distant boundaries of your own.
Ultimately it comes down to: Are you trying to make someone do something or be a way they don't want to be? Or are you accepting themself as they are and making your own choices for your own life?
If you’re a psychologist, psychology professor, student of psychology, etc, please consider signing this letter demanding APA reverse its decision to suspend diversity requirements for accreditation in training programs and internships: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetao51VunB-Z0lCKGzHhxF8syAHCnClTJCATYizGUOKZXNDg/formResponse
**Who is most likely to fall for fake news?**
_“No matter who you are, no matter what you think you know, none of us is immune to misinformation,” said Dr. Friedrich Götz, assistant professor of psychology at the University of B.C. and the study’s senior author._
https://news.ubc.ca/2025/04/misinformation-susceptibility-who-falls-for-fake-news/.
#FakeNews #Misinformation #Psychology #Society #Education @psychology
Culture as Embodiment: The Social Tuning of Behavior by Paul Voestermans & Theo Verheggen, 2013
Culture as Embodiment utilizes recent insights in psychology, cognitive, and affective science to reveal the cultural patterning of behavior in group-related practices.
See above the fold for the ebook, free. Readable copy in the image alt.
"At a very human, emotional, and even cognitive or phenomenological level, a person is always reacting to what they see or hear or feel. An individual does not really stand up, open their front door, and walk to the square in the center of the capital because of inflation. Not for that reason alone..." -Vincent Bevins, If We Burn
#Protest #Insurrection #Praxis #Psychology of #Revolution #Egypt #Brazil #Ukraine #HongKong
Future work often detracts from an outcome's appeal, while past effort tends to enhance it. #Psychology scholars uncover four distinct patterns in how individuals value effort: https://buff.ly/Q3SUcqB
Some people don't have an inner voice — and the idea is so new that a clinical name, anendophasia, was only proposed for it in a paper last year. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/04/05/world/science-health/no-inner-monologue-study/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #sciencehealth #brain #psychology #language
Excellent basic #psychology essay about battling self-doubt: https://writerunboxed.com/2025/04/03/the-rational-irrational-writer/
Although it's written for #writers and #writing, the ABCDE approach it takes can easily be applied to any endeavor. Feeling as if you're trying to succeed in something you can't? Take a break and read this.
Studied linguist and cognitive scientist who transformed into a software engineer.
Interested in #Anthropology, #Nutrition, #Sports, #Cognition and #Psychology, #Japanese, #Literature, #Minimalism or rather #Simplification.
I enjoy making #Music and writing things #writing. It’s the little things that matter.
DATE:
April 3, 2025 at 12:44PM
CHANNEL: Sam Bentley
TITLE:
These Spanish ladies crocheted a canopy to help cool down streets! #shorts
URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqERZLCfO1Q
DESCRIPTION:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqERZLCfO1Q
This robot is not affiliated with the channel.
#psychology #depression #goodnews #goodnewsthread #happy #happynews
#SpreadJoy #PositiveVibes #CommunityLove #SpreadLight #SamBentley #positivescience #science @goodnews
