Social psychologists investigated why Facebook users post profile pics of themselves with a romantic partner and how those online displays are interpreted by others.
Flowers and messages are placed at a memorial for Kobe Bryant in front of Staples Center in Los Angeles.
AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu
A new study highlights the importance of the ‘intergroup sensitivity effect’ in comedy, which gives people license to tell certain jokes, but not others.
A big discrepancy exists between the actual threat of mass shootings and the way the public perceives that threat.
Tatiana Akhmetgalieva/Shutterstock.com
You’re just as likely to be a victim of a mass shooting as you are to be struck by lightning. So why do nearly 50% of Americans say they’re afraid of being caught in the crossfire?
How do you pronounce ‘Muslim’? What about ‘spiel’?
Linda Staf/Shutterstock.com
Inequality, poverty, austerity, pollution and a faster pace of life all put strains on city-dwellers – but insights from psychology could help create a more supportive urban environment.
A waxwork likeness of Tom Hanks as Forest Gump at the Hollywood Wax Museum.
shutterstock
It’s a psychological quirk that when something becomes rarer, people may spot it in more places than ever. What is the ‘concept creep’ that lets context change how we categorize the world around us?
Say cheese … or not. A woman works a stand at a cheese festival in Moscow, Russia.
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
In the US, smiling is a reflexive gesture of goodwill, but Russians view it as a sign of stupidity. Social psychology research could help explain this cultural contrast.
They only seem to grow up so fast.
VCoscaron/Shutterstock.com
We can disagree with co-workers in meetings. We can argue about sports with friends. A new study explores why politics seems to be an entirely different beast.
Provost Professor of Psychology and Marketing and co-director of the Dornsife Mind & Society Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences