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Psychology

Amid the Derek Chauvin case, America’s fixation with televised trials is not new

Amid the Derek Chauvin case, America’s fixation with televised trials is not new

PIK Professor Adrian Raine spoke about human fascination with murder, saying evolutionary forces may be a factor. “We've evolved to avoid being killed so that we can reproduce our genes. One thing that can help here is to learn as much as possible about two things—who the killer is, and why the victim was killed,” he said.

Behavior Change for Good unveils effective strategies to boost vaccination rates
A person standing in the front of a classroom holding a pointer, smiling. Blurry water bottles appear in the foreground.

Katy Milkman co-directs the Behavior Change for Good initiative with Penn’s Angela Duckworth. Milkman is also the James G. Dinan Endowed Professor and a professor of operations, information, and decisions at the Wharton School. She has a secondary appointment in the Perelman School of Medicine. (Image: Eric Sucar)

Behavior Change for Good unveils effective strategies to boost vaccination rates

Texts with “reserved for you” messaging boosted flu vaccine rates by up to 11%.

Michele W. Berger

The free speech debate about social media is broken

The free speech debate about social media is broken

Research by Paul Rozin of the School of Arts & Sciences was cited. Rozin conducted an experiment in which participants labeled two identical bottles of sugar differently and then expressed reluctance to consume the contents of the one they’d labeled “sodium cyanide,” even though they knew the bottle contained sugar.

An ‘electronic nose’ to sniff out COVID-19
nanotube chips for the electronic nose

An ‘electronic nose’ to sniff out COVID-19

Through a newly funded grant, researchers across the University are developing a device that can rapidly detect COVID-19 based on the disease’s unique odor profile.

Erica K. Brockmeier

The science of reasoning with unreasonable people

The science of reasoning with unreasonable people

Adam Grant of the Wharton School wrote a piece, adapted from his book “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know,” about helping people find the motivation to change. “You do that by interviewing them—asking open-ended questions and listening carefully—and holding up a mirror so they can see their own thoughts more clearly,” Grant wrote. “If they express a desire to change, you guide them toward a plan.”

Children persist less when parents take over
A young girl doing a math problem at a whiteboard. The numbers 25, 49, and 14 are visible.

Children persist less when parents take over

According to research from Penn psychologists, kids ages 4 to 7 persevere longer when allowed to struggle through a challenging activity than if a grown-up steps in.

Michele W. Berger