Psychology

Netflix is the big name in streaming, virtually everyone who has any interest in digital shows has heard of them, but they still give you a free trial. No matter your size, and even if it's an existing customer, it makes good business sense, finds a new paper. Give an existing company something free? The analysis looked at a tel-com that offered free mobile phone data to existing users - an offer they could share the offer with friends. The company used their brand to create social currency, so it benefited the company, the customer, and their friends. And it was the most active customers…

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger is a popular phrase, but how true it ever was is unclear. Bones are not stronger after they break and while some people relax about small drama after real trauma, many also become more sensitized to stress instead of more resilient. An analysis in the British Journal of Psychiatry examined 1,160 Chileans in 2003 and 2011, both before and after the sixth-most-powerful earthquake on record and subsequent tsunami struck their country in 2010. When the first survey was done in 2003, none of the participants admitted to a history of post-traumatic stress…

A new study has found that even when it comes to something as broad as "wellness" such wellness programs have little recognizable impact on employee health, health beliefs, or medical utilization. All things they were supposed to improve.  Because wellness programs were given government legitimacy by the Obama administration under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, companies are spending money on them. Providing such programs became an industry in its own right, because the ACA provided incentives for firms to adopt them using financial benefits for program participants. Now, 84 percent of…

When states and nations began to implement forced lockdowns to combat COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that has now killed 20,000 more people than the flu did two years ago, there was relatively little mention of mental health. For those who wanted to stay home and learn to bake bread, it was a paid vacation, but for those more susceptible to psychological stress it is a risky time. A recent review of other studies obviously does not have meaningful data on coronavirus but pandemics like SARS, MERS, H1N1 can inform how people with mental health issues reacted to concerns about biological…

Young people who are “hooked” on watching fantasy or reading science fiction may be on to something. Contrary to a common misperception that reading this genre is an unworthy practice, reading science fiction and fantasy may help young people cope, especially with the stress and anxiety of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a professor with research interests in the social, ethical and political messages in science fiction. In my book “Medicine and Ethics in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction,” I explore the ways science fiction promotes understanding of human differences and ethical…

In 2000, vaccines led to the measles virus being declared eliminated from the United States yet in 2019 there were 1,282 confirmed cases in 31 states - the greatest number reported since 1992. Unsurprisingly, nearly three-fourths originated from New York which, along with the west coast, has long been a hotbed for vaccine denial. And the cases occurred in people not vaccinated against measles.  A new paper tries to come up with a possible explanation for why vaccine hesitant people side with vaccine deniers and put the perception of the precautionary principle ahead of the actual…

Journalist Chris Cuomo and his spouse were criticized after endorsing a variety of nonsense products recommended by their "naturopath" to treat his COVID-19 - claims that involved light energy, tinctures and a variety of useless placebos. They are more common than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration either realizes or is willing to admit. Maybe they don't worry more because President Clinton's Dietary Supplement and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) tied their hands, and $35 billion a year in bogus products are allowed to bilk the public if they simply put a tiny disclaimer at the bottom…

Up to one in five women will develop postpartum depression, a condition that can adversely affect the thoughts, emotions and functioning of mothers, as well as the mental health of their partners and children. Adjusting to parenthood after delivery is challenging under normal circumstances, let alone in the midst of a global pandemic. Concerns about exposure to COVID-19, combined with physical distancing recommendations, can worsen depression and decrease access to the resources, such as health care and social supports, that women typically use to build resilience and promote recovery.…

There are a number of drugs that may be beneficial in treating coronavirus but how do we convey that a treatment is not a cure? And that what prevents one disease may not prevent another when used off-label? How can outlets stress the importance of preventing spread of SARS-CoV-2, the 2019 coronavirus that set off the flu in Wuhan, China, late 2019, later called COVID-19, without conflating cases of the virus with cases of the disease? If you are old enough to remember the early days of AIDS, you can recall what happened when journalists used the virus and the disease interchangeably. Doctors…

How many people on a survey would respond positively that they'd hoard goods at the expense of others? Very few. On surveys, 78 percent of Americans disagree with even 'no victim' greed like being paid more than someone else to do the same job and yet if there is one thing that California's reaction to 335 cases of COVID-19 in a state of 40,000,000 has shown, it is that at the first sign of trouble it's all about greed. And it makes no difference if you are a CEO or an employee, a Democrat or, in California, even more of a Democrat. Nearly everyone is doing it. There has been no disruption to…