Hand Gestures And Sexist Language: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links

Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web It’s wrong to say that introverts have fared better during the pandemic, writes Lis Ku at The Conversation. Instead, studies have shown that in many ways introverts’ wellbeing has suffered more than that of extraverts. This could be because extraverts may have more social support, for instance, or because extraversion is related to superior coping strategies — although Ku emphasises that there are likely many other traits, beliefs and values that are also important in determining people’s response to lockdown. A new trial suggests that the psychedelic drug psilocybin could be as good as existing antidepressant drugs at treating depression, when it is combined with psychotherapy. However, researchers caution that more work with larger, more diverse samples is needed before the drug could be used outside of a research setting, reports Nicola Davis at The Guardian. ­When the queen of a colony of Indian jumping ants dies, the worker ants compete to become the new queen. Now researchers have discovered that in the process, these would-be-queens shrink their brains by about 20%. The team suspects that this is because there are fewer cognitive demands placed on an ant whose primary job is simply to reproduce, reports Annie Roth at The New York Times, so energy that would be going to the workers’ brains is better spent on the reproductive system instead. Why are older...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs