News
Covid-19 Misconceptions Are Hard To Fight. Cognitive Psychology Might Help.
There are plenty of misconceptions about COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. And that’s especially true during a time when false information about the disease, the virus, and possible treatments is so hard to counteract. Different misconceptions about the coronavirus—about how it gets transmitted, and how it leads to COVID-19 complications, for example—can result from a limited […]
July 13, 2020
The ‘Murder Hornet’ Is Out to Get Bees, Not Humans. So Why Are People Still Freaking Out About It?
The arrival of the Asian giant hornet in the U.S. has sparked an outcry on social media, but entomologists say that people should not worry about the oversized wasps. Still, some people may be concerned, as the underlying nature of fear isn’t the same for everyone, says neuroscientist Ajay Satpute.
May 26, 2020
Your Child Is Feeling Sluggish. How Much Water Has She Had to Drink Today?
The more hydrated children are, the faster their reaction times and the better they are able to multitask, a new study co-authored by Northeastern professor Charles Hillman has found.
November 05, 2019
What’s on Your Mind (When You’re Scared out of It)
We all know fear. But so far, what happens inside the human brain during scary situations is still a big mystery.
October 30, 2019
We Know What We Know (Even When We Don’t Want To)
What’s preventing people from accepting that knowledge can be innate is itself innate.
October 18, 2019
AI’s Next Frontier: Stock Trading
Jesse Greif earned his B.S. in psychology at Northeastern. He now is an executive on Wall Street at OneChronos Markets, a new Alternative Trading System that uses AI and Machine Learning to facilitate stock trading.
October 03, 2019
Don't Go Wasting Your Emotion: Using Group Therapy to Teach
Samantha Goldman's experience leading group therapy taught her more than any textbook ever could. It also lead to her co-authoring a paper in the Spring 2019 volume of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society Journal.
September 03, 2019
Here’s the Secret to Unlocking Our Compassion in the Face of Mass Suffering
David DeSteno and Daniel Lim found that people are more likely to feel compassion in the face of mass suffering if they believe they can make a difference. Compassion, it seems, is a skill you can strengthen, which is great news for society in general.
August 23, 2019
What People Who Don’t like Music Might Tell Us about Social Interaction
Northeastern professors Ajay Satpute and Psyche Loui are studying the link between music and social interaction. They're asking whether the brain phenomenon that makes music undesirable to five percent of the population is also what impairs social bonding in people with autism spectrum disorders.
August 09, 2019
Do Hormones Affect a Woman’s Ability to Recover from PTSD?
Rebecca Shansky is studying how levels of estriadol, an estrogen hormone, affect the treatment of women with PTSD.
July 26, 2019
Of Mice and Women
Victorian-era stereotypes that were originally used to keep women out of leadership positions are still with us today, says Rebecca Shansky, an associate professor of psychology at Northeastern. And they're interfering with scientific research.
July 25, 2019
You Think You Can Read Facial Expressions? You’re Wrong.
Everything from emotion-reading AI to TSA terror threat recognition training relies on the assumption that emotions can be deciphered from basic and universal facial expressions. A new study by Northeastern professor Lisa Feldman Barrett shows that the evidence has always been saying otherwise.
July 22, 2019
Remembering Harlan Lane, Northeastern Professor and Tireless Advocate for the Deaf Community
Harlan Lane, who helped establish the American Sign Language Program at Northeastern, will be remembered for being a tireless champion and advocate for the Deaf community. He died on July 13, at 82 years old.
July 16, 2019
Most Biomedical Research is Done on Male Animals. That’s a Public Health Problem.
Rebecca Shansky, assistant professor of psychology, was studying how rats handle stressful experiences when she noticed female rats respond differently.
May 31, 2019