When Chief Ken Bailey, head of Travis County Fire Rescue ESD No. 11, realized his organization had a problem with staff morale and turnover, he turned to an unlikely place for help: UT Austin’s Applied Psychology Research Lab, led by assistant research professor Alissa Mrazek. Bailey’s district serves a wedge of Travis County that stretches […]
Department of Psychology
Changing your mind about something as important as vaccination isn’t a sign of weakness – being open to new information is the smart way to make choices
Culturally, this is an era in which people are held in high esteem when they stick with their beliefs and negatively labeled as “flip-floppers” or “wishy-washy” when they change what they think.
A Language for Big Data Neuroscience
Imagine your brain activity displayed on a computer screen — multiple, bustling tabs open, some sparked by a fleeting thought, others derived from prior or underlying behaviors or features. Now imagine a scientist trying to make sense of that activity.
The Misinformation Age
Depending on whom you ask, conspiracy theories are either having a heyday or it’s just business as usual. But whether or not there is a long-term increase happening, certain factors likely influence the ebb and flow of conspiratorial beliefs.
Lead exposure during childhood may influence adult personality, and not for the better
Children raised in areas with more atmospheric lead pollution grew up to have less adaptive and less mature personalities, according to a study I led of over 1.5 million people across the U.S. and Europe.
A Look at Our Latest Books
2021 Spring and Summer titles from our college community.
Making the Most of Self-Care
March marked the one-year anniversary of the WHO declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic, and to say that it’s been a rough year would be an understatement. Whether we’ve lost loved ones, jobs, or simply the ability to distinguish between Sundays and Mondays, everyone is struggling under the weight of a constantly shifting “new normal.”
Why rituals are important survival tools during the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 has disrupted many aspects of daily life, including rituals both sacred and mundane.
Evidence of an impending breakup may exist in everyday conversation – months before either partner realizes their relationship is tanking
When doubts about a relationship start to creep in, people don’t just blurt them out.
Kind, Curious and Fearless
A Q&A with Anna Cash, a psychology senior from Austin who is passionate about law and justice.
A Psychologist’s Award-Winning Word Play
Before his research helped discover the healing powers of writing and the Secret Life of Pronouns, Jamie Pennebaker’s curiosity killed the crab.
Teaching, Learning and Living
Randy and Mary Diehl, 2020 Pro Bene Meritis award recipients, share a dedication for championing education and a joy for lifelong learning.
Three Ways Kids Can Learn through Play at Home
family and community. But recent shelter-in-place efforts have limited many of these routine yet vital experiences — especially because young kids can’t video call or text their friends as freely as others.
Rebooting Our Lives After COVID-19
The world’s new reality amid the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to confront issues and critically think about how to revive communities slowly, safely and sustainably.
Bring Your Brain to Work
In “Bring Your Brain to Work,” Art Markman shares what you need to know to succeed at work.
Breakthroughs in Brain Health: We’re Closer Than You Think
It might not seem like it when you’ve forgotten your email password for the third time in as many days, but your brain is capable of amazing things. It can instantly process the intricate sensory inputs needed to understand the world while simultaneously conducting motor neurons to navigate these landscapes. It can read complex emotions […]
Here Comes the Song: The Personalities Behind Your Favorite Beatles Lyrics
If Paul McCartney would have written “Yesterday” based on the first words that came to his mind, the song would sound like a concupiscent teen singing about breakfast: Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs… The melody of the song, which has been broadcasted on American radio more than 7 million times […]
Rising to the Challenge
Five years ago we opened the doors to a new College of Liberal Arts Building in the heart of campus. It was a milestone event, marking the first time students in our college had a place to call home. Departments and other units once scattered across campus were brought together in new collaborative spaces, as […]
Fashion Meets Function
Though an avid cyclist, Gloria Hwang was never a fan of helmets, referring to them as “sci-fi” nuisances. But after losing a friend through a cycling accident, her perspective changed. Hwang, a psychology alumna, says her mission in founding and launching Thousand, a new brand of cycling helmets, was to save lives, noting that there are […]
Can We Talk?: Why Discourse is Dying in America
I’ll have to admit that I was a bit perplexed when I heard linguistic anthropologist Elizabeth Keating say, “There is a very strong preference for agreement in conversation in the U.S.” I couldn’t believe my ears — even the Pew Research Center pegged political polarization as the defining feature of modern U.S. politics. And it’s […]
First Class: Rethinking Health Care Through the Liberal Arts
The doors of the Dell Medical School have opened for its first class of future doctors, and they are on a mission to get the training they need to make a difference in the lives of future patients, their communities and even medicine itself. Of the 50 members in the school’s inaugural class, three graduated […]
We’re Not Going to Eat It: Channeling Teens’ Appetite for Rebellion
During this school year in Texas we’re likely to see between 15 and 20 percent of teens with obesity and more than 15,000 cases of preventable forms of youth diabetes. We can do better, and it starts with the messaging teens receive. School administrators and parents currently try to explain to teens how their food […]
The Campaign for Your Vote: Just Add Brand Power
After months of being bombarded by pollsters, campaign ads and the most outlandish sound bites on repeat, the moment will come for you to finally cast your ballot. Whom will you choose? “The presidency is the one office that represents the American people: all their wishes, dreams, desires, hopes, fears and everything else,” says history […]
Forever Shakespeare: The Making of an Icon
Editor’s note: As the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death approaches, five UT Austin scholars share how they celebrate his work and his ultimate staying power. In 10 years, people won’t care about Kim Kardashian’s face-contouring regimen or that she had 35 million Twitter followers. But William Shakespeare? Four centuries after his death he’s still […]
Give it a Rest
Scientists have already established that resting the mind, as in daydreaming, helps strengthen memories of events and retention of information, but in a new twist, UT Austin researchers have found that the right kind of mental rest and reflection can actually help boost future learning. How our brains capture and store new information is heavily […]