Stress in your mind: mind the stress? Severe stress can affect our somatic well-being – but is part of this stress created in our minds? A recent meta-analysis on the link between worrying and the physiological stress response suggests that worrying does indeed affect our heart and hormones. Bart Verkuil • February 08, 2016
A little note about nepotism After 3 years in a non-tenure-track position at his local university, the internationally qualified Budi was passed over for a tenure-track position in favor of the Rector’s young and inexperienced relatives. Nepotism in action… Omar Khalifa Burhan • February 02, 2016
Why being wrong is better than being right (if you’re a model). When estimating the relationship between two variables we want this estimate to be as close to the true relationship as possible, right? Wrong. Often an estimate that is wrong is better than one that is right. Wouter Weeda • January 28, 2016
Are teenagers really missing part of their brain? Sabine Peters has investigated how the development of cognitive and affective brain regions relates to learning and risk-taking behavior. Brain regions for cognitive control can be recruited by children and adolescents. Sabine Peters • January 19, 2016
Interfering with the hormonal system: oral contraceptive use In the Netherlands, about 37 percent of women aged between 18 and 49 use oral contraceptives¹, taking them on average for 12 years of their lives. Why do so many of us interfere with our hormonal systems, and what are the effects on brain and behavior? Jiska Peper • January 12, 2016
Discussing alcohol: To speak or not to speak? Say you’re asked to improve public health by designing an intervention that stimulates interpersonal communication, based on the idea that discussing unhealthy behaviors stimulates people to behave in a more healthy way. Would it work and why (or why not)? Hanneke Hendriks • December 21, 2015
New World Stereotyping Recent events in America highlight the continued plague of racism on society. Here, I describe the nature of stereotypes in other parts of the New World with a legacy of slavery and suggest that such stereotypes have an impact on racism. Lasana Harris • December 17, 2015
Buying happiness or stress? The role of empathy in Christmas shopping A few weeks before Christmas most people seem to be stressed out about what to buy their loved ones. But why do we make such an effort in buying all these gifts? Sandy Overgaauw • December 09, 2015
In love with a robot? Getting intimate with a robot… it may perhaps seem a bit of a weird idea. Why would anybody want to? Roy de Kleijn • November 24, 2015
