Why Mainstream Media Abandons Major Stories
Study proposes a new bias: The tendency to assume one has adequate information to make a decision
New experimental data support the idea that people tend to assume the information they have is adequate to comprehend a given situation, without considering that they might be lacking key information. Hunter Gehlbach of Johns Hopkins University and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 9, 2024.
Is social media fueling political polarisation?
Florida effectively bans AP Psychology course over LGBTQ content, College Board says
Florida "effectively banned" Advanced Placement Psychology classes in the state due to the course's content on sexual orientation and gender identity, the College Board said Thursday.
The state's Department of Education informed the College Board that its AP Psychology class is in violation of state law, the higher education nonprofit said in a statement. Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act, or what critics have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law, restricts the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state's classrooms.
Demolishing Schools After a Mass Shooting Reflects Humans’ Deep-Rooted Desire for Purification Rituals
Media Bias Alert: AP and Reuters’ Fact Checks on “Mass Formation Psychosis”
The Rittenhouse jurors watch video, but that can't be counted on to prevent bias
Ideally, the 12 men and women who serve as the jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial would base their final judgement solely on the evidence and testimony presented to them.
But humans don't necessarily work that way.
According to psychologists who spoke with NPR, jurors come into the courtroom with their own belief systems, experiences and identities, which all factor into how they decide on a verdict — or even what they see in a video.
Cops Talk Less Respectfully to Black People Than White at Traffic Stops, According to Science
Cops are more friendly to white drivers than Black during traffic stops—and now, science proves it.
In a study published earlier this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition, a group of researchers and professors analyzed the audio from traffic stops to understand if cops treat Black and white men differently during these encounters.
The big reveal: Cops talk differently and more negatively to Black drivers than white ones during traffic stops, aggravating tension between law enforcement and minority communities.
Language around mental health — like gender, race and sexuality — needs reconsideration
A reassessment of language has taken place in newsrooms across the country over the past several years — and rightfully continues. While a reckoning over race, gender and sexuality has changed what’s covered and how, the discussion around the language and use of terminology related to mental health appears to be lagging.
Even as a litany of stories about work-life balance and why to stop doomscrolling have proliferated during the pandemic, the language used in hard news, features and the culture at large really hasn’t changed.
This Is Your Brain on Critical Race Theory
Last week, the actor Tom Hanks responded to calls for a more robust accounting of America’s racial history by penning a piece in the New York Times about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. “For all my study,” Hanks conceded, “I never read a page of any school history book about how, in 1921, a mob of white people burned down a place called Black Wall Street, killed as many as 300 of its Black citizens and displaced thousands of Black Americans who lived in Tulsa, Okla.”