If some actors, singers, sportsmen, or presenters are considered safe bets in terms of influence and attract many brands, even international stars with a very good image can fall from their pedestal overnight. Influencers – in the broad sense of the term – are indeed regularly involved in all kinds of scandals . This was the case of […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Are virtual influencers more powerful than human influencers?
Don’t get me wrong, gossiping can actually be beneficial for our work and social life
Gossip is often seen as bad. When you hear the word gossip, what often comes to people’s minds is usually from hot news about celebrities to bad behavior of teenagers shown on television shows Gossip Girl. Although often thought of as mere rumours, gossip has turned out to be an important part of politics and shows how the world […] … learn more→
One way to help college students get enough sleep – pay them to go to bed
Small financial incentives can get college students to go to bed earlier and sleep significantly longer. That’s what my colleagues and I found through an experiment that involved 508 students at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Oxford. When the students were offered US$7.50 per night Monday through Thursday – a total of $30 per […] … learn more→
Facing the risk of networks: ten ‘lifelines’ for digital orphans
Learning to navigate the digital environment and to socialize in it has been an intuitive process for the younger generations, digital natives. But they have done it, in most cases, without adults to accompany them in the process, so they can be considered “digital orphans” . For example: 53% of young Spanish people are unable to distinguish between facts […] … learn more→
Why do we sometimes mistake robots for humans?
Look at these two pictures. Which robot do you think is the smartest? The most sociable? The warmest? The most aware of his surroundings? In the majority of cases, people choose the second robot. However, in both cases, we are evaluating a set of electronic and mechanical components. So why do we distinguish between these two robots? Because under certain conditions […] … learn more→
How to help students with post-holiday syndrome
The holidays are coming to an end and the students are preparing for a new course. The joy of meeting their classmates again, and the enthusiasm to meet their new teacher or the desire to wear the new backpack or the pencil case that we just bought, sometimes certain nerves join. For many students, going back […] … learn more→
Parents and screen time: are you a ‘contract maker’ or an ‘access denier’ with your child?
Screen time was a battle for parents before COVID and it continues to be a battle, long after lockdowns have ended. The Royal Children’s Hospital March 2021 child health poll found too much screen time was parents’ number-one health concern about their kids, with more than 90% of surveyed parents saying it’s a problem. We are researchers […] … learn more→
Why do we like to see people read?
A few years ago the dating website eHarmony found that profiles that included reading in their list of hobbies were more attractive to the opposite sex. Specifically, the data revealed that men who mention reading as one of their personal interests receive 19% more messages, although, in the case of women, those who claimed to read received only […] … learn more→
College students are increasingly identifying beyond ‘she’ and ‘he’
When students today fill out their college applications, they are not just identifying as “she” or “he.” More than 3% of incoming college students use a different set of pronouns. That’s according to my analysis of the more than 1.2 million applications submitted for the 2022-23 school year through the Common App, an online application […] … learn more→
Stories not only amuse us, they also change our brains
Until a few years ago it was thought that watching series, reading novels or enjoying any other form of narrative fiction was only for entertainment. It was believed that the fiction and reality that we live every day were like oil and water: they could not mix and could not influence each other. However, today […] … learn more→
