For the last few weeks, the nationwide instructions have been clear: Keep your distance in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. But not everyone adheres to these rules. There are even “lockdown parties”, where groups of students party behind closed doors. Why do people partake in such behaviour? And even more important: How can we convince them to stop?
In many roles, as a student, citizen, or participant in an experiment, a certain obedience is expected of us. But how obedient are we actually, and is it always desirable?
In neuroscience, we not only try to find out how the brain works, but also what can go wrong in the brain and how we can solve such problems. But how far should we go with this?
Everyone is afraid of something; for instance, I have an excessive aversion towards moths. Not a big deal as long as this fear does not debilitate your daily life. Do you want to free yourself of it anyway? Read here about how you can get rid of your fears.
The association between violent videogames and aggression has already been a topic of discussion for years, if not decades. However, scientific research shows inconsistent results. Why do studies disagree?
If you ask scientists why they conduct research, they often give the grandest of reasons: curing diseases, ending world hunger, or ending our dependence on fossil fuels. I found out you can be in science with a relatively smaller goal, and that that’s okay.
In science, we not only try to show correlations between things, but we also try to say something about the underlying cause and what its effect is (causation). In most cases, we can only investigate correlations. It is thus important to know how causation works.
(Social) science needs participants, whether we like it or not. Without participants there is no data, and without data there is no knowledge. The reliability of our findings is inseparable from the identity of our participants and how we are able to motivate them.
Houseplants are more popular than ever and the media are eagerly responding to this. Experts and random websites alike claim that houseplants can cause all kinds of cognitive and psychological benefits. But is this true?
Monday morning, 10:45, you are on a tram in Utrecht on your way to work when a man suddenly pulls out a gun. What do you do: Run towards it or run away? Or are you not making this choice so consciously at all?