Just in time for Halloween, we talk about the psychology of strange stuff – including ghostly visitations, alien abductions, ESP, and more – with Chris French, PhD, head of the anomalistic psychology unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. French discusses how psychological explanations such as sleep paralysis and inattentional blindness could underlie many people’s paranormal experiences, and the role of skepticism and science in testing and evaluating paranormal claims.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there anything more agonizing than being in limbo? Time may seem to slow to a crawl when you’re waiting for high-stakes news like a hiring decision, a biopsy result – or the end of a pandemic. Kate Sweeny, PhD, of the University of California, Riverside, discusses what makes waiting so stressful, how the stress of waiting differs from other types of stress, the relationship between waiting and worrying, and strategies people can use to lessen anxiety and make waiting easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stoic. Self-reliant. Unemotional. For many men, these watchwords of traditional masculinity still hold powerful sway. Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues, they die by suicide more often, and they commit and are the victims of more homicides. Ronald F. Levant, EdD, discusses how cultural expectations of masculinity affect men’s mental and physical health, how our ideas of masculinity have changed over time and what psychologists have learned about how to reach out to men. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many people, the stereotypical image of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is an 8-year-old boy who can’t sit still in class. But in recent decades, scientists have gained a more sophisticated understanding of the causes and lifelong consequences of the disorder. Margaret Sibley, PhD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital, talks about the biological underpinnings of ADHD, what researchers have learned about how it manifests in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, treatment options, and why the pandemic may have caused an uptick in ADHD diagnoses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On hot-button topics such as climate change, vaccines and genetically modified foods, science denial is rampant – and it crosses party and ideological lines. What are the psychological forces that lead people to disbelieve scientific consensus?  Is science denial worse than it’s ever been? How have the internet and social media changed the landscape of science skepticism? Psychologists Barbara Hofer of Middlebury College and Gale Sinatra of the University of Southern California, authors of the book “Science Denial: Why it Happens and What to Do About it,” discuss these and other questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can you learn from the science of behavior change that can help you make the changes you want to see in your life? Katy Milkman, PhD, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book “How to Change,” discusses the importance of accurately identifying the behavioral roadblocks standing in your way, how specific strategies such as “temptation bundling” and creating fresh starts can help you achieve your goals, how to turn laziness to your advantage by setting the right defaults, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human memory is imperfect – we all misplace our keys, forget acquaintances’ names and misremember the details of our own past. Daniel Schacter, PhD, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, discusses why memory is so fallible, the causes and consequences of the most common memory errors, how memory changes as we age, and how memory is tied to our ability to plan for the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week marks 20 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Researchers call this kind of shared disaster a “collective trauma.” Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD, of the University of California Irvine, who studies collective trauma and led a multi-year study on the mental and physical health effects of 9/11, discusses that research and how what we learned in the aftermath of 9/11 can inform our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, wildfires and the other large-scale disasters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is power? Why do people seek it and how do they get it? Is it human nature to abuse power? And how might power – or powerlessness – affect our health and wellbeing? Dacher Keltner, PhD, psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the book “The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence,” discusses these and other questions. Links Greater Good Science Center The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence Speaking of Psychology Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The mental health of athletes has been in the news a lot this year, thanks to Olympians Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles. The attention may be new, but the field of sport psychology is not. How do sport psychologists work with athletes? How might athletes’ mental health affect the public perception of mental health? As a mental performance consultant for the U.S. Paralympic team and a former competitive gymnast, Dr. Jamie Shapiro understands the challenges athletes face.   Speaking of Psychology - Listener Survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices