A true learning experience. Acting outside the classroom!

Last summer, students, refugees, academics, and practitioners from different nations and disciplines came together to explore the complexity of migration, the problems around it, and alternatives to current practices in policy and society at the RUG. The summer school ‘Migration Matters’ resulted in three concrete student initiatives to improve the lives of refugees.

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Hate-groups, Trump, and a lot of angry people

Make America great again, or make America hate again? Trump’s campaign has raised many troubling questions. He has at various stages proposed building a wall and purging illegal immigrants, or retweeted the messages of Neo-Nazi fanatics. Yet still, his popularity is huge. And this popularity will continue after election day.   Will today, the 8th […]

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I F***ing Love YOUNG Science Conference

A few weeks ago, Marco Egle and Timothy Sondej, graduates of the Psychology Bachelor and Research Master students in Groningen, co-organised the I F***ing Love YOUNG Science Conference in Groningen. Their aim was to showcase exciting research projects by PhD students in Groningen and connect them with students who may be considering following a career […]

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Don’t pretend it is not WEIRD

Psychologists tend to make statements about human nature or how “people in general” behave. However, 80% of psychological studies are conducted with W.E.I.R.D (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) samples. People falling in this category are just a fraction of the world’s population and are therefore not representable of the world’s population.

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The perks of growing up bilingually

There appear to be clear differences between bilinguals and monolinguals. Within the last 30 years, an evolution took place from a very negative view towards being raised bilingual to a view that underlines the benefits of bilingualism. Findings nowadays are relating bilingualism to better attention, multitasking and a delay in the onset Alzheimer’s disease.

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Throw it in the box!

Black boxes are mechanisms, systems, or tools that we use without knowledge or interest in how they work internally; instead we look only at the input and output, or stimulus and response. Psychology, in its drive to establish itself as a hard science, appears to accept the closing of its black boxes with too great a readiness. What I suggest here is simply that we would benefit from a more scrupulous assessment of the validity and pragmatism of the black boxes we create, endorse and use within our field.

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Treat the patients, not just the symptoms: What we can learn from homeopathy

Homeopathy is a domain of alternative medicine that has no scientific plausibility. However, many people are convinced of its effectiveness because they are fooled by the unconscious psychological mechanisms homeopaths utilize for treatment. One of these mechanisms is the patients’ positive reaction to the empathy homeopaths show during consultations.

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