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Articles by Art Markman Ph.D
Political Moderates May Not Be Liked by Either Side
Political moderates hold views in between those of people who are strongly partisan. Partisans often see moderates as being less like them than like the other side. This effect is strongest when the issue is one that creates an emotional reaction. This effect seems to be driven by partisans looking at whether moderates dislike their political opponents. Source: Image created with Midjourney 10/7/26 These days, it feels like the political world has become incredibly polarized.
Whatever Happened to Implicit Attitudes?
The early research in implicit bias got a lot of attention. Measures of implicit attitudes had a lot of variability and did not predict much behavior. Research explored whether the measures could be improved. Current work suggests these measures may predict what is happening societally rather than individually. In the mid-1990s, there was an uptick in interest in the concept of implicit attitude (sometimes called implicit bias).
Whatever Happened to Implicit Attitudes?
Source: Image generated with Midjourney, 9/21/26 In the mid-1990s, there was an uptick in interest in the concept of implicit attitude (sometimes called implicit bias).
Beliefs About Willpower Affect Whether You Try Hard Tasks
Source: Image AI-generated with Midjourney 9/10/26 Think about the people in your life. Some of them always seem to look for the easiest path through a situation. They avoid challenges. Others seek challenges out. They test their mental and physical limits, even when that isn’t required. Recent Exploration of the Roots of Challenge-Seeking Behavior What might drive this difference?
Do Americans Believe Diversity Is the Enemy of Meritocracy?
Source: Image generated with ChatGPT July 8, 2026 As I am writing this in 2026 in the United States, there has been a backlash against decades of work on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. The idea behind DEI efforts is that a variety of structural factors within American society have made it more difficult for qualified candidates from particular demographic groups to get entry into elite jobs and positions.
In the United States, Political Belief Change Feels Risky
Source: Image generated with Google Gemini June 23, 2026 It is no surprise that many countries, including the United States, are politically polarized. A key aspect of polarization is that on a number of key issues extreme and diametrically opposing beliefs are held by members of opposing parties. At present in the US, for example, Democrats typically favor access to abortion for women, while Republicans favor significant restrictions on abortion.
Creative Punishments May Be Good for Minor Infractions
A creative punishment is one in which the transgressor experiences the harm they created. A typical punishment is something like a suspension or jail time. For minor infractions, creative punishments are preferred to equivalent typical punishments. It is a standard assumption that if you do something wrong, you should be punished for your action. Young children are put in time-out for breaking the rules.
Creative Punishments May Be Good for Minor Infractions
It is a standard assumption that if you do something wrong, you should be punished for your action. Young children are put in time-out for breaking the rules. Grade school students go to detention or get suspended from school for talking back to the teacher or getting in a fight. We expect that people who break the law will receive a fine or jail time.
People Prefer the Truth on Social Media
Source: Image generated with Google Gemini May 11, 2026 There is a lot of concern about the impact of social media on the kind of information that people encounter that shapes their beliefs about the world. Misinformation about science and politics can influence voting behavior, support for research, and people’s health-related actions. Because of the importance of this topic, it should not be surprising that this issue has become the target of psychology research.
People Prefer the Truth on Social Media - Art Markman Ph.d
Research explored people's ability to distinguish true from untrue social media statements. They were pretty good at making this distinction, even when the statements were written with an LLM. People found true statements more persuasive than untrue statements. This finding held even when the statements were designed to be attention-grabbing. There is a lot of concern about the impact of social media on the kind of information that people encounter that shapes their beliefs about the world.
Who Do People Think They Are?
Source: AI-generated / Google Gemini / April 28, 2026 If I asked you to describe your most important traits, what would you say? Do you see yourself as hard-working, high-achieving, or good with people? Chances are, you have some beliefs about what characteristics are at your core. Perhaps surprisingly, this question has not been a focus of much work in psychology. Instead, researchers have focused on understanding a variety of personality traits.
It’s Helpful to Treat Sharing Fake News as a Moral Issue
The costs and benefits of social media have been well-documented. These platforms enable people to connect with others across the world and to stay in contact with friends, family, and colleagues; however, social media also allows people to surround themselves with stories that reinforce their biases and to be bombarded with fake news. One significant source of fake news is when people encounter and share stories that promote a particular viewpoint despite dubious claims.
It Matters That Failures Are Underreported
People encounter more discussions of success than failure. This leads people to underestimate the likelihood of failure in many contexts. This bias can be fixed by changing the information people are exposed to. Changing people's beliefs about failure affects their tendency to punish or support others. Source: Image generated with Google Gemini March 18, 2026 There is an interesting paradox related to failure.
Can Procrastinators Change?
Procrastination reflects people's avoidance of hard tasks, despite negative consequences of that avoidance. There are individual differences in the tendency to procrastinate. New research suggests that this tendency decreases from young adulthood onward. Entering the workforce affects people's tendency to procrastinate.
Young People See Fewer Win-Win Situations Than Older People
Source: Image created with Gemini February 24, 2026 Many aspects of life fall into the general category of zero-sum situations, in which a benefit to one person requires that others suffer a loss. Obviously, we structure sporting events as zero-sum, so that a victory by one team requires that the other team loses. But many situations in life are not zero-sum. If I choose to improve my physical fitness, that need not affect anyone else’s level of fitness.
Why Do Neurotic People Have So Many Negative Feelings?
People high (rather than low) in neuroticism experience more negative feelings and fewer positive feelings. New research suggests this reflects that neuroticism influences the experience of negative events. Surprisingly, neuroticism also makes people experience positive events more positively. This work has implications for how to help people high in neuroticism experience less negative affect.
Beliefs About a Person’s True Self Affects Our Evaluations
We make judgments about other people based on the decisions they make as well as the bases of those decisions. If you find out that someone visited sick people in the hospital, you might think that they are a good person. If you find out that they only did so because someone else forced them to do it, then you might be less impressed with their character. So what happens when someone experiences an inner conflict about a decision? How does that affect our judgments of them?
Can Good Learners Judge How Well They Learned?
Your ability to think about your own thinking is called metacognition. One form of metacognition is your ability to judge whether you learned something after studying it. These judgments of learning are helpful for allocating study time. Research suggests that good learners have inaccuracies in their judgments that enhance learning. Source: Image generated with Microsoft Copilot, October 1, 2025 Learning new information is a lifelong process.
Using Chess to Study Overconfidence
Source: Image generated with Microsoft Copilot It is well-known that people tend to be overconfident in their abilities. You may overestimate your chances of getting an interview for a job, answering a question correctly, or succeeding at a New Year’s resolution. There are times when this overconfidence can be a bonus, because it leads you to try harder at tasks, which can make you more likely to succeed.
How Does Your Motivation Affect the Achievement of Goals?
Source: Image generated with Microsoft Copilot, September 12, 2025 At various times in your life, you have probably decided to make a change in your life. Perhaps on New Year’s Day or a birthday, or after the death of a loved one, you have resolved to do things differently moving forward. If you’re like most people, though, you have had mixed success at actually achieving those goals.
Social Interaction Affects Memory
Source: Image generated with Microsoft Copilot September 8, 2025 Memory isn’t just a mechanism for storing all of the information you encounter. Instead, it helps you to hold onto information that is likely to be useful for reducing effort in the future. That is why, for example, when you work hard on something, you’re more likely to remember it later.
The Emotional Benefits of Forgiveness
Research examined the influence of forgiveness on memory. There is both memory for the detail of an event and memory for emotions. Forgiveness has its primary influence on the intensity of emotion elicited by an event. The effects are similar for victims and perpetrators. Source: Image generated with Microsoft Copilot August 27, 2025 It is a fact of life that people do wrong to others. People may harm a person they know, or they may harm a stranger.
Monitoring Performance Slows the Perception of Progress
People evaluate progress by taking observations. Observations taken more frequently lead to lower assessments of progress compared to those taken infrequently. This finding can lead to bad performance evaluations at work.
How Your Values Affect What You Share on Social Media
Source: Image generated with AI June 11, 2025 If you have an account on a social media platform, then chances are, you have probably reshared something with your network that someone else shared first. It might be a meme, a good joke, or a news story. That tendency to share content has a potential dark side because it can lead to the spread of misinformation. For this reason, it is valuable to understand the factors that drive people to share news stories they encounter on social media.
Incentives and Discovery
Discovery involves several thinking processes. Incentives can often improve outcomes of people's work. Incentives do not seem to make people more likely to discover complex or subtle things. Incentives do increase the time people spend on tasks, which can promote discoveries over the long-term. Source: Image generated with AI on June 3, 2025 Discoveries have a big impact on the economy. Many large and profitable companies are rooted in technologies that start with scientific advances.
Extreme Weather Can Increase Social Media Use
Source: Image generated with AI March 19, 2025 As I discussed in a recent post, there is some evidence that social media use can harm your sense of well-being, though you can learn to use it more effectively. Given the influences of social media on people, it would be useful to understand the factors that drive social media usage. A 2025 paper in Psychological Science by Kelton Minor, Estevan Moro, and Nick Obradovich looked at the influence of the weather on social media usage.
Counteracting the Effects of Misinformation
Misinformation is everywhere. Stating that misinformation is not actually true helps a bit. New studies suggest that providing other facts that compete with misinformation is effective. This "bypassing" strategy is particularly effective when people base attitudes on their memories. Source: Image generated with AI March 14, 2025 It is hard to escape false information in the modern world.
How Can You Address Effects of Social Media on Well-Being?
Social media can harm well-being. Study of teens and emerging adults tested influence of abstinence and reframing training. Both decreased behaviors associated with poor outcomes. Reframing improved measures of well-being. Source: Image generated with AI March 5, 2025 There is a pervasive belief (backed up by evidence) that extensive social media use harms well-being, particularly in teens and emerging adults. Why does that happen, and what can be done about it?
Many People Avoid Studying Properly
Explaining material to yourself is a great way to learn complex things. People often select other strategies to study instead. The more you believe you already understand the material, the more likely you are to choose to self-explain. Helping people to understand that self-explanations are useful can lead more people to select this strategy. Source: Image generated with AI February 26, 2025 When you’re trying to learn something new, it is useful to create desirable difficulties.
Many People Avoid Studying Properly
1 day ago A growing number of new studies have found that, at least for some cells, death isn’t the end, but the beginning of something wholly unexpected. The biological cycle of our existence seems relatively straightforward: we’re born, we live, we die. The end. But when you examine existence at the cellular …
Language Helps You Understand Events You See
Source: Image generated with AI, December 10, 2024 Suppose you watch someone make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. As you watch, you can probably divide the activities they perform into steps, like taking out two slices of bread or spreading the jelly on one of the slices. As you watch this activity happening, what enables you to break this event up into its component parts? Having seen an event, you can remember it later. This memory may help you to perform the same action later.
Apparently, Failure Is Overrated
Source: Picture generated with AI 10/30/24 Perhaps the tritest advice in self-help books over the past two decades is that we should not be afraid to fail. Failure is held up as a motivator, a learning experience, and a badge of honor. And there are certainly a lot of examples of prominent successful people who overcame failure on their pathway to riches, fame, and glory.
How Are Shame, Guilt, and Embarrassment Different?
Embarrassment, guilt, and shame often feel similar. They are all emotions you experience after you feel like you have done something wrong. Shame and guilt are stronger than embarrassment. Shame often involves aspects of self, while guilt often involves aspects of behavior. Source: Image generated with AI, October 1, 2024 When you feel bad about something you did, there are a variety of emotions you might experience. You might experience embarrassment for making a mistake during a performance.
How Are Shame, Guilt, and Embarrassment Different? - Art Markman Ph.d
When you feel bad about something you did, there are a variety of emotions you might experience. You might experience embarrassment for making a mistake during a performance. You might feel guilty for making someone else feel bad by making a rude remark. You might be ashamed after drinking too much at a party and saying something rude. These three emotions—guilt, shame, and embarrassment—are often discussed in similar situations.
Loneliness Feeds on Itself
Loneliness increases when people do not feel cared for. Loneliness increases when people feel others do not like them. Loneliness leads people to underestimate the care and regard of others. This misperception can create a vicious cycle. When people don’t feel like their needs for connection to others are being met, they experience a feeling of loneliness. Everyone feels lonely every once in a while, but feeling lonely over the long-term is associated with many psychological and health problems.
Stories Can Help Children Learn to Explore
Strategic searching requires trading off between exploring new options and exploiting known options. Learning to explore strategically is complicated. Research found that stories can help children learn a more optimal search strategy. Source: Image Generated with AI on September 6, 2024 Think about the decisions you make on a daily basis. Often, you have experience with the options before you, and you use that experience to drive your selections.
Stories Can Help Children Learn to Explore - Art Markman Ph.d
Aa Aa Aa - A + Think about the decisions you make on a daily basis. Often, you have experience with the options before you, and you use that experience to drive your selections. For example, suppose your friend wants to meet you for Thai food. Over time, you have been to several Thai restaurants. If you choose the one that is typically your favorite, then you are exploiting your existing knowledge to pick an option that you know is likely to be good.
How We Make Quick Decisions About the Number of Objects We See
People make reasonably accurate judgments of the approximate number of items in a group. Coherent sets of objects appear to have more objects in them than incoherent sets. This coherence is based on simple visual features of objects. Source: Generated with AI on September 9, 2024 You often have to make quick judgments about the number of objects you encounter in the world. You might see a group of people walking toward you. It is useful to know whether there are roughly five, 10, or 20.
Reviews With Pictures Are (Sometimes) Helpful
Source: Generated with AI ∙ June 7, 2024 at 3:05 PM These days, people are surrounded by reviews that can be used to guide purchases and choices of experiences. User reviews are incorporated into lots of retail websites, and there are many websites that are focused primarily on providing reviews in different arenas. There are many factors that may make a review more or less helpful.
The Psychological Value of Balanced Pragmatism
Source: Image Generated with AI ∙ June 4, 2024 at 8:48 AM We live in an era of intense political division. Indeed, things are so deeply split, that is hard for people who have opposing views on an issue to even talk to each other. So, what kind of signals could someone with a deeply-held view on an issue send to others that would get others who disagree with them to want to engage?
When Do People Think Abstinence or Moderation Is Better?
Abstinence means avoiding a behavior and moderation means using a behavior sparingly. People prefer abstinence when the goal conflict is seen as inherent in the goals. People prefer moderation when the goal conflict is seen as a resource competition. Generated with AI ∙ April 10, 2024 at 9:24 AM When advising about self-control, there are dueling approaches.
Why Do Children Punish Unfairness?
Young children will punish others for being unfair. A study explored whether punishments were focused on people the child would see later. Children punished unfairness regardless of whether they would see that person later. iStock image by Yurii Klymko licensed to Art Markman There are many ways to influence the behavior of other people. Broadly speaking, we can reward others for their good behavior and punish people for their bad behavior.
Revisiting the Self-Refilling Bowl of Soup
A classic study found that individuals eat less soup when they have a visual cue of how much they have eaten. This finding demonstrated the power of external cues about eating. The finding was called into question by demonstrations of scientific misconduct by the lead researcher. A research team has now replicated the study and found that the main results hold up.
Are People Aware of Automatic Attitudes?
The term "implicit" when applied to attitudes may be misleading. A better distinction is between durable and automatic attitudes. Research suggests that people are aware of their automatic attitudes. Source: iStock image by Designer491 licensed to Art Markman Over the past few decades, psychologists have recognized that people have two kinds of attitudes toward objects, events, and people in the world. One type of attitude is explicit and durable.
Repeating Things Makes Them Seem True, Sort Of
The truth effect refers to the tendency to believe things that have been repeated. The truth effect is a highly reliable phenomenon People are particularly likely to underestimate the size of this effect for themselves. iStock image by MicroStockHub licensed to Art Markman Research spanning several decades demonstrates that you are more likely to think the information that is repeated to be true than the information you hear only once.
What Drives Curiosity?
Curiosity is influenced by the belief you should know something and whether you actually know it. Studies suggest that being confident and wrong drives curiosity. Curiosity judgments are more sensitive to whether you are actually correct than confidence judgments. Curiosity is the desire to develop a particular level of knowledge or skill. There is both “state” and “trait” curiosity. State curiosity is a particular desire to know something at a particular time.
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