National Aug 12, 2020
'Everyone else is doing it': Social conformity a top motive for Japanese to wear masks
A team of psychologists surveyed 1,000 people and found that the top reason for wearing masks was because everyone else was doing so.
Commentary / World Apr 27, 2020
COVID-19 has taken us from FOMO to ROMO
by Sara Green Carmichael
With everyone at home, the fear of missing out turns into the reality of missing out. That's some relief.
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Mar 28, 2020
Face masks can foster a false sense of security
by Michael Hoffman
What’s happening in Japan is written all over our faces — our blank, expressionless, masked faces. Never before, it seems safe to say, have so many people gone about masked. Thus we confront the microbes that assault us. Are the microbes disconcerted? It seems not. “As self-protection, ...
World / Science & Health Mar 17, 2020
On a roll: The psychology behind coronavirus toilet paper panic
by Issam Ahmed
It's a scene that's become familiar around the world: from the U.S. to France to Australia, rows of empty supermarket shelves where toilet paper used to be, the result of coronavirus-induced panic buying. What exactly is it about the rolls of tissue that has caused ...
National Mar 13, 2020
How to keep calm in a pandemic: Education, information and communication
by Magdalena Osumi
Fears over the pandemic can be managed and experts are calling for policymakers to be more transparent to help the public cope with distress.
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Jan 25, 2020
Decline of social engagement may betray democracy
by Michael Hoffman
Japan's three leading newspapers, disagreeing on much, agree on this: Japan's democracy is in crisis. "Democratic politics in Japan has become frayed," the Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial on Jan. 1. "The recent deterioration of Diet deliberations is intolerable," the Yomiuri Shimbun said on Jan. ...
World / Science & Health Jan 23, 2020
Marie Antoinette's hair turned white overnight, according to folklore, before she was executed by guillotine in 1793 during the French Revolution. The ill-fated queen embodied an extreme example of the phenomenon of stress-induced graying of the hair. The biological mechanism behind such graying had long ...
Commentary / World Jan 13, 2020
Why implicit bias training doesn't work at companies
by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Perhaps most obviously, every nation has pervasive cultural stereotypes about other nations, usually its neighbors, which play a critical role in shaping and cementing their cultural identity.
World / Science & Health Jan 10, 2020
Parrots found to volunteer help selflessly, rare among animals
Acting selflessly to help others in need was long thought to be a trait confined to mammals, in particular humans and great apes. But a new study has found that African gray parrots volunteer assistance to both their good friends and mere acquaintances — even ...
Asia Pacific Jan 10, 2020
Nearly 1 in 3 adults in Hong Kong reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during months of often violent social unrest in the city, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal Friday. And around 1 in 10 had symptoms of probable depression, ...
Commentary / Japan Dec 20, 2019
Behind the rise of Japan's recluses
by Xiaochen Su
A lack of economic ambition is increasing the trend of 'hikikomori.'
Business / Tech Nov 8, 2019
Put down that phone! Indonesians invent device to aid internet addicts
From browsing social media to watching videos and chatting with friends, Indonesian university student Tyas Sisianindita spends about eight hours a day on her phone. "I realize that I am addicted," the university student admitted, saying she checks her phone continuously from the time she ...