
World / Social Issues Jan 30, 2021
A pandemic is hard enough. For some, being single has made it harder.
by Daniel Victor
“One day I realized it had been three months since I had touched a human being,” one man said.
A pandemic is hard enough. For some, being single has made it harder.
“One day I realized it had been three months since I had touched a human being,” one man said.
'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.
COVID-19 has taken us from FOMO to ROMO
With everyone at home, the fear of missing out turns into the reality of missing out. That's some relief.
Face masks can foster a false sense of security
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, ...
On a roll: The psychology behind coronavirus toilet paper panic
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 ...
How to keep calm in a pandemic: Education, information and communication
Fears over the pandemic can be managed and experts are calling for policymakers to be more transparent to help the public cope with distress.
Decline of social engagement may betray democracy
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. ...
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 ...
Why implicit bias training doesn't work at companies
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.
Behind the rise of Japan's recluses
A lack of economic ambition is increasing the trend of 'hikikomori.'
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 ...
You're better at choosing a pet than a spouse