Author: TheConversation

Toxic Positivity: When pursuing happiness can overemphasize its value and cause more unhappiness

By Brock Bastian, Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne; and Ashley Humphrey, Lecturer in Psychology, Federation University Australia The term “toxic positivity” has received a good deal of attention lately. Coming off the back of the “positivity movement” we are beginning to recognize while feeling happy is a good thing, overemphasizing the importance of a positive attitude can backfire, ironically leading to more unhappiness. Research shows that happier people tend to live longer, be healthier, and enjoy more successful lives. And “very happy people” have more of these benefits relative to only averagely happy people....

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A.D. 2022: Why years are counted with a Gregorian calendar when most of the world is not Christian

By Miriamne Ara Krummel, Professor of English, University of Dayton On December 31, people from cultures all around the world welcomed in A.D. 2022. Few of them thought about the fact that A.D. signals “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.” In A.D. temporality – the one acknowledged by most societies today – next year marks 2023 years since the purported birth of Jesus Christ. So why did we all toast this new year, given that most of the world’s nearly 8 billion people are not Christians? My fascination with time was nurtured by the millennium and the...

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Poisoned Cars: Why the oil industry sold leaded fuel for a century while knowing about its health risks

By Bill Kovarik, Professor of Communication, Radford University On the frosty morning of December 9, 1921, in Dayton, Ohio, researchers at a General Motors lab poured a new fuel blend into one of their test engines. Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power. The new fuel was tetraethyl lead. With vast profits in sight – and very few public health regulations at the time – General Motors Co. rushed gasoline diluted with tetraethyl lead to market despite the known health risks of lead. They named it “Ethyl” gas. It has been 100 years since...

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A holiday survival guide: How to transform the Christmas experience in the second year of a pandemic

By Heather B. MacIntosh, Associate Professor, Director, MScA Couple and Family Therapy, School of Social Work, McGill University For accountants, it is tax time; for teachers, it is September. And for therapists, the busiest time of year is the holidays. Every therapist knows that the winter holiday season is rife with pain, angst, and grief. As a psychologist and professor who specializes in the treatment of trauma, I am deeply engaged with the struggles that trauma survivors experience in the days and weeks leading up to the holidays — including, and maybe especially, contemplating time with family who may...

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Those left behind: How to help survivors of suicide loss cope with grief during the holidays

By Michael R. Nadorff, Associate Professor of Psychology, Mississippi State University; and Julie Cerel, Professor of Social Work, University of Kentucky No matter the merriment of the season, the holidays remain a struggle for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. In 2020, COVID-19 isolated many people from their families. Ironically, that isolation may have spared suicide-loss survivors some suffering; with no family gathering, one was less likely to notice the empty seat at the table. But this year, with many families coming together, grief will surely find its place. Half of all Americans know someone who...

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From German roots to American soil: How the image of Santa Claus made Christmas a holiday tradition

By Thomas Adam, Associate Professor of International and Global Studies, University of Arkansas Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way. Such perceptions about Christmas celebrations have, however, little basis in history. As a scholar of transnational and global history, I have studied the emergence of Christmas celebrations in German towns around 1800 and the global spread of this...

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