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In: 05. Attitudes, Behavior, & Persuasion, 11. Social Psychology, Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych

Regardless of which side of the political divide you or your students stand on, here is a real-world example of cognitive dissonance. “[F]rom 2012-2023, about half of all new [electric vehicle] registrations in the U.S. went to the 10% most Democratic counties” (Davis et al., 2025, p. 1). However, an early 2025 poll found that only 12% of Democrats have a favorable opinion of Elon Musk (Kiley & Asheer, 2025), the owner of Tesla, Inc. Those data make it unsurprising that Tesla sales are in down in states that lean politically toward Democrats, such as California (Sriram, 2025). If the politics of a company’s ownerRead More →

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In: 03. Biopsych, 08. Relationships, Intro to Psych

The National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP) is later this week. I’ve previously written (Frantz, 2023): I’ll confess that well before I retired my primary purpose for attending conferences was to meet with my friends and make new friends. In SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the author and Roman historian Mary Beard tells us that Polybius (200 BCE – 118 BCE) supposedly advised a young man, “Never come back from the Forum…until you have made at least one new friend” (Beard, 2016, p. 184) I was reminded of this recently when I read the (freely available) Working Life essay at the endRead More →

people in a concert

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In: 11. Social Psychology, 12. Stereotypes, Prejudice, & Discrimination, Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych

My wife and I took a cruise in 2024. On the last evening, several members of the crew put on a show. Groups of crew members who shared a home country performed popular national dances. This got me thinking about whether the United States had something that could be considered a national dance. If you’d like, take a few minutes to discuss. Does the U.S. have something that could be a national dance? Years ago, we had a friend who visited India. The group she was visiting showed her how to do one of their national dances. Afterwards, they asked her to teach her aRead More →

Breakfast Bagel

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In: 05. Attitudes, Behavior, & Persuasion, 11. Social Psychology, Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych

I enjoy a good bagel, and I enjoy a news story that promises to illustrate several social psychological principles. When the headline reads “The Hole in This Bagel Shop’s Business Model? It’s Too Popular” (Balk, 2024), I’m in. Apollo Bagels in New York City’s West village has become so popular that the lines stretch to 100 feet. And that was before the November 30, 2024 New York Times story. After covering the social psychology chapter in Intro Psych, ask your students to read the story (the link is gifted to you, so your students do not need a New York Times account). And, then, asRead More →

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In: Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych, Teaching Thoughts

On the right side of this blog site is an area called Psych-Related News. Scroll down for the most recent news. In my own news feed, I scroll through a few hundred articles (and 30+ comic strips) every day. When I see an interesting article (or comic strip) that may be appropriate for one of my book chapters or for this blog, I tag it. It’s the most recent 15 of those tagged articles (or comic strips) that appear in the Psych-Related News area. If you have your own news feed reader (I use Inoreader) and would like read the Psych-Related News at your leisure,Read More →