germ

Effects of germ aversion, photo location, and social density on (A) crowding perceptions and (B) positive affect. Error bars represent 95% CI. Simple slopes significance is indicated on the relevant slope, where *p < .05, **p. Credit: Political Psychology (2024). DOI: 10.1111/pops.12976 Voters opted to pick candidates in 2020 by mail-in ballots, avoiding poll sites due to COVID-19 concerns rather than because of political…

Drop a kid with a cold into a child care setting, and you can watch an outbreak unfold in real time. As sticky little hands go from runny noses to cheese puffs to other noses and other sticky little hands, and as uncovered sneezes and coughs fill the air with mists of toddler goo, you’ll soon realize that groups of small children make ideal networks for the spread of communicable diseases. If a child shows up to child care sick, many of the other kids there will get whatever ick they have. The stakes are especially…

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know we are in the midst of one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Just how devastating became clear earlier this month when the World Health Organization released a report estimating the global excess death toll due to the pandemic as 15 million – nearly three times the official Covid death count. Other authorities think global excess deaths may be closer to 18 million. These are awfully big numbers, but they pale in comparison with the 1918-1919 Spanish influenza…