Psychological State Of The Union Archives

Mediated Reality is No Match for Personal Experience

The world represented in the media greatly influences our understanding and beliefs about reality. But our lived experiences might be more important.

Editors' Picks

Science & Technology

Do Airplanes Really Make You Sick?

A Curious Reader asks: Am I really at a higher risk of getting sick on an airplane?

Arts & Culture

The Origins of Bastille Day

Bastille Day as we know it began as private educational events phased into lively street fetês, and eventually the parades and fireworks we know today.

Politics & History

Class, Feminism and the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers

A paper for Pennsylvania History looked at the way elite & working-class feminists worked together to create the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers.

Business & Economics

Could Immigration Save Middle America?

This election season has drawn enormous attention to the anxiety that many Americans in economically-distressed rural places seem ...

Science & Technology

19th Century Anesthesia and the Politics of Pain

Many doctors embraced anesthesia, but critics in the medical community protested its use, giving rise to what's known as the “ether controversy.”