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Category: Arts and social sciences

Rich pickings: Revealing BBC/OU series spotlights the years following the banking crash

Rich pickings: Revealing BBC/OU series spotlights the years following the banking crash

Academics at The Open University have worked behind the scenes on a fascinating two-part series The Decade The Rich Won that hears from former insiders about the 2008 financial crash and its repercussions. On Tuesday 25 January at 9pm, this gripping BBC/OU co-production lifts the lid on what was going on; from bailing out the […]

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Lagos

Olu Jacobs: Nollywood’s elder statesman has always acted for his country

Françoise Ugochukwu, Senior Research Fellow, Development, Policy and Practice (DPP) at The Open University writes about renowned Nigerian actor-producer Olu Jacobs. Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs, the Nigerian film producer and renowned actor, whose career spans more than five decades, belongs to that group of elders representing the best of Nigeria. He was recently presented with the […]

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Capitol assault: the real reason Trump and the crowd almost killed US democracy

Capitol assault: the real reason Trump and the crowd almost killed US democracy

Written by Dr Evangelos Ntontis, Lecturer in Social Psychology at The Open University, Stephen Reicher, Bishop Wardlaw Professor in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, Alex Haslam, Professor of Psychology and ARC Laureate Fellow, The University of Queensland and Klara Jurstakova, PhD Candidate, Canterbury Christ Church University It was the moment that could […]

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question mark blue

“Please continue” – did this simple phrase lead normal people to “torture” strangers?

David Kaposi, Psychotherapist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology The Open University Would you electrocute an innocent stranger if you were told to do so by someone in a position of authority? This is the dilemma hundreds of US adults were presented with in Stanley Milgram’s famous and controversial “obedience to authority” experiments that ran from […]

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Migrants

International Migrants Day – OU research sheds light on the realities and barriers

As organisations across the world mark the United Nations’ International Migrants Day (18 December) the OU shares stories by staff and students of their experiences and the lives of migrants. Earlier this year Sarah Crafter, Professor of Cultural-Developmental Psychology at The Open University won EU funding for a research project aiming to enhance the lives […]

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nurse pandemic

Creative initiative for healthcare staff proves to be a winner

A pilot scheme, giving NHS healthcare workers a chance to try creative writing as a potential support for wellbeing during the pandemic, has won national recognition. The programme, designed for an NHS Trust, involved writing workshops that gave participants prompts and exercises which encouraged them to be expressive about their life, work and feelings through […]

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faces drawing

Looks really can be deceiving, OU research finds

A new hairstyle can make all the difference they say, and newly published psychology research shows that our hair could make even more of an impact than we realise. A study among nearly 400 people in the UK and China found they struggled to match faces in pictures if they were from a different race […]

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Drivers and hand-held mobile phones: extending the ban won’t solve the problem – here’s why

Drivers and hand-held mobile phones: extending the ban won’t solve the problem – here’s why

Written by Dr Gemma Briggs, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University and Helen Wells, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Keele Univeristy. The laws around mobile phone use while driving are to be tightened under new UK government plans to make any use of a hand-held phone illegal. From 2022, mobile phone law will be extended […]

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Revision cards with a large black question mark drawn on the top card.

Series ponders how to gain better clarity of thought

Decision making can be a tricky business and it’s at the heart of a new BBC/OU co-produced radio series, aiming to help us all to become better thinkers. Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking and invites listeners to join him in this new 12-part series. In Think With Pinker, Professor Pinker has […]

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Hands surrounding a globe

OU launches package of free FCDO approved safeguarding leadership courses

The Open University (OU) has launched the first module in a package of free Safeguarding Leadership Training courses, aimed at those working in the international development sector. The three courses will help those working in development and humanitarian organisations to better understand the causes of harm, abuse, and exploitation and how to effectively prevent and […]

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