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Category: Psychology

judges hammer

I run mock trials to research the legal system. The bias shown in Channel 4’s The Jury: Murder Trial is a very real problem

Academic Dr Lee John Curley is a lecturer in psychology at The Open University who conducts research into the way juries behave behind closed doors. Here, he gives his take on the findings of a new reality show about the potential bias of jurors. Channel 4 has billed its new reality show, Jury: Murder Trial, […]

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Top road safety figures are backing Open University-led research into the dangers of hands-free phone use while driving

Top road safety figures are backing Open University-led research into the dangers of hands-free phone use while driving

The UK’s roads policing lead and the CEO of The Road Safety Trust are supporting the findings of an Open University educational project highlighting to police that hands-free phone use while driving is no safe alternative to hand-held use. The project called “We need to talk about hands-free”,  was funded by The Road Safety Trust, […]

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£2.72m EU research funding hopes to manage extremist views

£2.72m EU research funding hopes to manage extremist views

An international team of academics led by The Open University has won £2.72m research funding, (€3.16m) to help people manage the development of extremist views at home and abroad in the run up to major political events. Psychologists at the Open University are working on developing tools for the project that has been funded by […]

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New research says Britons more likely to help refugees from Ukraine rather than those from Syria or Somalia

New research says Britons more likely to help refugees from Ukraine rather than those from Syria or Somalia

An Open University academic’s report suggests Ukrainians are considered less of a threat That Somalis and Syrians are seen as ‘culturally distant’ And that the results could also be due to skin colour and religious differences Britons are much more likely to help Ukrainian refugees over others from Syria or Somalia says a research project […]

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New analysis suggests Trump’s January 6th speech did “enable violence” at Capitol Hill

New analysis suggests Trump’s January 6th speech did “enable violence” at Capitol Hill

New academic research led by The Open University and the University of St Andrews suggests Donald Trump’s January 6th speech served as a ‘warrant’ for the violence that occurred afterwards when crowds stormed the Capitol building. Psychologists in the research team, including academics from Canterbury Christ Church University and The University of Queensland in Australia, […]

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Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing

Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing

Rosemary Golding is a senior lecturer in music at The Open University who reveals here her fascinating research in how music was used to help patients in Victorian asylums with their mental health. Music has a powerful effect on the listener. It is linked to better mental health, and it has been shown to alleviate […]

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Young boy with glasses playing online chess board game on computer

Board games: how playing them online can bring grandparents and grandchildren closer together

Professor Rose Capdevila, Associate Dean (Research, Scholarship and Enterprise) and Dr Lisa Lazard, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, both from The Open University, write for The Conversation about how online board games can bring grandparents closer to their grandchildren. We’re all familiar with the blissful image of grandma or grandpa playing snakes and ladders with their grandchild […]

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generic jury box

Juries are subject to all kinds of biases when it comes to deciding on a trial

By Dr Lee John Curley, The Open University; Itiel Dror, UCL, and Dr James Munro, The Open University From CSI to Law and Order, Line of Duty and Midsomer Murders, there is huge public fascination with crime and the criminal justice system. Especially when things come to a climactic ending and jurors decide on a […]

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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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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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