PsychCrunch

The massive variety of human sexual interests is a little mind-boggling. As what we consider to be sexually typical continues to be expanded and shaped by the internet and popular culture, psychologists are making efforts to research kinks and members of the kink community like never before.

Join Ella Rhodes in conversation with Liam Wignall (Senior Lecturer at Brighton University and committee member of the BPS’s Sexualities Section) about his work exploring community in these underground spaces, links with neurodivergence, and the ways modern technology is transforming the scene — as well as research into it.

We also chat with Dr Kate Marks, a Clinical Psychologist who works with those involved in kink communities, about her impressions of the emotions, social consequences, and even therapeutic echoes that run through these subversive engagements. 

This episode discusses sex, sexuality, and the stigma and struggles that can come alongside it. As such, it may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

This is Episode 40 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Zanda.

Episode Credits:

Hosted by Ella Rhodes. Audio wizardry by Jeff Knowler. Edited by Emma Barratt.

Missed previous episodes? Get up to date via our PsychCrunch collection page.

Want to learn more?

Read more about how sexual scripts are shifting thanks to the changing landscape of gender-based stereotypes online, and the fallout for women, in our interview with Dr Jane Meyrick over at The Psychologist. 

Or learn about how feeling powerful can lead romantic partners to widen their nets with this Research Digest piece by Emily Reynolds. 

PsychCrunch is brought to you by Zanda, the all-in-one practice management software designed for psychologists. With telehealth, easy mobile access, and automated tools, including online scheduling and reminders, Zanda helps you run your practice, your way. Find out more at ZandaHealth.com

There’s no question that we find ourselves in uncertain times. Looking at current events and wondering about what the future may hold can leave us feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and stressed, to say the least. 

But uncertain times aren’t always the ominous force we make them out to be. In fact, research suggests that they can create unique opportunities for growth and transformation that we wouldn’t otherwise encounter.

This episode, Ella Rhodes chats with Maggie Jackson — author of Uncertain and expert on uncertainty — unpacking how uncertainty shapes our lives. Together, they explore how embracing the unknown can open doors to unexpected possibilities, and can lead us to greener pastures.

This is Episode 39 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Episode Credits:

Hosted by Ella Rhodes. Audio wizardry by Jeff Knowler. Edited by Emma Barratt.

Missed previous episodes? Get up to date via our PsychCrunch collection page.

Want to learn more?

Read more about how we can embrace uncertainty in therapeutic settings with The wisdom of therapist uncertainty, over at The Psychologist. 

Or check out Resilience to uncertainty by Eleanore Batteux for a practical exploration of what we can do to become resilient to future uncertainties, explored through the lens of the pandemic. 

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Routledge Psychology is part of the Taylor & Francis Group, and publishing partner for the BPS Core Textbooks Series. Browse over 5 million articles, and related books. BPS members are entitled to a 25% discount on all books published by Routledge – find your discount code here and visit the dedicated BPS Member page at Routledge here.

In years gone by, the norm for psychological research was to design studies from the outside looking in. Acting as observers of particular populations, there was generally an expected separation between the researcher and the researched.

More recently, however, there’s been a shift.

For decades, the rallying cry “nothing about us without us” has been used by the disability rights movement to communicate the idea that no policy should come to pass without their full and direct participation. This important approach has made its way to psychological research, and as it gathers momentum, we’re seeing more and more lived experiences and expert insights from studied populations enrich our scientific landscape.

This episode, Emma Palmer-Cooper meets James Cusak (Chief Executive, Autistica) and Dr Amy Pearson to look at the benefit of involving studied populations in research design — specifically, in autism research.

This is Episode 38 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Episode Credits:

Hosted by Emma Palmer-Cooper. Audio wizardry by Jeff Knowler. Edited by Emma Barratt.

Missed previous episodes? Get up to date via our PsychCrunch collection page.

Want to learn more?

See the value of consulting with studied communities in this article investigating differences between academic and community research priorities in Scotland.

Or take a look at The Psychologist’s recent issue on Neurodiversity.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Routledge Psychology is part of the Taylor & Francis Group, and publishing partner for the BPS Core Textbooks Series. Browse over 5 million articles, and related books. BPS members are entitled to a 25% discount on all books published by Routledge – find your discount code here and visit the dedicated BPS Member page at Routledge here.

This is Episode 37 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

[Content warning: This episode centres around cancer. As such, it makes references to medical events and themes that some listeners may find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.]

In the face of significant medical challenges, we would all hope for compassionate, informative communication from medical professionals and those close to us. Sometimes, though, the reality falls short of that expectation.

This episode, Editor of The Psychologist, Dr Jon Sutton, meets Professor Dame Lesley Fallowfield, Director of the Sussex Health Outcomes Research and Education in Cancer (SHORE-C) group at the University of Sussex.

Through their conversation, our guest shares personal reflections on her career at the cutting edge of psycho-oncology, improving the experiences of those with cancer by creating new ways to measure difficult things, and forging new paths to help people talk about the disease.

Episode Credits:

Hosted by Dr Jon Sutton. Mixed and edited by Jeff Knowler. Edited by Emma Barratt.

Missed previous episodes? Get up to date via our PsychCrunch collection page.

Want to learn more about psycho-oncology?

Check out The Psychologist’s article on the SHORE-C group's recent film 'They just don't know what to say or do'.

Or browse our collection of articles on psychology and cancer, with comment from Dr Mike Rennoldson, Chair of the DCP Faculty for Oncology and Palliative Care.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Routledge Psychology is part of the Taylor & Francis Group, and publishing partner for the BPS Core Textbooks Series. Browse over 5 million articles, and related books. BPS members are entitled to a 25% discount on all books published by Routledge – find your discount code here and visit the dedicated BPS Member page at Routledge here.

This is Episode 36 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Why do we dream? And what business does a good dream have turning into a nightmare?

In this episode, Ella Rhodes embarks on an exploration of our non-waking life.

In it, she speaks with Director of the Swansea University Sleep Laboratory, Professor Mark Blagrove, about his research and latest theories about the origins of dreams.

Research Clinical Psychologist Dr Bryony Sheaves of Oxford University also shares her expert insights into why we have nightmares, and the innovative research revealing how treating them can improve our mental health.

Episode Credits:

Written and hosted by Ella Rhodes. Mixed and edited by Jeff Knowler. Edited by Emma Barratt.

Missed previous episodes? Get up to date via our PsychCrunch collection page.

Not done dreaming? 

Check out The Psychologist’s most recent interview with Mark Blagrove for much more on the function of dreams.

Or explore some of Bryony’s latest research on nightmares in this Research Digest piece by Emily Reynolds.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Routledge Psychology is part of the Taylor & Francis Group, and publishing partner for the BPS Core Textbooks Series. Browse over 5 million articles, and related books. BPS members are entitled to a 25% discount on all books published by Routledge – find your discount code here and visit the dedicated BPS Member page at Routledge here.

This is Episode 35 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

From haunted houses to scary movies, many of us find a thrill in a good scare. But… isn’t that a bit counter-intuitive?

In this episode, we ask why so many of us are drawn to things that should make us run a mile, and whether we can use fear to help us better cope with day-to-day anxiety. Host Ella Rhodes speaks with Director of The Recreational Fear Lab, Dr Mathias Clasen, and Cambridge University PhD student Lucie Daniel-Watanabe to discover why fear isn’t always to be feared.

Episode credits:

Written and hosted by Ella Rhodes.

Audio mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler.

Edited by Emma Barratt.

Not done learning about fear? 

Get into Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe’s look at the psychology of fear, fright-nights and exploring the unknown.  Or if coping with fear piques your interest, why not explore what children know about managing fear with this piece by Christian Jarrett. Still curious? Dive deeper into our guest Dr Matthias Clasen’s work right here.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Routledge Psychology is part of the Taylor & Francis Group, and publishing partner for the BPS Core Textbooks Series.  Browse over 5 million articles at www.tandfonline.com, and related books at www.routledge.com.

This is Episode 34 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Despite it being easier than ever to communicate, so many of us find it challenging to make new friends – especially as we get older. Opening up conversations with strangers can leave us feeling like a bother, and fizzle into nothing more than a one-off interaction. The loneliness this can create isn’t just a passing sting, it can have ongoing impacts to both our mental and physical health. So, in this episode, Ginny Smith asks: just how do we make friends as adults?

To get to the bottom of this problem, Ginny speaks with our expert guests Dr. Marissa G. Franco (Professor, speaker, and the New York Times bestselling author of Platonic) and Dr Gillian Sandstrom (Senior Lecturer in the psychology of kindness at the University of Sussex). Together, they give their insights on why so many of us run into problems expanding our social circle, and share some practical advice on how to make more connections.

Episode Credits:Written and hosted by Ginny Smith.Mixing and audio editing by Jeff Knowler.Edited by Emma Barratt.

Want to know more about the psychology of friendship?Discover plenty more on the topic over on our website.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge PsychologyRoutledge Psychology is part of the Taylor & Francis Group, and publishing partner for the BPS Core Textbooks Series. Browse over 5 million articles at www.tandfonline.com, and related books at www.routledge.com.

Have you ever had the feeling that there was someone – or something – nearby? Perhaps you were in bed falling asleep when you suddenly became convinced that a person was standing next to you, even though you couldn’t actually ‘see’ or ‘hear’ anyone at all. Or maybe you were out in the wilderness, with no-one for miles around, and couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was following you.

In this episode, Dr Jon Sutton, editor of The Psychologist magazine, talks to Dr Ben Alderson-Day, Associate Professor at Durham University, about the phenomenon of the 'felt presence' – that often eerie sensation that someone is near us. Jon and Ben’s wide-ranging discussion touches on everything from Shackleton’s unusual experiences in Antarctica, to the frightening yet common phenomenon of sleep paralysis and the modern practice of ‘tulpamancy’.

Read a transcript of the interview at The Psychologist

Ben’s book will be released in March and is available to pre-order here

Presented and produced by Jon Sutton, with additional content from Matthew Warren.

Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology

Grief is a universal experience, but one which affects every individual differently. A grieving person might feel guilty, listless, frightened, or angry. And at a time when they most need support, the bereaved may find other people turning away from them, not really knowing how to talk to them about their feelings and the person they’ve lost. So how can we learn to better cope with grief in ourselves and in others?

In this episode, Ella Rhodes, journalist for The Psychologist, speaks to two experts who are working to help us understand how people process grief and what can be done to support those who are grieving. Our guests are Dr Mary-Frances O'Connor, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Arizona and author of The Grieving Brain, and Jane Harris, psychotherapist and co-founder of The Good Grief Project.

Episode credits:

Presented and produced by Ella Rhodes. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Artwork by Tim Grimshaw.

Further resources

• More information about The Good Grief Project can be found at the project's website
• Check out Dr Mary-Frances O'Connor's website for more on her book The Grieving Brain, as well as a list of publications including those discussed in this episode.
• Last year, Jon Sutton interviewed Dr Mary-Frances O'Connor for The Psychologist
• Also in The Psychologist: Elaine Kasket talks to Bjørn Johnson about his film Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11, and discusses the themes of the film with Jane Harris.

PsychCrunch is sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

We’ve lived side-by-side with domestic cats for thousands of years, yet they maintain an aura of mystery and a reputation for aloofness and even outright disdain for humans. But are cats really so enigmatic – or are we only just beginning to understand them?

In this episode, Ella Rhodes, journalist for The Psychologist, speaks to two experts who are working to help us to understand cats. They discuss research on cat cognition and intelligence, chat about what we can do how to make our cats’ lives happier, and even share some tips on how to train them. Our guests are Dr Kristyn Vitale, assistant professor of animal health and behaviour at Unity College, and Dr Zazie Todd, author of the Companion Animal Psychology blog and recent book Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy.

Episode credits:

Presented and produced by Ella Rhodes. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Artwork by Tim Grimshaw.

Relevant research and writing from our guests includes:

Companion Animal Psychology: a blog written by Zazie Todd

Several articles by Kristyn Vitale and colleagues:

• Attachment bonds between domestic cats and humans
• The quality of being sociable: The influence of human attentional state, population, and human familiarity on domestic cat sociability
• What’s inside your cat’s head? A review of cat (Felis silvestris catus) cognition research past, present and future

From carefully avoiding cracks in the pavement to saluting every magpie that you meet, superstitious behaviour is really common. But why do we have superstitions? Where do they come from? And are they helpful or harmful? 

To find out, our presenter Ginny Smith talks to Stuart Vyse, former professor of psychology at Connecticut College and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition. Ginny also chats to Laramie Taylor, professor of communication at the University of California Davis, who explains how superstition and magical thinking is linked to being a fan of both fiction and sports.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Relevant research and writing from our guests includes:

Magical thinking and fans of fictional texts and Sports Fans and Magical Thinking: How Supernatural Thinking Connects Fans to Teams, both by Laramie Taylor and discussed in the podcast.

Do Superstitious Rituals Work?, an article at Skeptical Inquirer in which Stuart Vyse discusses some of the work mentioned in this episode.

How Superstition Works, an extract from Vyse's book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, published at The Atlantic.

Why do people share false information? In this episode, our presenters Ginny Smith and Jon Sutton explore the psychology of misinformation. They hear about the factors that make people more or less likely to share misinformation, discuss strategies to correct false information, and learn how to talk to someone who is promoting conspiracy theories.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Tom Buchanan, Professor of Psychology at the University of Westminster, and Briony Swire-Thompson, senior research scientist at Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith, with additional reporting by Jon Sutton. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Relevant research from our guests includes:

Why do people spread false information online? The effects of message and viewer characteristics on self-reported likelihood of sharing social media disinformation.

Spreading Disinformation on Facebook: Do Trust in Message Source, Risk Propensity, or Personality Affect the Organic Reach of “Fake News”?

Predictors of likelihood of sharing disinformation on social media 2019-2020

Correction format has a limited role when debunking misinformation

Backfire effects after correcting misinformation are strongly associated with reliability

Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations

Why do some songs get stuck in our heads? In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith explores the psychology of earworms. Ginny hears about the possible evolutionary reasons for why we experience the phenomenon, learns what earworms can teach us about memory — and finds out how to get rid of them.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Kelly Jakubowski, assistant professor of music psychology at Durham University; Petr Janata, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis; and Michael K. Scullin, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Research from our guests includes:

Dissecting an Earworm: Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Musical Imagery

Spontaneous mental replay of music improves memory for incidentally associated event knowledge.

Bedtime Music, Involuntary Musical Imagery, and Sleep

This is Episode 27 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

At Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July, The Psychologist Editor Dr Jon Sutton hosted a conversation in The Listening Post with Greta Defeyter, Professor of Developmental Psychology and founder and Director of the "Healthy Living" Lab at Northumbria University. An expert on food insecurity, social injustice, school feeding programmes and holiday hunger, Professor Defeyter considered why children go hungry, what we can do about it, and how her own experiences of poverty have shaped her. 

Episode credits: Presented by Jon Sutton. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Thanks to Latitude Festival’s arts and special events curator Kirsty Taylor. We hope to return with more from ‘The Psychologist Presents…’ in 2022. Tickets for next year’s event are already on sale via http://latitudefestival.com

Background reading

Professor Defeyter has just published her new book, Holiday Hunger in the UK, co-authored by Michael A. Long and Paul B. Stretesky

The Psychologist also met Professor Defeyter as part of their special edition around the British Psychological Society policy theme of ‘From poverty to flourishing’

Reports and transcripts from other appearances at Latitude Festival

This is Episode 26 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology. 

What impact has the pandemic had on people’s mental health? In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith talks to researchers who have been conducting work throughout the pandemic to understand the toll that it has taken on our wellbeing. Ginny learns about the different factors that can make us more or less vulnerable to these effects, finds out how pregnant women have fared during this stressful time, and also hears about emerging data that finds links between the virus itself and mental health conditions.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Susanne Schweizer, Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and Professor Paul Harrison from the University of Oxford.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode

• More information about the CORAL study is available on their website
• Paul Harrison’s paper describing the link between Covid-19 infection and mental health conditions is available open access here. There is also a university press release about the work, and another related paper by the team

This is Episode 25 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Are our personalities set in stone, or can we choose to change them? In this bonus episode, Matthew Warren talks to former Research Digest editor Christian Jarrett about his new book Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change. Christian discusses the evidence-based methods you can use to alter your personality, whether you’re an introvert who wants to become the life of the party, or you simply wish you were a little more open to new experiences. He also explains how our personalities evolve over the course of our lifespans, even when we’re not consciously trying to change them, and ponders how they might be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change is out on May 18th in the United States and May 20th in the United Kingdom.

Episode credits: Presented by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Work discussed in this episode includes:

• Merely desiring to alter your personality is not enough, and may backfire unless you take concrete action to change
• Longest ever personality study finds no correlation between measures taken at age 14 and age 77
• Here’s How Our Personality Changes As We Age

Other background reading

• A little discussed effect of therapy: it changes your personality
• Here’s How Personality Changes In Young Adulthood Can Lead To Greater Career Satisfaction
• When Deciding How To Improve Our Personalities, Moral Character Is Not A Priority
• New insights into lifetime personality change from “meta-study” featuring 50,000 participants

This is Episode 24 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

What role does play have in child development? In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith talks to some top play researchers to find out how children learn new skills and concepts through play, and explores what teachers and parents can do to encourage this kind of learning. Ginny also discovers how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way kids play and learn.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Professor Marilyn Fleer and Dr Prabhat Rai from Monash University, and Dr Suzanne Egan from the University of Limerick.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode

• The website for Fleer’s Conceptual PlayWorld contains more information about the model discussed by Marilyn Fleer and Prabhat Rai
• Publications and working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab are available here
• Here are some of the key findings from the PLEY survey discussed by Suzanne Egan

This is Episode 23 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest.

In this episode, Emily Reynolds, staff writer at Research Digest, explores modern psychology’s relationship with race and representation. It’s well-known that psychology has a generalisability problem, with studies overwhelmingly using so-called “WEIRD” participants: those who are Western and educated and from industrialised, rich and democratic societies. But how does that shape the assumptions we make about participants of different racial identities or cultures? And how can top-tier psychology journals improve diversity among not only participants but also authors and editors?

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Bobby Cheon, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Dr Steven O. Roberts, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Emily Reynolds. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Research mentioned in this episode includes:

• How USA-Centric Is Psychology? An Archival Study of Implicit Assumptions of Generalizability of Findings to Human Nature Based on Origins of Study Samples
• Racial Inequality in Psychological Research: Trends of the Past and Recommendations for the Future
• Toward a psychology of Homo sapiens: Making psychological science more representative of the human population

This is Episode 22 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology. 

In this episode, Ella Rhodes, Journalist for The Psychologist, explores the boundaries between wakefulness and dreaming. What can we can learn about consciousness from the strange transition period between being awake and asleep, known as hypnagogia? And why do some people experience visions and imaginings that take them away for hours at a time?

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Valdas Noreika, lecturer in Psychology at Queen Mary University of London, and Dr Nirit Soffer-Dudek, clinical psychologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ella Rhodes, with additional content from Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode:

Dreams: Everyone’s Guide to Inner Space, a paper by Deborah Wesley, is free to access thanks to our sponsors Routledge Psychology.

Relevant research from our guests includes:

• Intrusions of a drowsy mind: neural markers of phenomenological unpredictability
• Trapped in a Daydream: Daily Elevations in Maladaptive Daydreaming Are Associated With Daily Psychopathological Symptoms
• The Comorbidity of Daydreaming Disorder (Maladaptive Daydreaming)

This is Episode 21 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology. 

What can we do to stay connected in the middle of a pandemic? We’ve all played our part in fighting COVID-19, and for many of us that has meant staying away from our friends and families. In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith explores how this unprecedented period of separation has reinforced the importance of connection. Ginny looks at how video chats compare to in-person interaction, and how psychology could help improve virtual communication in the future. She also examines the importance of touch for reducing stress — and asks whether interactions with our furry friends could make up for a lack of human contact.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Shane Rogers, lecturer in psychology at Edith Cowan University, Australia, and Professor Patricia Pendry, from Washington State University.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw. Script edits by Matthew Warren.

Background reading for this episode:

Characteristics of Student– Dog Interaction during a Meet-and-Greet Activity in a University-Based Animal Visitation Program, a paper by Patricia Pendry and colleagues, is free to access thanks to our sponsors Routledge Psychology.

Other research mentioned in this episode includes:

• Contact Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Eye Contact Illusion
• Using dual eye tracking to uncover personal gaze patterns during social interaction
• Animal Visitation Program (AVP) Reduces Cortisol Levels of University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial