Do you feel pain because you fear it? The case of fibromyalgia If you type “Is fibromyalgia ...”, Google suggests “Is fibromyalgia real?” Doctors agree it is a “real” medical condition involving both physical and mental mechanisms. Current research highlights the importance of people’s expectancies about their symptoms. Fabiënne van den Ende, Sarah Vreijling and Merve Karacaoglu • November 25, 2019
Is Social Media making our kids depressed? Why are rates of depression rising in teenagers? Why do we see this especially in girls? Could social media use be one of the causes, and if so, how could we find out? Philip Brandner • November 21, 2019
Fact or fake? The deceiving brain A story about our (too) efficient brain and our impressionable memories: why what we remember so clearly is not always what actually happened. Roos Voorvaart • November 11, 2019
I want to stop eating but I can’t Food is essential for our daily functioning, but what if food becomes an obsession? What if you can’t stop eating, even though it’s the thing you want most? Well, you’re not alone: there are many more binge eaters out there. Joel Zwiep • October 29, 2019
Donor Registration Week, register your choice on organ donation The new Donor Act will come into force in July 2020, which hopefully leads to more attention for donor registration. While 88% of Dutch inhabitants would want to receive an organ if needed, only 58% of the 42% registered donors has provided consent for donation. Lieke Wirken • October 18, 2019
What breakfast makes you live longer? What does it mean to make healthy lifestyle choices? For example, although many Spaniards eat sweet cakes for breakfast, the country’s life expectancy is one of the highest in Europe. Does a long healthy life depend on healthy choices, or on resilience? Annelinde Vandenbroucke • October 14, 2019 • 4 comments
When Social Sciences become social movements! This summer, a look at trending twitter hashtags led to some confusion. Leiden proudly hosted the SIPS conference on placebo studies. But #SIPS2019 was already being used for a different SIPS conference taking place in Rotterdam at the same time! Leonie Cloos and Ricarda Proppert • September 30, 2019
How not to use social media? We are more connected than ever. But is social media use bad for us? How can we protect ourselves from the detrimental effects of social media use? Cevdet Acarsoy • September 23, 2019
Veni, what else? Summer is ending and young researchers are sweating behind their laptops. September 3rd is the deadline for the coveted NWO Veni grant. Last year only 9% of applicants in the Social Sciences and Humanities were successful. So if there’s no Veni… what else? Anna van Duijvenvoorde • September 02, 2019 • 1 comment
