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Tue, Dec 05, 2023 05:44 AM All times are UTC

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Magda Osman

Reader in Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary University of London
The ethos of my work has been to take a critical eye to well accepted views and challenge the status quo. As a result, my research interests cover a range of areas that include decision-making, learning, problem-solving, biases, risk and uncertainty, agency and control, and the unconscious. (see www.magda.osman.co.uk)

My research helps answer questions like: How do we make decisions in uncertain situation? Does our unconscious rule our behaviour?

For instance, my work has shown that when making complex decisions, we do best when we figure out what the underlying causal set up of the situation is. My work also shows that our belief in our ability to control the world around us helps to reduce our experiences of uncertainty, and helps improve our actual ability to control different situations. My work and that of my lab also helps to show that methods, such as nudges, designed to improve our decision-making are not reliable, are ethically problematic, and that the public have concerns about them, especially if the nudges are designed by government bodies compared to scientists.

Conspiracy theories aren't on the rise – we need to stop panicking

Jun 21, 2023 07:26 am UTC| Insights & Views

Several polls in the past couple of years (including from Ipsos, YouGov and most recently Savanta on behalf of Kings College Policy Institute and the BBC) have been examining the kinds of conspiratorial beliefs people...

To what extent are we are ruled by unconscious forces?

May 28, 2021 11:22 am UTC| Health

Sometimes when I ask myself why Ive made a certain choice, I realise I dont actually know. To what extent we are ruled by things we arent conscious of? Paul, 43, London Why did you buy your car? Why did you fall in...

Economy

Governments have been able to overrule the Reserve Bank for 80 years. Why stop now?

Pay close enough attention to parliament these next few days, and youre likely to witness something truly remarkable: politicians from both sides of politics uniting to remove the power of politicians to overrule the...

Western Pharma Shifts Focus from China to India Amid Rising Geopolitical Tensions

Western drugmakers are increasingly turning to alternative sources for drug production and clinical trials, shifting their attention away from Chinese contractors. According to industry experts and executives, this...

What the UK government's back to work plan covers – and why it is unlikely to boost people's job prospects

Ahead of the UK governments latest economic statement, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and the secretary of state for work and pensions, Mel Stride, unveiled a new employment support package dubbed the back to work...

Every state is about to dole out federal funding for broadband internet – not every state is ready for the task

When the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed in late 2021, it included US$42.5 billion for broadband internet access as part of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. The program aims to ensure...

Tax cuts rumoured but the UK's autumn statement will offer little economic comfort

The UK chancellors autumn statement is likely to be relatively uneventful yet extremely significant. Although some headline-seeking tax cuts are rumoured, sluggish economic growth and persistent inflation leave little...

Politics

Henry Kissinger was a global – and deeply flawed – foreign policy heavyweight

Declarations of the end of an era are made only in exceptional circumstances. Henry Kissingers death is one of them. Kissinger was born into a Jewish family in Germany, and fled to the US in 1938 after the Nazis seized...

The four challenges faced by Spain's new government

Pedro Sánchez investiture marks the beginning of the third consecutive parliamentary term led by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). After a fraught period of negotiations, Sánchez now leads a broad...

'Father of Reconciliation' Pat Dodson to quit parliament

Labor senator Pat Dodson, often dubbed the father of reconciliation, is quitting parliament due to ill health. Dodson, 75, told the Labor caucus on Tuesday he would resign as a senator for Western Australia, effective...

South Africa’s immigration proposals are based on false claims and poor logic – experts

The South African government recently issued a long-awaited policy statement called a White Paper outlining proposed changes to the countrys asylum and immigration system. More than 20 years after its first...

Good profits from bad news: How the Kennedy assassination helped make network TV news wealthy

In journalism, bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads is a famous industry catchphrase, which explains why violent crime, war and terrorism, and natural disasters are ubiquitous on TV news. The fact that journalists and...

Science

Why isn't there any sound in space? An astronomer explains why in space no one can hear you scream

In space, no one can hear you scream. You may have heard this saying. Its the tagline from the famous 1979 science fiction movie Alien. Its a scary thought, but is it true? The simple answer is yes, no one can hear you...

MicroRNA is the master regulator of the genome − researchers are learning how to treat disease by harnessing the way it controls genes

The Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, and life less than a billion years after that. Although life as we know it is dependent on four major macromolecules DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids only one is thought to have been...

How do crystals form?

How do crystals form? Alyssa Marie, age 5, New Mexico Scientifically speaking, the term crystal refers to any solid that has an ordered chemical structure. This means that its parts are arranged in a precisely...

NASA's first successful recovery of asteroid samples may reveal information about the origins of the universe

The OSIRIS-REx mission is NASAs first mission to collect samples from an asteroid in this case 101955 Bennu and return to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification,...

Did this chemical reaction create the building blocks of life on Earth?

How did life begin? How did chemical reactions on the early Earth create complex, self-replicating structures that developed into living things as we know them? According to one school of thought, before the current era...

Technology

The OpenAI saga demonstrates how big corporations dominate the shaping of our technological future

The dramatic firing and reinstatement of Sam Altman as boss of OpenAI was more than a power shuffle. It was a glimpse at the overwhelming influence that big corporations and a few individuals possess when it comes to...

Montana's TikTok Ban Reversed: Judge Declares Unconstitutional, Stops January 2024 Enforcement

TikTok has been banned in Montana, and it was the first state in the United States to do so. A federal judge scrapped the order after saying it was an unconstitutional decision. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy...

Mastercard's Shopping Muse: A New Era in AI-Driven E-commerce Personalization

Dynamic Yield by Mastercard, a digital personalization and artificial intelligence subsidiary of Mastercard, has unveiled its latest innovation, Shopping Muse. This generative AI chatbot assistant aims to revolutionize how...

Google Challenges Microsoft in UK Cloud Market, Urges CMA Action

Google has urged Britains antitrust regulator, the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority), to take action against Microsoft. The tech giant claims that Microsofts business practices have put its rivals at a significant...

Mercedes-Benz, BMW Partner to Launch 1,000 EV Charging Stations in China by 2026

Mercedes-Benz and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) have come together to build a charging network for electric vehicles in China. The German luxury car manufacturers said they are aiming to put up at least 1,000...