Comment in 2024

Beginning to conduct psychological research in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is daunting. Where do you start? In this reflexive commentary, we raise three critical questions that researchers should ask themselves before conducting research in LMICs.

Behavioral sciences should be systematically integrated with urban planning. Urban form is a critical choice architecture for making people’s choices more climate-friendly, and improve liveability of cities.

Interventions targeting children’s eco-anxiety have focused on fostering hope, however this is disconnected from children’s need to explore and express despair regarding the climate crisis. Adults can help by acknowledging and discussing these emotions with children.

Innovations in generative AI can cause social, psychological, and political harms. This Comment explains how psychologists can mobilize their extensive theoretical and empirical resources to better anticipate, understand, and mitigate those harms.

Analysis of different operationalizations shows that many scientific results may be an artifact of the operationalization process. A culture of multi-operationalization may be needed for psychological research to develop valid knowledge.

The terminology used in discussions on mental state attribution is extensive and lacks consistency. In the current paper, experts from various disciplines collaborate to introduce a shared set of concepts and make recommendations regarding future use.

Proliferation and variability of psychological measures are part of the scientific process. While sometimes an indication of questionable research practices, there are also benign reasons for measurement proliferation and the community’s response must take both aspects into account.

There are racial, gender, and geographical disparities for editors-in-chief in psychology. This is a problem, and many counter arguments are not persuasive. It is time for the field – and in the power of individuals - to implement suitable measures to make change happen.

Although often stigmatised in mainstream psychology, self-relevant research offers many benefits including increasing the presence of underrepresented researchers and promoting more valid and representative research. Psychology should de-stigmatize and leverage this approach.

The literature on action control is rife with differences in terminology. This consensus statement contributes shared definitions for perception-action integration concepts as informed by the framework of event coding.

There is concern that many ills in Western societies are caused by misinformation. Some researchers argue that misinformation is merely a symptom, not a cause. This appears a false dichotomy, and research should differentiate between dimensions of misinformation in these evaluations.