All posts tagged: Mechanism

Humor as a Psychological Defense Mechanism

Humor as a Psychological Defense Mechanism

Published by Jenni Sidey

They say that laughter is the best medicine. If you’ve ever been having a hard day but then told a good joke or, better yet, caught off guard by something comedic, you can likely attest to how levity can break the spell of gloom. Interestingly, even nonhumorous laughter, like in laughter yoga, has been correlated to reduced pain, depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep problems (e.g., Uner et al., 2022). This is because laughter, whether humorous or not, triggers the release of endorphins, or “feel-good chemicals,” which not only boost mood but also contribute to relaxation of muscles (e.g., Hajar, 2023). Even better, an increase in endorphins decreases stress hormones, which can be damaging to our immune system (e.g., Alotiby, 2024), and regular laughter has been correlated with improvement in physical ailments (e.g., Oliveira & Arriaga, 2022; Singh et al., 2025). Aside from the above, humor is also health-related in its role as a psychological defense mechanism. Psychological defenses These are subconscious cognitive processes that serve to protect against things that would be too anxiety-provoking to …

EU Hydrogen Mechanism round accelerates hydrogen infrastructure

EU Hydrogen Mechanism round accelerates hydrogen infrastructure

Published by skeptic

The European Commission is preparing a new round of its Hydrogen Mechanism later this year, with a specific focus on advancing hydrogen infrastructure across Europe. The initiative follows encouraging participation in the programme’s first market-matching exercise, held in April. The upcoming round is designed to help transmission system operators (TSOs), hydrogen network operators (HNOs), and other infrastructure organisations gauge market demand for future hydrogen projects. The exercise will focus on assets such as hydrogen pipelines and storage facilities, providing valuable insight before investment decisions are made. By enabling infrastructure developers to better understand market interest, the Commission aims to reduce uncertainty surrounding hydrogen deployment while supporting the development of a more connected and commercially viable European hydrogen market. Supporting Europe’s hydrogen infrastructure The Hydrogen Mechanism was established to address some of the most significant challenges slowing hydrogen adoption. These include uncertain supply and demand, limited hydrogen infrastructure, and financing barriers that can delay investment. Rather than acting as a trading platform, the mechanism connects potential buyers and sellers through structured market engagement. This helps participants …

MiniMax teases upcoming M3 model with new sparse attention mechanism and 15.6X long-context response speed boost

MiniMax teases upcoming M3 model with new sparse attention mechanism and 15.6X long-context response speed boost

Published by skeptic

Among the many Chinese AI companies and laboratories vying for market share and attention (no pun intended) on the global marketplace, MiniMax stands out for its commitment to providing frontier-level intelligence across a range of modalities, including text, coding, and video (through its Hailuo model series) — often under permissive, enterprise-friendly, standard open source licenses. Now, MiniMax is again raising the eyebrows of AI power users and developers around the world by releasing a new, in-depth technical report on the making of its popular M2 series of language models (M2, M2.5, and M2.7) shedding light on its numerous engineering innovations and clever approaches — while the company and its leaders also teased a whole new sparse attention approach for its upcoming MiniMax M3 series of models, which it says yields up to 15.6 times faster decoding (or LLM response) speed at long contexts (a million tokens) by adopting a custom sub-quadratic framework. In so doing, MiniMax has designed M3 to make ultra-long-context AI agent deployment economically viable. The M2 report is noteworthy for any enterprise …

Celebrity bashing acts as a temporary coping mechanism

Celebrity bashing acts as a temporary coping mechanism

Published by José Betancourt

A recent study published in Psychology of Popular Media provides evidence that criticizing and withdrawing support from a beloved celebrity who threatens a person’s social identity can offer immediate emotional relief. The findings suggest that engaging in toxic online behavior acts as a short-term coping mechanism for fans experiencing a clash between their national identity and their attachment to a famous figure. The authors of the study wanted to understand the psychological motivations behind cancel culture. Cancel culture involves withdrawing support for a public figure and often posting harsh criticisms about them online. This behavior contributes to a hostile digital environment. Many people form strong, one-sided emotional attachments to media personalities. These are known as parasocial relationships. These one-sided attachments tend to boost psychological well-being and provide a sense of belonging for the media consumer. When a beloved celebrity acts in a way that violates a fan’s moral standards, it can cause emotional distress similar to a real life interpersonal breakup. To avoid this pain, devoted fans often try to rationalize a celebrity’s bad behavior. …

Iran Sets up New Mechanism to Manage Vessel Transit Through Hormuz

Iran Sets up New Mechanism to Manage Vessel Transit Through Hormuz

Published by Sam Flores

May 5 (Reuters) – ⁠Iran ⁠has set ⁠up a new ​mechanism to ‌manage the transit ‌of ⁠vessels ⁠through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s ​Press TV reported on ​Tuesday. Iran has warned the ⁠U.S. Navy ⁠to ⁠stay out ​of the Strait of ​Hormuz ⁠and that commercial vessels will ⁠need to coordinate any passage with its ⁠military. It also issued a new map of the strait with an expanded Iranian ⁠area of control. (Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Yomna ​EhabEditing by ​Gareth Jones) Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters. Source link

What is dissociation? The coping mechanism that often goes unnoticed

What is dissociation? The coping mechanism that often goes unnoticed

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore You call your teen’s name, but they don’t respond. They’re staring past you. You call again, louder this time. Nothing – how rude. But what if they’re zoning out? For some teens, this can be a sign of dissociation, a temporary disconnection from thoughts, feelings, body or surroundings. It’s the brain’s way of protecting itself from overwhelming stress or emotion. Dissociation is often linked to trauma – experiences that feel deeply distressing or life-threatening. But because dissociation is quiet and invisible, it often goes unnoticed. A withdrawn or “spacey” teen draws less attention than one who’s anxious or acting out. Misunderstanding this response can lead to frustration and strained relationships. In two recent studies, we interviewed teens who dissociate, as well as their parents and clinicians. We wanted to understand better what it feels like when it happens – and what …

Is it a disorder or a healing mechanism?

Is it a disorder or a healing mechanism?

Published by José Betancourt

The concept of masochism often evokes images of whips, chains, and leather. While these elements can certainly be part of the picture, the scientific and historical reality is far more nuanced. At its core, masochism refers to the experience of finding pleasure or gratification in pain, humiliation, or submission. This seeming paradox has puzzled psychologists and neurologists for over a century. How can a sensation designed to warn the body of danger become a source of enjoyment? Recent research suggests the answer lies in a complex interplay of biology, psychology, and social context. Scientists are finding that pain and pleasure share overlapping neural pathways. They also suggest that the context in which pain occurs can fundamentally alter how the brain processes it. To understand masochism, one must look beyond the physical sensation and examine the mind of the person experiencing it. The Historical Origins The word “masochism” has a literary origin. It was coined in 1883 by the German neurologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. He derived the term from the name of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, an …

An Animated Introduction to the Antikythera Mechanism: The World’s First Analog Computer from Ancient Greece

An Animated Introduction to the Antikythera Mechanism: The World’s First Analog Computer from Ancient Greece

Published by José Betancourt

From TED-Ed comes an ani­mat­ed intro­duc­tion to the Antikythera Mech­a­nism, an ancient Greek device that dates back to the 2nd cen­tu­ry BCE. TED writes: “In 1900, Greek divers stum­bled upon a 2,000-year-old ship­wreck whose con­tents would shake our under­stand­ing of the ancient world. Among the remains were frag­ments of man­gled wood and cor­rod­ed met­al, which archae­ol­o­gists soon real­ized were parts of the old­est geared device ever dis­cov­ered — and humankind’s first com­put­er. So, how did it work?” Above, sci­ence jour­nal­ist Max G. Levy explains the inner work­ings of the Antikythera Mech­a­nism and how the Greeks put the device to use. For those who want to take a deep­er dive into this ancient ana­log com­put­er (there’s a lot more to learn), we invite you to explore the titles in the Relat­eds sec­tion below. They’ll take you deep­er into this mar­vel of ancient engi­neer­ing. If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day. If …

Scientists identify key brain mechanism behind ayahuasca’s ability to reduce PTSD symptoms

Scientists identify key brain mechanism behind ayahuasca’s ability to reduce PTSD symptoms

Published by José Betancourt

New research published in European Neuropsychopharmacology provides evidence that the psychedelic brew ayahuasca can facilitate the extinction of severe, trauma-like fear memories in rats. The findings suggest that this effect depends on specific neuroplasticity mechanisms within the prefrontal cortex involving a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor. By targeting these pathways, the treatment also appears to reduce the tendency to perceive safe environments as threatening. Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by fear memories that are overgeneralized and resistant to standard extinction procedures. Standard laboratory models often use mild aversive conditioning that does not fully capture the persistence or intensity of traumatic memories found in humans. The authors of the new study sought to address this gap by utilizing protocols that induce stronger, more resilient fear memories. They aimed to determine if ayahuasca could help attenuate these maladaptive memories and to identify the specific brain mechanisms responsible for such effects. Previous studies have indicated that the infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex is essential for fear extinction. This brain area exerts inhibitory control over fear …

Tories to use ancient mechanism to force release of Mandelson vetting papers after criminal investigation launched | Politics News

Tories to use ancient mechanism to force release of Mandelson vetting papers after criminal investigation launched | Politics News

Published by Sam Flores

The Conservatives will today attempt to force the release of all information relating to Sir Keir Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States after new revelations about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Party leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded No 10 explain the vetting process after she claimed that concerns were “waived away” so the PM could make a “political appointment of a man who is a close friend of a convicted paedophile”. It comes after the Metropolitan Police announced they had launched a criminal investigation into misconduct in public office offences after files released by US authorities appeared to show Mandelson had passed internal discussions from the heart of UK government to Epstein after the global financial crash. Mandelson was business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government at the time, was later made a life peer and last year was appointed the UK’s ambassador to the US. You need javascript enabled to view this content Enable javascript to share Share ‘Crazy’ for ministers to oppose Mandelson motion He was sacked as ambassador …