From Europe's Journal of Psychology, a special issue on humor, including Vassilis Saroglou, Christelle Lacour, and Marie-Eve Demeure (UCL): Bad Humor, Bad Marriage: Humor Styles in Divorced and Married Couples; Margaret Bassil and Shahe S. Kazarian (AUB) and Nicholas Kuiper and Jessica Sine (UWO): The Impact of Humor in North American versus Middle East Cultures; Julie Woodzicka (Washington and Lee) and Thomas Ford (WCU): A Framework for Thinking about the (not-so-funny) Effects of Sexist Humor; Kim Edwards and Rod Martin (UWO): Humor Creation Ability and Mental Health: Are Funny People more Psychologically Healthy?; and Bernard C. Beins and Shawn M. O’Toole (Ithaca): Searching for the Sense of Humor: Stereotypes of Ourselves and Others. From PopMatters, Shawn O'Rourke on the future of comic stores in the digital era. New research finds we trust experts who agree with our own opinions, suggesting that subjective feelings override scientific information. A review of How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like by Paul Bloom. Judy Bachrach on the joys of being called "an older woman". Psychologists link happiness with less small talk and more substantive conversation. What a law professor can learn from George Orwell: People today can't remember anything about politics or public life, but they can retrieve everything about someone's personal history.
