About PsyPost
What is PsyPost?
PsyPost is an independent news site covering psychology and neuroscience research. We report on newly published studies in peer-reviewed journals and explain what researchers found, how they found it, and what the findings do and don’t tell us.
Who runs PsyPost?
PsyPost was founded and is edited by Eric W. Dolan, who started the site as a college project during his last semester at Bradley University. The goal then is the same as it is now: a science news outlet that goes into real detail about the studies it covers, and that avoids the common failures of the genre. Those failures are specific and repetitive — implying a study showed causality when it didn’t, omitting the sample size, saying nothing about who the participants actually were, glossing over how the key variables were measured, and leaving out the limitations the researchers themselves acknowledged.
Is PsyPost affiliated with any university, publisher, or advocacy organization?
No. PsyPost is independently owned and operated. We are not affiliated with any university, journal, publisher, professional association, political organization, or advocacy group, and no outside organization has any say in what we cover or how we cover it.
How long has PsyPost been publishing?
Since 2010. We’ve covered more than 15,000 studies in that time.
Who writes the articles?
A small group: Eric W. Dolan and a few contributing writers. Everything is edited by Eric before it publishes.
How is PsyPost funded?
Two sources: advertising on the free version of the site, and Premium memberships. We do not accept payment from researchers, universities, publishers, or PR firms in exchange for coverage. Memberships are the part of that mix we’d like to grow, because reader funding is the version of this that keeps us independent.
Editorial standards
How do you decide which studies to cover?
We monitor newly published research across a wide range of psychology and neuroscience journals, prioritizing peer-reviewed work in credible outlets. From there it’s editorial judgment: studies get picked because they’re interesting, because they’re important, and sometimes simply because they’re strange or funny. We’re not trying to cover everything — we’re trying to cover what’s worth your time.
Do you cover only new research, or older studies too?
Most of our coverage is of recently published research, usually within days or weeks of publication. We occasionally revisit older work when it becomes newly relevant.
Do you write articles from press releases?
No. Our articles are written from the published study itself, not the university press release. Press releases routinely overstate findings, drop important caveats, and describe results in ways the underlying paper doesn’t support.
Do researchers or institutions pay to have their studies covered?
No. We do not accept payment, gifts, or any other consideration in exchange for coverage, and we never have. No study has ever been covered on PsyPost because someone paid for it to be.
What do you do when a study has serious methodological limitations?
We include them in the article, usually in a dedicated section near the end. Small samples, correlational designs that can’t establish causation, self-report measures, non-representative participants, and researcher conflicts of interest all get named where relevant. A study’s limitations are part of what the study found.
Our general approach is to cover research and be clear about its weaknesses rather than to withhold it. But that isn’t unconditional. Occasionally we encounter published work with problems serious enough that reporting on it wouldn’t be responsible even with caveats attached — signs of data irregularities, analyses that don’t support the conclusions drawn from them, or undisclosed conflicts. In those cases we don’t run the story, and we raise the issues with the journal that published it.
Does PsyPost have a political or ideological slant?
We cover research findings, including findings that are inconvenient for any given political position. We don’t select studies to advance a political conclusion, and we don’t suppress findings because they’re unpopular. Psychology research touches on politically charged subjects constantly, and our commitment is to report what the research actually found rather than what any camp would prefer it found.
Do you cover controversial or fringe research?
Yes. Covering a study is not endorsing it. Some of the most interesting research in psychology deals with contested questions, and some published work makes claims that deserve real skepticism — we’d rather report on it, describe the methods plainly, and note the weaknesses than pretend it doesn’t exist. Our job is to tell you what researchers did and what they found. Deciding what to make of it is yours.
Why do you cover some studies that seem trivial?
Because “trivial” is in the eye of the reader. We cover what’s interesting, and interesting takes many forms — important, surprising, strange, occasionally funny. What we try to do consistently is give you enough information about how a study was conducted that you can make up your own mind about how much it matters.
It’s also worth saying that “obvious” findings are more valuable than they look. Common sense is not a reliable guide to human behavior — it’s full of confident claims that contradict each other. Opposites attract, but birds of a feather flock together. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight is out of mind. Whichever result a study produces, someone will call it obvious after the fact, which is precisely why the study was needed. Testing an intuition can confirm it, overturn it, or reveal that it holds only under particular conditions — and knowing which of those is true is not something anyone can determine from the armchair.
Has PsyPost been rated by independent watchdogs?
Yes. NewsGuard, which evaluates news sites on criteria including responsible presentation of information, clear separation of fact from opinion, and avoidance of deceptive headlines, rates PsyPost 87.5 out of 100.
How do you handle corrections?
We correct errors promptly and visibly. Substantive corrections are noted on the article itself.
How can I report an error?
Use our contact form or email editor@psypost.org. Please include the article URL and a description of the problem. Corrections from readers are genuinely welcome.
Can I suggest a study for coverage?
Yes. Send it through our contact form with a link or DOI, and a brief summary of the findings if you have one. We can’t cover everything suggested, but we do read them.
Understanding the research
Why do your headlines say “linked to” instead of “causes”?
Because most psychology studies can’t establish causation, and saying otherwise would be false. The majority of research we cover is correlational: researchers measure two things and find that they tend to occur together. That’s genuinely informative, but it leaves at least three explanations open. Suppose a study finds that people who exercise more report less depression. Exercise might reduce depression. Depression might make exercise harder. Or something else — income, health, sleep, social connection — might drive both.
Only certain designs, chiefly randomized experiments, can separate those possibilities. When a study uses one, we say so and use causal language. When it doesn’t, we don’t. “Linked to” isn’t timidity; it’s the accurate description of what was found.
Why does PsyPost use language like “provides evidence”?
For the same reason. A study is a test of a hypothesis, and a single test rarely settles anything on its own. What a good study does is move a hypothesis some distance toward “true” or “false” — sometimes a long way, more often a short one. Words like “proves,” “confirms,” or “shows” imply a finality that one result almost never earns, and they’re the exact words that turn a modest finding into a misleading headline. “Provides evidence that” is longer and less exciting, and it’s what actually happened.
Should I change my behavior based on a single study?
Usually not. Any individual study is one estimate, produced by one research team, using one set of measures, on one particular sample of people. Effects often shrink when other researchers try to reproduce them. Findings that hold for the average participant may not hold for you. And effect sizes that are statistically detectable are frequently too small to matter much in a single life.
The stronger move is to watch for convergence: several independent studies, using different methods, pointing the same direction — and especially meta-analyses and successful replications. We cover individual studies because that’s how the evidence accumulates and because watching it accumulate is interesting. That’s different from treating any one result as instructions.
What does “statistically significant” actually mean?
It means that if there were no real effect, a result at least this extreme would be unlikely to turn up by chance alone. By convention, “unlikely” usually means less than a 5% probability.
Note what it does not mean. It doesn’t mean the effect is large — with a big enough sample, trivially small differences become statistically significant. It doesn’t mean the finding is important. It doesn’t mean it’s certain, or that it will replicate. And a result that isn’t statistically significant is not proof that there’s no effect; it may just mean the study lacked the participants to detect one. This is why we try to report effect sizes and sample sizes rather than just whether a result cleared the threshold.
You may also notice that we avoid the bare word “significant” in our writing. In everyday English it means large or consequential; in statistics it means something much narrower and much weaker. Those two meanings get conflated constantly, and the conflation is how a barely detectable difference ends up described as a major discovery. When we mean the statistical sense, we say “statistically significant.” When we mean the effect was large, we say that instead — and try to tell you how large.
Why do psychology studies so often contradict each other?
Partly because human behavior is genuinely variable. An effect can hold in one culture, age group, or context and not another, and two studies reaching different conclusions may both be right about the people they studied.
Beyond that: studies define and measure the same concept in different ways; small samples produce noisy estimates that bounce around; and journals have historically preferred publishing surprising positive results over null findings, which distorts the published record. Contradiction is a normal feature of a field working something out, not evidence that the field is worthless. It is, however, a good reason to be patient with any single headline — including ours.
What is a preprint, and do you cover them?
A preprint is a study posted publicly by its authors before it has completed peer review. Preprints make research available faster, but they haven’t yet been vetted by other experts, and some never pass that review. Our coverage focuses on peer-reviewed research. When we do cover a preprint because the work is especially notable, we say clearly in the article that it has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Is anything on PsyPost medical or psychological advice?
No. PsyPost is a news publication, not a healthcare provider. We report on research about depression, anxiety, medication, therapy, and many other clinical topics, but nothing we publish is a diagnosis, a treatment recommendation, or a substitute for the judgment of a qualified professional who knows your situation.
If you’re dealing with a mental health concern, please talk to a doctor or licensed mental health professional. If you’re in crisis, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line — in the United States, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988.
Membership
What is PsyPost Premium?
Premium is a paid membership that removes all advertising, unlocks commenting, gives you the bookmark feature for saving articles, and provides access to our Weekly Roundup newsletter for readers who find a daily email too much. It also directly funds our reporting.
Is any content locked behind the paywall?
No. Every article on PsyPost is free to read, for everyone, member or not. Membership removes ads and supports the work — it doesn’t buy access to articles other readers can’t see. We think science journalism should be freely available to all.
How much does membership cost?
$2.99 per month, or $29.99 per year.
Is there a discount for annual billing?
Yes. Twelve monthly payments come to $35.88, so the annual plan saves about 16% — roughly two months free.
Why should I pay for something that’s free?
Because the free version exists only because some people pay. Ad revenue alone doesn’t sustain careful, slow coverage of research — it rewards volume and aggregation, which is why so much science coverage online is rewritten press releases. Members are what make it possible to read the actual papers.
Is my membership tax-deductible?
No. PsyPost is an independently owned business rather than a nonprofit, so memberships aren’t charitable donations and aren’t tax-deductible.
Do you offer student or hardship rates?
Not at this time.
Can I make a one-time donation instead?
Not currently — recurring memberships are what we’re set up to handle.
Do you offer gift memberships?
Not yet, but it’s in the works.
Do you offer institutional or group subscriptions?
Not yet, though we’re working on it. If you’re interested, let us know — it helps us gauge demand.
Account & billing
How do I create an account?
Visit our membership levels page and choose a plan. You’ll set a password during checkout.
How do I log in?
Use the login link in the site menu, or go to your account page — you’ll be prompted to sign in.
I forgot my password.
Use the “Lost your password?” link on the login page. You’ll get a reset link by email. If it doesn’t arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
How do I update my payment method?
Log in and go to your account page, then select the option to update your billing information.
Where can I find my receipts?
Log in and go to your account page. Every payment is listed there with a printable invoice.
How do I switch between monthly and annual billing?
Log in and visit the membership levels page, then choose the plan you want. Changing plans cancels your existing subscription and starts a new one at the new rate. If the timing doesn’t work out in your favor, contact us and we’ll sort it out.
How do I cancel?
Log in, go to your account page, and select Cancel. No email required, no retention phone call, no dark patterns.
What happens when I cancel?
Your membership stays active through the end of the period you’ve already paid for, then reverts to a free account. You keep your account, your comment history, and your newsletter subscriptions.
Do you offer refunds?
We don’t offer refunds as a matter of course, but we’ll consider individual requests — get in touch and explain the situation.
Is my payment information secure?
Yes. Payments are processed by Stripe, and PsyPost never sees or stores your card number.
Using the site
Where can I follow PsyPost?
We’re on Facebook, X, Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, and TikTok. You can also subscribe to our newsletters, follow our RSS feed, or enable browser notifications.
How do I make PsyPost a preferred source in Google News?
Google lets you tell it which outlets you want to see more of. Search for a news topic on Google, look for the preferred sources option near the Top Stories section, search for PsyPost, and select it. After that, our coverage is more likely to appear when you search for related topics. It takes about ten seconds and it meaningfully helps an independent site compete with much larger outlets.
Can I share articles freely?
Yes, always. Post our links anywhere you like — social media, group chats, newsletters, class syllabi, your family’s holiday email thread. Sharing links is the single most useful thing a reader can do for us, and it costs nothing. (Republishing full article text is a separate matter — see below.)
Do you have a podcast or video?
No podcast at the moment. We do publish video content on YouTube and TikTok.
Do you have an app?
No. PsyPost works in any mobile browser, and you can add it to your home screen for app-like access.
Do you have an RSS feed?
Yes, at psypost.org/feed/.
How do I search for articles on a topic?
Use the search box in the site menu, or browse by category — Mental Health, Neuroimaging, Personality Psychology, Social Psychology, Cognitive Science, Psychopharmacology, and more.
How do I save articles for later?
Premium members can bookmark any article and find it again on their bookmarks page.
I’m a member but still seeing ads.
First, make sure you’re logged in — ad removal is tied to your account, not your device. If you’re logged in and still seeing ads, try a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac). If that doesn’t fix it, contact us with your browser and the page URL.
Which browsers do you support?
Current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Reuse & permissions
Can I republish or translate a PsyPost article?
We don’t permit full republication without prior and explicit authorization. Short excerpts — a paragraph or two — are fine with attribution and a link back to the original article. For translation requests, contact us.
Can I use your images?
No. Our images are licensed for use on PsyPost only, and we can’t extend those rights to others.
Do you accept guest contributions or pitches?
Not at this time.
How do I contact you about advertising?
Advertising on PsyPost is handled by Mediavine, and inquiries should go to them directly. We don’t sell sponsorships or placements ourselves, and advertising has no influence on what we cover.
Press inquiries?
Email editor@psypost.org.
Privacy & data
What data do you collect?
We collect the information needed to run the site and your account, plus standard analytics about how the site is used. Our Privacy Policy has the full details.
Do you sell reader data?
PsyPost does not sell reader data. Advertising on the free version of the site is served through Mediavine, and its advertising partners do collect data for ad targeting. California residents can opt out via our Do Not Sell My Personal Information page. Premium members see no advertising at all.
How do you use cookies?
We use cookies to keep you logged in, remember your preferences, and measure site usage; advertising cookies are also set on the free version of the site. See our Privacy Policy for specifics.
How do I delete my account and data?
Email editor@psypost.org from your account address and we’ll delete your account and associated data. We retain payment records where required by law.
Comments
Who can post comments?
Posting comments is limited to Premium members.
Can I read comments without a membership?
Yes. Comments are visible to everyone. Only posting requires a membership.
Why are comments limited to members?
Two reasons. It keeps discussion quality high — a small barrier filters out drive-by trolling and spam almost entirely. And it means the people in the comments have some investment in the site.
What are the comment guidelines?
Be respectful. No harassment, no spam, no self-promotion. Disagree with arguments rather than with people. We reserve the right to remove any comment for any reason.
Are comments moderated?
Yes. Comments post immediately but are reviewed shortly afterward.
How do I report a comment?
Contact us with the article URL and enough detail to identify the comment.
Can I edit or delete my own comment?
Comments can’t be edited after posting. If you’d like one removed, contact us from your account email address and we’ll take it down.
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