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Moral Licensing: Why Doing Good Can Make Us Behave Worse

Host Leslie Poston explains the phenomenon of moral licensing: after people do something that affirms their identity as a good person, the brain registers progress toward a moral goal, reducing self-regulatory effort and making later unethical choices more likely, sometimes in unrelated domains. Using a fitness “daily budget” analogy, the episode describes evidence fr...

The Cost of Losing Serendipity in Algorithmic Discovery

Host Leslie Poston discusses how algorithmic recommendation systems have replaced everyday accidental discovery, reducing serendipity and narrowing what people encounter. The episode explains psychological and neuroscience research showing novelty’s role in motivation, attention, learning, and memory (including locus coeruleus activation), the inverted-U relationship b...

Semantic Derailment and the Social Permission That Sustains Organized Sexual Violence

Host Leslie Poston discusses a CNN investigation into an “online rape academy,” including a Telegram group called ZZZ where nearly 1,000 men allegedly coordinated drugging and sexual assault, shared footage, discussed substances and dosages, and advertised paid live streams; while ZZZ was taken down, the U.S.-hosted site Motherless remains...

The Ethics of Reality TV: Deception, Conflict, and What We Normalize

Host Leslie Poston examines the ethical and psychological costs of reality and reality-adjacent TV that relies on deception or engineered conflict, arguing the key issue is whether harm is built into a show’s format rather than whether it is scripted. Using Jury Duty as an example of compromised informed consent and Survivor as an example of formats that r...

AI Slop and Your Brain: Attention, Fatigue, and the Erosion of Meaning

Host Leslie Poston explains how “AI slop” is industrial-scale synthetic content optimized for volume and fast reactions rather than accuracy or usefulness, ranging from keyword-stuffed articles and fake reviews to fabricated quotes, fake images, and targeted deepfake audio/video. She argues it exploits cognitive shortcuts like attentional capture and pro...

Meta Verdicts, Kids’ Harm, and the Push for Age Verification

Host Leslie Poston reviews two jury verdicts finding Meta liable for harming children: a New Mexico case ordering $375 million in civil penalties for concealing knowledge about child sexual exploitation and mental health impacts, and a Los Angeles negligence case where Meta and YouTube were found liable and Kaylee was awarded $6 million for worsened anxiety and de...

Why “Give 100%” Is Corrosive: Sustainable Performance, Burnout, and Reserve Capacity

Host Leslie Poston examines the phrase “give 100%” in American work culture, tracing it to Protestant work-ethic theology and arguing it became a management tool that moralizes maximum output despite lacking empirical support. The episode contrasts this norm with research on sustainable performance, citing shorter-workweek trials. P...

Common Sense or Power Move? The One Question That Reveals the Difference

Host Leslie Poston argues that “common sense” is often used to end conversations and universalize one person’s perception rather than provide evidence. She explains this through naïve realism (people experience their perceptions as objective reality), embodied cognition (gut intuitions shaped by bodily and lived experience), and positionality (social l...

When AI Becomes a Confidant: Loneliness, Engagement Incentives, and the Risks of Chatbot “Support”

Host Leslie Poston examines why so many adults and teens are using LLM chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude as friends, therapy substitutes, or romantic stand-ins, linking it to eroding community, expensive and inaccessible mental health care, and tech incentives optimized for engagement. Citing Meta’s engagement-driven practices ...

Forever War and the Stolen Future

Host Leslie Poston examines a hidden psychological cost of “forever wars”: they don’t just create fear and grief, they change how people relate to time—shrinking hope, planning, and the ability to believe in tomorrow. She explains how chronic threat and recurring escalation can trap individuals and whole societies in emergency mode, erode trust in institutions, and create a sense of democra...

Losing Our Heroes: The Epstein Files, Elite Complicity, and the Psychology of Looking Away

Host Leslie Poston discusses the psychological impact of seeing the names of people you once admired or trusted in the Epstein files. Poston examines why revelations connected to the Epstein files can feel psychologically destabilizing, especially when they involve admired public figures and trusted institutions. Drawing on research i...

Sustained Resistance: How Communities Keep Showing Up Under Repression

Host Leslie Poston closes PsyberSpace’s three-part series on American authoritarianism by focusing on the psychology of sustained resistance. Drawing on findings that real-world bystander intervention occurs in most incidents, she distinguishes one-time helping from long-term collective action and uses Minneapolis as an example of ongoing community respo...

The Power and Purpose of Obvious Lies in Authoritarian Regimes

In this episode of PsyberSpace®, host Leslie Poston explores why authoritarian regimes tell obvious lies that contradict available video evidence and their psychological impact on the public. The discussion digs into how such lies serve to dominate rather than persuade, sorting the population, degrading shared reality, and forcing individuals to either accept th...

Understanding American Authoritarianism Short Series Part 1 of 3: Expansion of State Violence

In the first part of a special three-episode series on PsyberSpace®, host Leslie Poston examines the psychology of authoritarianism with a focus on the expansion of state violence in the United States. Highlighting the significance of understanding how psychological patterns predict such outcomes, Leslie discusses recent events inv...

The Illusion of Digital Safety: How Age Gates and Digital IDs Miss the Mark

In this episode of PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston digs into the ineffectiveness and risks of age gates and digital ID verification systems aimed at protecting children online. Highlighting global legislative attempts and their unintended consequences, Poston argues that these measures often exacerbate digital risks while failing to address root cau...

The Hidden Dangers of Debate: Why It Can Legitimize Bad Ideas

In this episode of PsyberSpace®, host Leslie Poston explores the unintended consequences of debate formats in media, arguing that they often function as tools to distribute and legitimize harmful ideas rather than dismantling them with facts. Poston discusses psychological principles such as social proof, the illusory truth effect, and the continued influence eff...

The Erosion of Consent in the Digital Age

In this episode of PsyberSpace®, Leslie Poston discusses the systematic erosion of consent both online and offline, and its devastating psychological consequences. Key topics include non-consensual AI-generated sexual imagery, the mass theft of creative work to train AI systems, the exploitation of vulnerable individuals for social media content, and the influence of manosphere ideo...

PsyberSpace® on Navigating Therapy: Finding the Right Modality and Therapist for Your Mental Health

In this episode of PsyberSpace®, host Leslie Poston kicks off season three with an in-depth exploration of several of the many therapy modalities available to you. Leslie discusses that therapy isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, emphasizing the importance of finding the right match between therapeutic modalities, the therapi...

Navigating Family Estrangement During the Holidays

In this episode of PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston explores the trending issue of family estrangement, especially relevant during the holiday season. With so many adults experiencing estrangement, Poston dives into the research findings from the Cornell Reconciliation Project and other studies. The episode discusses the perspectives and reasons behind estrangement b...