Psychology Today

Psychology Today is a print and online magazine that publishes popular psychology articles. Some articles cite scientific research and others are based on opinion or observation. Many of its contributors are qualified, though their articles don't undergo peer review.
Some of its articles veer into pseudoscience territory, so don't believe everything you read.
==History==
Psychology Today was founded by Nicholas Charney, Ph.D. in 1967, and publishes issues every other month.Was There Really a Popular Science 'Boom'?
===Recent history===
Psychology Today has a large web presence, featuring many blogs with popular psychology articles. It also includes a large online therapist directory where patients can find a specialist who suits their needs.
Its covers feature white people 88% of the time—usually skinny, conventionally attractive white women.Psychology Today Magazine Loves White People. Especially Beautiful and Thin White Women. They are often wearing makeup and "sexy" clothes.
==Articles==
Media Bias/Fact Check lists Psychology Today as pro-science with high factual reporting. It notes that while individual writers show bias, the publication is scientific overall.Psychology Today - Media Bias/Fact Check
===The good===
Psychology Today explains scientific concepts in accessible language, educating the general public in facets of psychology. The language is plain enough that teens as well as adults can read it and learn new things.
The magazine includes articles about issues that affect the general public, such as self-esteem, identifying and treating mental illnesses, and identifying abusive relationships. This knowledge can make a difference to people who need it. For instance, this article by Dev Roychowdhury lists evidence-based actionable steps that people can take to practice mindfulness during COVID-19 confinement and lockdowns. 
Psychology Today employs a diverse group of contributors with different specialties and backgrounds. This includes hiring people with certain psychological conditions to write about those conditions, such as people with ADHD and autism writing articles that help others understand them better.
===The bad===
Psychology Today has a diverse team of writers, and sometimes that includes people with ideas that really shouldn't get published. A few articles are biased, non-factual, or even straight up rotten.
====The article saying black women aren't pretty====
In 2011, evolutionary psychologist
Satoshi Kanazawa pubished an article entitled "Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?" on Psychology Today. Yes, really. He used "research" to prove his point, though he didn't disclose sample size or confounding factors.Satoshi Kanazawa's racist nonsense should not be tolerated - The Guardian
Other contributing writers, understandably horrified that their colleague could publish such an article, quickly wrote refutations that pointed out the manyThe Data Are In Regarding Satoshi Kanazawa - Scientific American holes in his research. Finally, editor-in-chief Kaja Perina issued an apology for allowing the article's publication, saying that it had been taken down and that they had "taken measures to ensure that such an incident does not occur again."Psychology Today Apologizes for 'Black Women Less Attractive' Post - The Atlantic
Some people felt that the apology was not enough. A Change.org petition called upon Psychology Today to apologize more deeply, dismiss Kanazawa, clarify what "measures" are being taken to prevent future incidents, and post articles debunking scientific racism.Psychology Today: Stop Publishing Racist & Sexist Articles - Change.org
====Autism and schizophrenia stereotypes====
In 2016, Psychology Today published two articles by Christopher Robert Badcock, Ph.D., claiming that autistic people were "undomesticated humans"Autistics as Undomesticated Humans - Psychology Today (using "evidence" like head size and ear shape and the debunkedAggression in children with autism spectrum disorders and a clinic-referred comparison group - AutismAutism Is Not Psychosis - The Atlantic. Though psychotic breaks don't usually cause violence.Toronto attack: Autism does not increase risk of violence - The Conversation claim that autistics are violent) and people with schizophrenia were "hyper-domesticated humans."Schizophrenics as Hyper-domesticated Humans - Psychology Today
Badcock has also published articles with other "fun" claims, like:
* Autistics lacking Hyper-mentalism in Children Reporting Psychotic Experiences (debunkedEmpirical Failures of the Claim That Autistic People Lack a Theory of MindThe Right Incentive Can Erase an Autism Deficit - Scientific American. Maybe autistic kids just aren't that interested in answering strangers' weird questions.Debunking the Theory of Mind - Huffington PostClinically Significant Disturbance: On Theorists Who Theorize Theory of Mind - Disability Studies Quarterly)
* Wealth causing the "autism epidemic"Why Affluence Is the True Cause of the Real Autism Epidemic (which probably isn't a real thingThree Reasons Not to Believe in an Autism Epidemic - Current Directions in Psychological ScienceLarge Swedish study casts doubt on autism 'epidemic' - Spectrum NewsThe CDC just announced one in 59 children are autistic. Here's why that's not evidence of an epidemic.)
* Males being naturally more autistic and females naturally being more psychotic, and Western society being more autistic and thus having more "LGBT-ism"A Diametric Diagnosis of the New British Disease<
* Failing to examine gendered biases in diagnosis, like thinking that "the overwhelmingly female incidence of hysteria in the 19th century" was a sign that women were mentally ill more oftenBeing Female: Protected From Autism But at Risk of Psychosis - Psychology Today (instead of being more likely to be diagnosed by men after they dared to protest against sexism).
====Presenting pseudoscience as real====
Psychology Today includes articles on neurolinguistic programming (NLP), a pseudoscientific technique that claims to cure all kinds of mental and physical ailments. It displays articles treating NLP as a valid method for treating mental illnessNeuro-Linguistic Programming Therapy - Psychology TodayNLP Experts Speak Out - Psychology Today and its therapist directory includes NLP therapists.Find a Neuro-Linguistic Therapist - Psychology Today
====Defence of inspiration porn====
Another article in 2016Lutz, Amy S.F. (Oct 19, 2016). Bring on the "Inspiration Porn". Psychology Today. Retrieved April 5, 2020. suggested that inspiration porn was acceptable because there was a need for more encouraging news in such turbulent times. This being in the context of a particularly dirty political campaign which was widely agreed to be one of the most negative in recent history. The fact that disabled people don't exist for the purpose of making the able-bodied comfortable is lost on the author.
The comments, thankfully, did point this out, by explaining how such porn helps to turn disabled people into objects of pity rather than autonomous human beings.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:American media
Category:Popular science
Category:Pseudoscience promoting organizations