Press Releases
Psychological Science Explains Uproar over Prostate-Cancer Screenings
The uproar that began last year when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force stated that doctors should no longer offer regular prostate-cancer tests to healthy men continued this week when the task force released their final report. Overall, they stuck to their guns, stating that a blood test commonly used to screen for prostate cancer, the PSA test, causes more harm than good -- it leads men to receive unnecessary, and sometimes even dangerous, treatments. ... More>
Wrongful Convictions Can Be Reduced Through Science, But Tradeoffs Exist
Many of the wrongful convictions identified in a report this week hinged on a misidentified culprit -- and a new report in a top journal on psychological science reveals the paradox of reforms in eyewitness identification procedure. In our efforts to make sure that good guys don’t get locked up, we could let more bad guys go. ... More>
Timing Can Affect Whether Women and Minorities Face Discrimination
Timing can affect whether females and minorities experience discrimination -- says a study published today in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. ... More>
Marketing Is More Effective When Targeted to Personality Profiles
Advertisers spend enormous amounts of time and money attempting to tailor their advertising campaigns to the needs of different demographic groups. After all, the concerns of first-year college students are going to be different from those of retired professionals. Even within a given demographic category, however, there are many individual differences, such as personality, that shape consumer behavior. A new study in Psychological Science, a publication of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that advertisements can be more effective when they are tailored to the unique personality profiles of potential consumers. ... More>
Facebook and Smartphones: New Tools for Psychological Science Research—News Brief
Whether you’re an iPerson who can’t live without a Mac, a Facebook addict, or a gamer, you know that social media and technology say things about your personality and thought processes. And psychological scientists know it too – they’ve started researching how new media and devices both reveal and change our mental states. ... More>
