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Al Seckel says our brains are mis-wired
Thanks to his extensive work in neurosurgery and cognitive science, Al Seckel possesses an intimate understanding of the brain's over-reliance on perception. Because of this biological tendency, humans are susceptible to believing what illusions tell them. Be sure to watch the video of this lecture rather than simply reading the transcript, as the fantastic visuals greatly highlight how this phenomenon works — and gives people exactly what they want to see. Watch the Ted Talk here
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Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing
No matter if options in question stand as amazingly trivial or earth-shatteringly major, the human brain reacts to choice with an incredibly complicated, interesting series of mental processes. Nurture and other cultural factors, of course, do play a significant role in shaping how individuals condition themselves to make choices, as with emotional and mental states. From this vantage point, Sheena Iyengar showcases the wide spectrum of psychological and sociological phenomena that lead into why people do what they do. Watch the Ted Talk here
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Remembering (and Replicating) the Milgram Experiments
Fifty years ago, Stanley Milgram’s famous obedience experiments showed that ordinary people would harm others when instructed to do so by an authority figure. The experiment was recently replicated on the Discovery Channel’s series Curiosity with the help of psychological scientist Jerry Burger. Watch this video to find out what went through the mind of a participant who said no and refused to shock another person. For more on the Milgram experiment, tune in to CNN at 7:30 am on Saturday December 10 or Sunday December 11 to watch Sanjay Gupta’s interview with Jerry Burger and Thomas Blass, both APS Members.
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Stressed About Final Exams? Try Self-Compassion
In case you missed it, the cameras were rolling at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Watch Elizabeth A. Hendriks from the University of Notre Dame present her poster session research, “Self-Compassion Buffers Negative Affect but Does Not Moderate Cortisol Following Social Stress Task.” Hendriks and her collaborator Michelle M. Wirth measured self compassion, negative affect, and cortisol in study participants who were asked to deliver a persuasive speech to a panel of trained judges. They found that participants who displayed high self-compassion experienced less negative affect than those who displayed low self-compassion.
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Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception
As an expert on debunking myths and urban legends, Michael Shermer understands the intricate psychology behind why people put their faith in everything from UFOs to dowsing rods to 2012 doomsday "prophecies." He posits that humanity's ingrained need to believe in something and uncanny ability to recognize patterns (even ones that don't necessarily exist) leads it to engage in such amazing displays of self-deception. Quite a few studies from many different sources support this insightful claim. Mastersdegree.net Watch the Ted Talk here
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Laurie Santos: A monkey economy as irrational as ours
This lecture blends evolutionary biology, genetics and psychology together into one intriguing glimpse at yet another bizarrely familiar intersection between human and monkey behavior. In spite of humanity's vast intelligence, many of the same quirks and irrationalities also crop up in its simian relatives (and ancestors). For example, monkeys do possess their own unique economic system — and Laurie Santos points out that some of their least effective patterns parallel the decisions that led to today's financial crisis. Mastersdegree.net Watch the Ted Talk here