-
Nodding Off First May Leave Your Partner Wanting
MSNBC: WASHINGTON — Falling asleep first after having sex may leave your partner longing for attention and more bonding time, new research finds. "The time the couple spends together after sex is prime time for bonding and the commitment conversation," said Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan School of Public Health. " Your oxytocin and the hormones related to affective relationships are raging, so it's prime time for bonding." This after-sex bonding period could be evolutionarily derived, since in the case of a pregnancy, the female would desire a commitment from her sexual partner. Spending this time bonding could be an important way to secure that commitment.
-
Reason Seen More as Weapon Than Path to Truth
The New York Times: For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth. Rationality allowed a solitary thinker to blaze a path to philosophical, moral and scientific enlightenment. Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely different purpose: to win arguments. Rationality, by this yardstick (and irrationality too, but we’ll get to that) is nothing more or less than a servant of the hard-wired compulsion to triumph in the debating arena.
-
Criminal Minds
The Chronicle of Higher Education: He was locked in a van in England with violent criminals, repeatedly, during his late 20s, says Adrian Raine, lifting a fork of salmon ravioli from his plate at a tony restaurant on Walnut Street. "I was at the maximum-security prison in Hull," says the psychologist, now in his 50s, and his job involved attaching polygraph-type sensors to the prisoners' skin to measure their agitation as he bothered them with loud sounds and flashes of light. His lab was in the back of the van, he says, "and the guards were very concerned these men would commandeer the vehicle and escape." Their solution?
-
Smell of Success: Scents Affect Thoughts, Behaviors
LiveScience: WASHINGTON — Suit pressed, mind ready and resume in hand. When preparing for a job interview, most people take every precaution to convey the best impression possible. But aside from body odor, not many people pay attention to the odors that surround them. That onion-laden lunch could give your potential boss-to-be the wrong impression, according to new research presented in May at the Association for Psychological Science annual meeting. "There's a lot of research that's begun now, where people are looking at how the environment affects our well-being," said Jeannette Haviland-Jones, of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
-
Anxiety makes searchers miss multiple objects
Times of India: A new study has found that a person scanning baggage or X-rays can miss out on multiple objects during searches if they were feeling anxious. Duke psychologists put a dozen students through a test in which they searched for particular shapes on a computer display, simulating the sort of visual searching performed by airport security teams and radiologists. Stephen Mitroff, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience who led the experiment, says this area of cognitive psychology is important for improving homeland security and healthcare. Read the whole story: Times of India
-
Income Disparities May Be Making Americans Unhappy
U.S. News and World Report: THURSDAY, June 16 -- The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else is making many people with middle and low incomes unhappy, researchers have found. "Income disparity has grown a lot in the U.S., especially since the 1980s," study author Shigehiro Oishi, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, said in news release from the Association for Psychological Science. "With that, we've seen a marked drop in life satisfaction and happiness" among the 60 percent of Americans with low- and middle-class incomes, Oishi noted. Read the whole story: U.S. News and World Report
