-
How Babies Learn to Fear Heights
LiveScience: As any parent knows, babies aren't born with a fear of heights. In fact, infants can be frighteningly bold around the edge of a bed or a changing table. But around 9 months, babies become more wary of such drop-offs. New research suggests infants build an avoidance of heights once they get more experience crawling and navigating the world on their own. In one of their experiments, a group of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, and Doshisha University in Kyoto studied babies that not yet begun to crawl. Over the course of 15 days, some of the infants were trained to use a motorized baby go-cart that they could control. ...
-
How You Unwrap Candy Can Make It Taste Better: The Power Of Food Rituals
Forbes: When I eat M&M’s, I never just crunch through them indiscriminately. First off, I only eat one at a time, each piece must be enjoyed just right. I begin by sucking on the crisp candy shell until the sugary coating has all but dissolved, then I delicately crack through into the center. Finally, I allow the hidden prize, the softened chocolate pastille, to be savored as it melts slowly on my tongue. ...
-
I’m Excited About The Royal Baby (And It’s Okay If You Are Too)
Scientific American: It’s official. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to the “royal baby” on July 22nd, a bouncing baby boy who will one day be the King of the United Kingdom. Although many Americans are thrilled to partake in the Royal Baby fanfare, I’ve also seen a lot of discussions revolving around the questionable morality of celebrating an institution that openly reveres inherited privilege and power. It’s a very good point, and not one that I want to dismiss lightly. Sure, I enjoyed watching the Royal Wedding and shamelessly pored through pictures of Kate to keep tabs on her pregnancy style, but I really don’t like to think that I was celebrating institutionalized classism.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. Perceived Aggressiveness Predicts Fighting Performance in Mixed-Martial-Arts Fighters Vít Třebický, Jan Havlíček, S. Craig Roberts, Anthony C. Little, and Karel Kleisner Past research has suggested that people can use facial cues to predict men's physical strength and fighting ability, but there is currently no direct evidence for this link. When participants rated pictures of mixed-martial-arts fighters for perceived aggressiveness and fighting ability, the researchers found that the perceived aggressiveness of fighters' faces was associated with the fighters' level of success in Ultimate Fighting Championship matches.
-
Grade inflation works – in schools and in the workforce, study finds
Los Angeles Times: Pop quiz: Two senior managers at different hair gel companies apply for a top management position at Aveda. Manager A’s division increased sales by 15% in a growing company, while Manager B's group increased sales by 10% in a company with no growth. Who gets to attend the Aveda Christmas party next year (and what time does Train C arrive in Chicago)? Through a series of experiments, Samuel Swift and his colleagues determined that what matters most for getting into school or getting that promotion is your final performance record, regardless of how difficult it was to succeed.
-
Blowing Out Birthday Candles Makes the Cake Taste Better
Smithsonian Magazine: On your special day, the cake emerges, all adorned with lit candles and groups of friends and family (and strangers, if you’re at a restaurant), embarrass you for about 60 seconds as they belt out the well-known tune. You make a silent wish and blow the candles out and the cake is then, at last, served. Food rituals like this one, it turns out, actually help us to better appreciate the flavor of the edible treats they are dedicated to. Ritualistic behavior, often coupled with anticipation, psychologists found, alter the way we perceive flavors for the better. Read the whole story: Smithsonian Magazine
