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Kinder mit geringerem IQ neigen später eher zum Rassismus
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Die Einstellungen eines Menschen lassen sich bereits im Kindesalter vorhersagen. Wer als Zehnjähriger in Intelligenztests schlecht abschneidet, pflegt als Erwachsener eher rassistische Vorurteile, berichten Psychologen um Gordon Hodson von der Brock University in Kanada (Psychological Science, online). Rechts-konservative politische Anschauungen spielten dabei die Rolle als Katalysator, argumentieren die Psychologen: Menschen mit geringeren kognitiven Fähigkeiten neigten eher politischen Meinungen vom rechten Rand zu, "weil diese Stabilität und Ordnung im psychologischen Sinne bieten".
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Pupillometry Turns 50
When someone loves you or is lying to you, you might be able to see it in their eyes—or at least their pupils. “Pupillometry” — which uses pupil-diameter measurements for psychological research — recently turned 50 years old. Measuring pupil diameter allows scientists to approximate the intensity of mental activity as well as potential changes in mental state. The technique is also a promising tool for studying subjects that can’t speak, such as infants, patients with neurological damage, and even animals. The January 2012 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science features commentary by Bruno Laeng and colleagues on the history, promise, and current state of pupillometry research.
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Positive shrinking: Writing about the things that mean most can help us lose weight
Daily Mail: The secret to slimming could be as simple as picking up a pen and writing. In a remarkable indication of the potential power of positive thinking in dieting, researchers found that women who wrote about what meant most to them each day lost significantly more weight than those who didn’t. A study by America’s Stanford University and Renison University College in Canada recruited 45 undergraduates, none of who were thin and about 60 per cent of them technically overweight or obese. Read the full story: Daily Mail
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Pocket Science
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Who’s Wealthy? Beyond Net Worth, Asset and Debt Levels Change Our Perceptions
Will borrowing money to buy a new car make you feel richer? It depends on your net worth, says a new study in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. “People’s perceptions of wealth vary not only as a function of their net worth, but also of the amount of assets and debt they have,” says Princeton University psychology graduate student Abigail B. Sussman, who wrote the study with Princeton professor Eldar Shafir. In fact, increasing your assets by taking on debt affects perceived wealth in opposite ways for people who are in the red (their debt outweighs their assets), or in the black (their assets outweigh their debt).
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Study finds drunken people aware of poor decisions
Toronto Star: A new study says that people who commit blunders while under the influence of alcohol know they’re doing it; they just don’t care. This means buzzed or drunken people who engage in embarrassing or harmful behaviour can’t blame it on not having control, said researcher Bruce Bartholow, associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. While this isn’t the first study that shows alcohol alters the behaviour of those who consume it, “it’s the first to show they don’t care that they’re making mistakes,” said Bartholow, chief researcher on the study. Read the full story: Toronto Star
