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Mind-Body Mindblower: Posture Affects Estimates
Scientific American: How many Michael Jackson songs do you think became Number 1 hits? How tall do you think the Eiffel Tower is? How good is your posture? Believe it or not, how you sit or stand could affect your answers. Because a new study finds that our estimates are skewed by the position of our bodies. The work is in the journal Psychological Science. [Anita Eerland, Tulio Guadalupe and Rolf Zwaan, Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller: Posture-Modulated Thought, in press] Dutch researchers rigged a Wii Balance Board to subtly tilt left, right, or remain flat while students stood on the board and answered estimation questions.
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Does Having a Sweet Tooth Make You a Sweeter Person?
Shape Magazine: Can your personality impact the foods you love to eat? Or can what snacks you reach for change people's perceptions of you? Perhaps, according to a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers looked at whether or not people who ate sweet foods were more likely to volunteer to help another person in need as compared to people who ate non-sweet foods or no food at all. Their results?
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Women Aggressive Toward ‘Sexy’ Peers
ABC News: A new study finds women can be downright nasty when they don't approve of members of their sex. The harsh reactions of 43 women to a provocatively dressed peer, caught on tape by Canadian researchers, reveal just how sassy women get when they think someone else is sexier. "I was convinced, having lived a life as a woman, that we're not as pleasant as some people make us out to be," said Tracy Vaillancourt, professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa and lead author of the study published in Aggressive Behavior. Vaillancourt invited 86 women to participate in a study on conflict resolution.
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Creative thinkers ‘more likely to cheat’ as they can dream up more imaginative defences
Daily Mail: Creative thinkers are more likely to cheat as they can come up with elaborate explanations to justify their actions, researchers claim. The psychologists tested a range of students and found that those with vivid imaginations cheated in order to get a bigger financial prize. The students then used their creative thinking skills to come up with different reasons for their actions and ultimately assuage their guilt. Scientists say the practical implications of the results are that creative people may be more at risk in the work place when faced with ethical dilemmas.
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The Secret Life of Pronouns
ABC Brisbane: The words people use can tell you a lot about them. Do they use positive language, express negative emotions, swear a lot, make you laugh, or make you think? However, the words that convey most about you may not be the ones you would automatically assume. Enter the humble pronoun: I, me, you, we, he, she, us. James W Pennebaker is Professor and Chair at the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas, he's been studying how we use pronouns and what messages we send to others in spoken, written and even tweeted forms of language. Professor Pennebaker joined the program to talk more on the topic Listen here: ABC Brisbane
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Michael Gazzaniga: “Who’s in Charge: Free Will and the Science of the Brain”
The Diane Rehm Show: Recent research in neuroscience suggests that much of what we do is hard wired.It’s tempting to believe that further research will eventually demonstrate that physical properties of the brain fully control the human mind. But neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga argues we already have enough data to conclude that human behavior is not fully predetermined. He claims that a sense of responsibility, for instance, derives not from within a single brain, but from social interaction. Please join us for a conversation with Michael Gazzaniga on the concept of free will and the science of the brain. Listen to the broadcast: The Diane Rehm Show
