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Facial Expressions Do Not Reveal Emotions
Do your facial movements broadcast your emotions to other people? If you think the answer is yes, think again. This question is under contentious debate. Some experts maintain that people around the world make specific, recognizable faces that express certain emotions, such as smiling in happiness, scowling in anger and gasping with widened eyes in fear. They point to hundreds of studies that appear to demonstrate that smiles, frowns, and so on are universal facial expressions of emotion. They also often cite Charles Darwin’s 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals to support the claim that universal expressions evolved by natural selection.
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2022 Spence Award Mini Episode: Brian Anderson and Habit-Reinforcing Behavior
2022 Spence Award winner Brian Anderson talks about his research on what captures human attention and how that influences behavior.
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How Meditation Could Change the Brain
n a time when traumatic events such as pandemics, shootings and loss seem never-ending, mindfulness can be a tool for feeling capable during periods of uncertainty. "Mindfulness is a collection of practices nowadays, aimed to help most of us cultivate moment-to-moment awareness," said Monica Vermani, a clinical psychologist based in Toronto and author of "A Deeper Wellness: Conquering Stress, Mood, Anxiety and Traumas." "You're not only aware of your body; you're aware of your surroundings and your world," she added. "It forces you to pay attention to life (rather) than get caught up in your head with anxious thoughts, worries and ruminating about the future." ...
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U.S. Kids Are Falling Behind Global Competition, but Brain Science Shows How to Catch Up
On vital measures that predict later success in school and life, small children in the U.S. do worse than kids in comparable countries. This distressing information comes from an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study of five-year-olds. For years the OECD has been examining the academic achievement of 15-year-old students from around the world, and recently it extended this work to the younger group. On average, American children had lower literacy and numeracy scores, poorer self-regulation skills, and engaged in fewer acts of cooperation, kindness and other prosocial behaviors than did children in England and Estonia, the other countries studied.
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Why It’s So Hard to Make Risk Decisions in the Pandemic
Over the past two years, I like to think I’ve gotten practiced at a type of wretched multivariable calculus: pandemic decision-making. The process starts with the blue bubble of a texted invitation or a date flagged on the calendar—a party Saturday, a sibling’s high-school basketball game, a second cousin’s middle-school Quidditch match, a cross-country flight for a grandparent’s 90th birthday. Then other factors pile on like dog hair accumulates on a white couch. What’s the transmission rate right now and is that number even reliable, if it’s reported at all? If I get sick, what’s the likeliest outcome, given how long it’s been since my last jab, age and other risk factors?
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Depression May Cause Us to View Success as an Exception to the Rule
Researchers have started to link the negative outlook brought about by depression to an impaired ability to update expectations.
