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Does the “Empathy Gap” Encourage Torture?
Imagine that you work for a government agency and you are trying to get information from a suspected terrorist. As part of your interrogation you lock the detainee in a “cold cell.” A cold cell is a room where the temperature is near freezing, and the procedure is to keep the detainee there for up to five hours, with little or no clothing. Now try to get inside your suspect’s mind and body. What is he feeling? How much pain is he in, physically and psychologically? Does such an interrogation technique seem okay to you? When does his pain cross the line into immoral and illegal torture?
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Watch Your Language! Of Course–But How Do We Actually Do That?
Nothing seems more automatic than speech. We produce an estimated 150 words a minute, and make a mistake only about once every 1,000 words. We stay on track, saying what we intend to, even when other words distract us—from the radio, say, or a road sign we pass while driving. An upcoming study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows for the first time why we so rarely speak those irrelevant words: We have a “verbal self-monitor” between the mental production of speech and the actual uttering of words that catches any irrelevant items coming from outside of the speaker.
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Can Tylenol cure a broken heart?
The Boston Globe: I was intrigued by a new study published this week, which found that getting romantically rejected hurts, like "a jab in the arm with a red-hot poker," as Melissa Healy writes in this Los Angeles Times article article. Turns out, those going through a bad breakup can activate brain regions that sense physical pain simply by looking at a photo of their ex, according to the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But does getting jilted really feel like a poker stab? And where does it hurt exactly -- in the big toe? The heart itself? Well, not exactly, says lead author Ethan Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.
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Make a clean online break with pests
CNN: Fact: In this crazy game called life, you will encounter people with whom you won't want to engage. Some of these people will not realize they annoy you, and as you do your best to avoid them in social situations and eradicate their existence from your hippocampus, they will loom ever larger in your life. People are cowards. We don't like to deliver bad news or be the instigator of others' negative feelings -- even if, in shrinking back and twiddling our thumbs, we hurt others more in the process.
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Study: How Well Do You Know Your Best Friend?
TIME: How often do you fight with your best friend? Your answer is likely related to how well you know her "triggers" — the things that really set her off. For instance, do needy people or attention hogs annoy your friend? Does she think lying is ever okay? If you can answer these intimate questions about your closest friend, a new study in Psychological Science suggests, you probably fight with her less. And knowing such details leads to an overall closer, more rewarding relationship.
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New Study Highlights Gender Differences in Depression
Depression erodes intimate relationships. A depressed person can be withdrawn, needy, or hostile—and give little back. But there’s another way that depression isolates partners from each other. It chips away at the ability to perceive the others’ thoughts and feelings. It impairs what psychologists call “empathic accuracy” —and that can exacerbate alienation, depression, and the cycle by which they feed each other. Three Israeli researchers—Reuma Gadassi and Nilly Mor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Eshkol Rafaeli at Bar-Ilan University—wanted to understand better these dynamics in relationships, particularly the role of gender.
