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Power’s Role In Sexual Harassment
Why do they do it? A series of sexual-harassment accusations against well-known business leaders, celebrities and politicians has left people wondering why some successful men behave this way. In many cases, power seems to play a role. Certainly, the majority of influential men treat women appropriately. But what is going on from a psychological standpoint with the ones who don’t? Research shows they have different motivations yet typically share specific personality traits. Their power amplifies proclivities they already have.
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Call for Papers for 34th Meeting of the International Society for Psychophysics
The 34th Meeting of the International Society of Psychophysics will take place August 20th-24th, 2018, at Leuphana University in Lueneburg, Germany. The annual meeting is intended to serve as a venue for discussion and debate on the research and methodology surrounding psychophysics, sensory processing and perception, and related topics. Interested students can apply for stipends and travel grants. More information, including the submission process for symposiums, posters and manuscripts, is available on the conference website here.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of new research exploring experimenter expectations and social priming, loving-kindness meditation and positive emotions, and vicarious optimism.
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Does Bad Air Create Bad Behavior?
Looking for an excuse the next time you get caught doing something unethical? If you live in a highly polluted city, you may be in luck. New research offers evidence that air pollution inspires unethical behavior, ranging from low-stakes cheating to criminal activity. It reports this is likely due to polluted air increasing personal anxiety, which can throw people's moral compasses out of whack. "This research reveals that air pollution may have potential ethical costs that go beyond its well-known toll on health and the environment," lead author Jackson Lu of Columbia Business School said in announcing the results.
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Want to be happier? Think like a bronze medalist
Athletes who win silver medals must be happier than those who win bronze, right? Not exactly. People in one study rated athletes’ emotions — based on their facial expressions — immediately after they learned where they placed. On a 1- to 10-point agony-to-ecstasy scale, bronze medalists scored 7.1 on average, while the silver medalists averaged just 4.8. Later, on the awards podiums, the bronze medalists still got higher happiness scores, 5.7 to 4.3. Why? Psychologists believe it stems from “counterfactual thinking,” or imagining the outcome that didn’t happen.
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Love and dating after the Tinder revolution
How many couples will have met online this Valentine's Day? More than ever before is the safe answer, as online dating continues to sweep the world. But is data crunching the best way to find a partner? In the future, a computer program could dictate who you date, and for how long. This was the premise of a December 2017 episode of Black Mirror, the dystopian sci-fi TV series. But technology already has radically changed romance, with online dating growing massively in popularity ever since Match.com blazed a trail in the mid-90s. Now apps, such as Tinder, with their speedy account set-ups and "swipe to like" approach, have taken dating to another level.
