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Is That What You Think? My Brain Agrees
Have you caught yourself conforming to your friends’ opinions? A new study published in Psychological Science found conformity to social norms happens even in our brains! When people change their opinions to conform to social norms, the parts of their brains associated with rewards are engaged, giving us added incentive to fit in. Psychological scientists at Harvard University asked male volunteers to rate the attractiveness of 180 digitized female Facebook photos on a scale from 1 to 7. They were then told that many other men had also rated the same photos—some of those “peer” ratings were higher than the participant’s, some were lower, and some were the same.
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Mean Girls: The Science Behind the Silver Screen Hit
No one likes to be excluded, women especially. A study published in Psychological Science found that when females feel a threat of social exclusion, they are more likely than males to respond by forming other cliques and alliances to prevent their own exclusion. To investigate how men and women respond when faced with a social threat, psychological scientist Joyce F. Benenson of Emmanuel College and Harvard University, along with her colleagues, asked volunteers to play a game against two hypothetical partners in which they accumulated points for money.
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To Bet or Not to Bet, That Is the March Madness Question
With college basketball's Big Dance around the corner, a timely bit of science for you: A recent study in Psychological Science found that given a choice whether to gamble or not, we are not so good at forecasting our emotional reaction to the outcome. In a study, done by Eduardo B. Andrad of the University of California, Berkeley and Leaf Van Boven of University of Colorado at Boulder, volunteers were given the choice of gambling or not gambling underestimated the intensity of their affective reactions to the forgone gamble’s outcome. Those who would have been winners felt more displeasure than anticipated, and those who would have been losers felt more pleasure than anticipated.
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Asch Lives On
Think you are immune to peer pressure, but APS Fellow and Charter Member Anthony Pratkanis shows that 60 years later people still cave under social pressure. Check out this replication of the famous "Asch Paradigm." Watch the video: YouTube
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The Benefits of Being Bilingual
Listen to NPR's Science Friday today at 2pm EST when host Ira Flatow talks to psychologist Janet Werker about bilingualism. A study of bilingual infants suggests that a bilingual upbringing outfits infants with more sensitive language perception abilities, even for languages other than the two spoken at home. Psychologist Janet Werker discusses the findings, and whether the trend may hold true through the years. Listen here: NPR
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Seasick? Look to the Horizon for Help
If you have a weak stomach and find yourself in rough seas, this may prove immensely important: Research by Thomas A. Stoffregen of the University of Minnesota published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that looking to the horizon may in fact help stabilize your posture (and possibly your stomach). Stoffregen and his coauthors, Anthony M. Mayo and Michael G. Wade, know how much an individual on average rocks back and forth in normal situations – roughly four centimeters every 12 to 15 seconds. They have been studying body sway for decades. In order to see how life on the sea affects these tendencies, Stoffregen tagged along with a series of U.S.
