-
Why Humans are Drawn to Extremely Spicy or Sour Foods — Even if They Hurt
For some, foods that generate pain can trigger an adrenaline rush, similar to watching a horror movie. ... In both cases, the brain can override the initial pain reaction. Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, attributes this override to humans’ ability to differentiate between serious and “benign” pain. Eating moderate amounts of spice is generally safe, he said, but even so, the body treats it as a health threat. “That’s where the pleasure comes, from the fact that you’re overriding your body’s signal not to do this,” Rozin said.
-
New Content From Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on natural experiments, calculating and interpreting prediction intervals, the misuse of the bayes factor, analyzing ecological momentary assessment data, and much more.
-
The Integrity of Psychological Research: Uncovering Statistical Reporting Inconsistencies
Podcast: In this episode, APS’s Özge Gürcanlı Fischer Baum speaks with Michele Nuijten from Tilburg University to examine how overlooked errors in statistical reporting can undermine the credibility of research findings.
-
Empathy is on the Rise in Young People
It doesn’t often feel as if we’re living in empathetic times. ... That increase in empathy can be undermined by our cynicism toward each other, according to Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford University who is also director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. People often believe that “their craving for a more empathetic community is theirs alone when other people all around them also want the same thing,” said Zaki, author of “The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World.” This mistaken belief weakens conversations by creating biased views before you even start talking. People sometimes have an inaccurate sense of what other people think.
-
Many Older People Maintain and Even Gain Cognitive Skills
Contrary to stereotypes of the doddering elderly, research shows that half of people older than age 70 stay mentally sharp. ... The normal aging process does bring changes to the brain, says Denise Park, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas. There is some shrinkage in the frontal lobes and some damage to neurons and their connections. Cognitive processing slows down. Yet that slowdown is usually on the order of milliseconds and doesn’t always make a meaningful difference in daily life. And to compensate, older people activate more of the brain for tasks such as reading. “Older adults will often forge additional pathways” for particular activities, Park says.
-
How ‘Inside Out’ and Its Sequel Changed Therapy
Mental health professionals and educators say the movies are remarkably helpful in providing a common language they can use with children and parents. ... But soon after the idea was born, Docter was stymied, he said, about which feelings to include; it turns out psychologists do not even have a consensus on how many there are. “Certain researchers will say that there are five emotions; others say 14,” Docter said. Dacher Keltner, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served as a consultant on the movies, contends there are 27 categories, with fuzzy boundaries.
