-
Being in Power Does Not Always Magnify Personality
“If you want to test a man’s character, give him power,” said Abraham Lincoln. It’s a truism that power magnifies personality—but is it true? A new study says no. “Before, people thought that disposition is linked to will; it’s mainly internally driven,” says University College London psychologist Ana Guinote, who conducted the study with Mario Weick of the University of Kent and London doctoral student Alice Cai. “Our findings show that the environment crucially triggers dispositional or counter-dispositional behavior in powerful people.” The findings appear in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
-
Think Big To Get Golf Hole in One
Express UK: Amateur players could improve their putting by simply visualising the hole as bigger, claims a new study. Researchers used an optical illusion, placing different sized circles around each hole to change participants’ perception. Read the whole story: Express UK
-
La depresión de las mujeres hace que los miembros de la pareja se aíslen
NeoMundo: La tristeza no es buena compañera para el éxito de una relación amorosa. La depresión de las mujeres hace que los miembros de una pareja se aíslen uno del otro, concluyó una nueva investigación. Los autores de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalem y la Universidad Bar-Ilan (Israel) explicaron que una persona deprimida se vuelca hacia adentro o se torna hostil, y tiende a dar poco a su pareja. Reuma Gadassi, uno de los investigadores, subrayó que la depresión también impide que un hombre o mujer detecte los pensamientos o sentimientos del otro, una situación que empeora el aislamiento. Read the whole story: NeoMundo
-
Is Student Cheating Driven by Big Income Gaps?
The Chronicle of Higher Education: There’s a whole lot of cheating going on. More than 60 percent of college undergraduates, and more than 40 percent of graduate students, admit to cheating in some way on their written work, according to a national survey by Clemson University’s International Center for Academic Integrity. Now one graduate student has come up with a reason for all this: income inequality. Lukas Neville, a doctoral student at Queen’s University in Ontario, reports in the latest issue of Psychological Science that there’s more evidence of academic dishonesty in U.S. states with bigger gaps between the rich and the poor.
-
How hearing loops can help
The Washington Post: New technology has dramatically improved the quality of hearing aids in the past decade, but some say an old technology could have the most profound impact in the decade to come on millions of people with hearing loss. Just as WiFi connects people to the Web in wired places, hearing loops — simple wires that circle a room or part of a room — can connect many hearing aids and cochlear implants directly to sound systems. Bypassing ambient noise, this wireless connection lets users clearly hear actors on stage, the person in the subway information booth, their ministers or rabbis, announcements at an airport, even their own television sets.
-
The Psychology of Whew!
Whew! Think back on a time when you uttered that word—or at least felt that feeling. It shouldn’t be hard, because it’s a very common experience. You’re probably recalling a time when you narrowly escaped some misfortune or unpleasantness—an injury or illness or public humiliation. You dodged the proverbial bullet, and that palpable, positive feeling that comes afterward is called relief. Relief may be the most common yet unexamined emotion in the human repertoire. Despite its familiarity, we don’t really know much about its nature or purpose. How does relief function in the human mind? What benefit could this pervasive emotion have in navigating life?