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The Amygdala And Fear Are Not The Same Thing
In a 2007 episode of the television show Boston Legal, a character claimed to have figured out that a cop was racist because his amygdala activated - displaying fear, when they showed him pictures of black people. This link between the amygdala and fear – especially a fear of others unlike us, has gone too far, not only in pop culture, but also in psychological science, say the authors of a new paper which will be published in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Indeed, many experiments have found that the amygdala is active when people are afraid.
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People in Power Feel Taller
Scientific American: It’s known that taller people tend to have more jobs with more authority—and higher salaries. But there’s a flip side—the more powerful a person is, the taller he or she feels. The researchers who investigated this phenomenon were inspired by the BP chairman’s comment after the oil spill about the “small people.” There are many such metaphors—think “big man on campus.” Could these metaphors influence—or reflect—reality? Might powerful people actually overestimate how tall they are? Read the full story: Scientific American
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Does Technology Affect Happiness?
The New York Times: As young people spend more time on computers, smartphones and other devices, researchers are asking how all that screen time and multitasking affects children’s and teenagers’ ability to focus and learn — even drive cars. A study from Stanford University, published Wednesday, wrestles with a new question: How is technology affecting their happiness and emotional development?
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Why Religion Makes Only Some of Us Happy
msnbc.com: Religious people tend to feel better about themselves and their lives, but a new study finds that this benefit may only hold in places where everyone else is religious, too. According to the new study of almost 200,000 people in 11 European countries , people who are religious have higher self-esteem and better psychological adjustment than the non-religious only in countries where belief in religion is common. In more secular societies, the religious and the non-religious are equally well-off.
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How Do Romney’s and Gingrich’s Looks Affect Their Chances?
Forbes: How do Mitt Romney’s and Newt Gingrich’s looks affect their chances of being elected president? How do all politicians’ looks affect their careers? Researchers have been doing some illuminating work on that question. A good article at at Slate.com sums up some of the best of the research. In 2005 a Princeton psychologist named Alexander Todorov found that, contrary to earlier assumptions, "beauty didn’t tell the whole story. Rather, voters appeared primarily drawn to faces that suggested competence—so much so that the effect could actually be seen in election results. In the lab, subjects glanced for a single second at the faces of congressional candidates. . . .
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Power makes people feel taller
The Telegraph: The US investigation into whether a physical experience accompanies being powerful was sparked after BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg outraged the victims of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by referring to them as the "small people." Professor Jack Goncalo, of Cornell University, New York, and Dr Michelle Duguid, of Washington University, St. Louis, decided to find out and published their findings in Psychological Science. Prof Goncalo said: "Plenty of research has shown taller people are more likely to acquire power, make more money on average and are more likely to be promoted. Read the whole story: The Telegraph
