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You’re Rubber, I’m Glue – How Can I Impress You?
Would you rather be a professor or his dependent student? We tend to think being a dependent person isn’t a good thing, but new research has found some positive aspects of dependency. An article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science explains that dependent people have a need to impress others, which leads to active, not passive, behavior. In one study, a dependent and non-dependent volunteer, as measured on a personality test, were paired up to debate an issue the researchers knew they didn’t agree on. Although the researchers expected the dependent person to give in, they found that 70 percent of the time it was actually the nondependent volunteer who gave in.
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How to Fat Into American Life
Baseball and democracy – two things we’re proud to call American. Unfortunately, to immigrants, eating junk food is also associated with being a typical American. A study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science found that immigrants will eat more fatty foods to fit in as Americans. To show this, scientists measured Asian Americans’ food preferences. To trigger the threat of not being identified as an American, some were asked “Do you speak English?” before the experiment. Seventy-five percent of those in the threat group mentioned a typical American food as their favorite food as opposed to only 25 percent who did in the non-threat group.
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To Eat or Not to Eat (Yet)
Check out this humorous rendition of APS Past-President Walter Mischel's 1972 Stanford Marshmallow Test. Could you be as patient as some of these kids? Mischel will be speaking at the Connected Theme Program at the 2011 Convention.
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Miracle Fruit: The Results Are In!
Magical Miracle Fruit The Results Are In! At Convention last year APS Past-President Linda Bartoshuk led a miracle fruit experiment with the audience during the Presidential Symposium in Boston, MA. Audience members tasted 'miracle fruit,' a freeze-dried West African berry, that changed the way they tasted fruit they ate afterwards. Check out last year's video below and be sure to swing by Poster Session VIII, Board 132 to see the results of the experiment on display.
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Macho Men
“I’ve Got to Be a Macho, Macho Man.” Village People said it, but research has the science to back it up. An article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science explains that when men feel threatened, they use aggression to assert their machismo. In a series of studies, some men were asked to do “feminine” tasks such as braiding hair while others were asked to do gender-neutral tasks such as braiding a rope. When given the option to punch a bag or do a puzzle, those whose manhood had been threatened were exceedingly more likely to choose the former. When all volunteers got to punch the bag, those who had braided hair punched it harder.
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Power, Confidence and…Infidelity
Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump–they’ve all cheated, they’ve all got power, and they’re all men. People often assume that men are more likely to cheat than women, so researchers decided to look at the role of gender and the role of power in infidelity. An upcoming study to be published in Psychological Science found that power has a stronger link to cheating than gender does.
