Huffington Post: Knocking on wood may not actually prevent a bad thing from happening, but it does do a good job of lessening our elevated fears, a new study shows. And interestingly enough, superstitious actions like knocking on wood aren’t all alike at quelling fears, found researchers from the University More
Research suggests that meaningful day-to-day personal contact might mitigate the ‘hunkering down’ mentality that arises when communities become more diverse. More
Psychological scientists are examining memory reconsolidation as a way to dampen the memory of a trauma. More
The Washington Post: It can take only an instant for fear to take hold in the brain: a fear of snakes after being bitten by one, or anxiety around bodies of water after witnessing a drowning. Overcoming that fear can take a long time, but now researchers are saying it More
ORF Austria: Psychologen wussten bereits, dass Phobien und Ängste nicht immer aus persönlichen Erfahrungen entstehen. Die Studienleiterin Armita Golkar vom schwedischen Karolinska Institut erklärt den Vorgang: “Informationen darüber, was in unserer Umgebung sicher ist und was nicht, werden durch soziale Lernvorgänge von anderen Menschen übernommen.” So werden zum Beispiel die More
The Atlantic: Trypophobia is the fear of clustered holes like those shown in the lotus seed pod above. The lotus seed is the classic example of the sort of holes that frighten trypophobics, but sponges, soap bubbles and even aerated chocolate can be triggers. “The stimuli are usually clusters of holes More
