Ever find yourself briefly paralyzed as you’re falling asleep or just waking up? It’s a phenomenon is called sleep paralysis, and it’s often accompanied by vivid sensory or perceptual experiences, which can include complex and disturbing hallucinations and intense fear. For some people, sleep paralysis is a once-in-a-lifetime experience; for More
Scientific American: Pheromones: they’re those chemical signals often associated with attraction. But there are many chemical signals we give off—including ones that might signal alarm, aggression or other emotions. For example, take fear. If sweat contains compounds associated with fear, could someone smelling the sweat of a frightened person themselves More
CBS: Humans can smell fear and disgust, and the emotions are contagious, according to a new study. The findings, published Nov. 5 in the journal Psychological Science, suggest that humans communicate via smell just like other animals. “These findings are contrary to the commonly accepted assumption that human communication runs More
The Boston Globe: “These findings are contrary to the commonly accepted assumption that human communication runs exclusively via language or visual channels,” said Gün Semin and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands in a statement. In new research published Monday in the journal Psychological Science, researchers tested the sweaty More
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Some animals can communicate their emotional states through chemical signals called chemosignals. Can human animals do so as well? METHODOLOGY: Researcher Gün Semin and company at Utrecht University in the Netherlands induced strong feelings in their subjects by showing them fear- or disgust-inducing films, then collected and More
Many animal species transmit information via chemical signals — and humans may be among them, psychology researchers find. More
