-
What Our Memories Tell Us About Ourselves
TIME: Do you remember the time President Obama shook hands with Iranian president Ahmadinejad? If you took part in a recent psychological study, it’s possible that you will. More than 5,000 participants were presented with doctored photographs representing fabricated political events, with around half claiming to have memories for the false scenarios (Obama has, of course, never shaken hands with the Iranian president). Part of a decades-long program of research by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, the latest study provides a neat demonstration of how our memories are created in the present rather than being faithful records of the past.
-
A Laser Light Show in the Brain
The New Yorker: In 1992, Martin Chalfie made a spectacularly useful discovery, which I like to think of as perhaps the greatest use of cut-and-paste. Chalfie began with the fact that every gene has two parts: an encoding sequence that, using RNA as an intermediate, specifies a set of amino acids from which a cell can synthesize a protein, and a regulatory sequence that specifies, indirectly, when and where that protein should be built. ... The impact of this on understanding neuroscience is immense.
-
Thinking of Science Strengthens Moral Fiber
Pacific Standard: Want to be a better person? Spend more time thinking about science. That’s the implication of newly published research, which finds people who study science—or even are momentarily exposed to the idea of scientific research—are more likely to condemn unethical behavior, and more inclined to help others. “Thinking about science leads individuals to endorse more stringent moral norms,” report psychologists Christine Ma-Kellams of Harvard University and Jim Blascovich of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Their research is published in the online journal PLOS One.
-
For frustrated bad boys, violent video games become more alluring
Los Angeles Times: Are people playing violent video games blowing off steam, or are they developing habits of violence that may play themselves out off-screen? In the wake of a wave of school shootings that have touched off debate about the roots of violence, those are more than academic questions. The second of those questions -- do video games promote violent behavior -- remains a matter of fierce debate. But a new study does offer some evidence to answer the first -- whether violent video games provide an outlet for negative feelings such as anger or frustration.
-
Why a good deed sometimes leads to bad behavior
NBC: Doing a good deed can lead some people to more kind acts while spurring others to backslide. But how people respond depends on their moral outlook, according to a new study. People who believe the ends justify the means are likelier to offset good deeds with bad ones and vice versa. By contrast, those who believe right and wrong are defined by principle, not outcome, tend to be more consistent, even if they're behaving unethically. The findings were published Feb. 27 in the journal Psychological Science.
-
Research Explores How Children Reason, Think About Others
Two new studies published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explore the development of reasoning and perspective-taking in children. How to Pass the False-Belief Task Before Your Fourth Birthday As social creatures, humans must constantly monitor each other's intentions, beliefs, desires, and other mental states.
