Psychology

Public health campaigns intended to reduce unhealthy behaviors like binge drinking and eating junk food often focus on the risks of those behaviorsb but a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests a relatively simple but surprisingly effective strategy to improve consumer health based on common sense: like the risky behavior with an 'out' group. Authors Jonah Berger from the University of Pennsylvania and Lindsay Rand from Stanford University found that linking a risky behavior with a group that the targeted audience doesn't want to be associated with caused participants to…

People are more than happy to fool themselves and nothing can make dieters who cheat happier than those `100 calorie' sized snacks. As a result of that 'it is smaller so I can eat more of them' mentality, chronic dieters tend to consume more calories when foods and packages are smaller, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. The authors examined consumer behavior regarding "mini-packs," 100-calorie food packages that are marketed to help people control calorie intake. "Interestingly, one group that over-consumes the mini-packs is chronic dieters—individuals constantly…

A new study of Chinese-Caucasian, Filipino-Caucasian, Japanese-Caucasian and Vietnamese-Caucasian individuals concludes that biracial Asian Americans are twice as likely as monoracial Asian Americans to be diagnosed with a psychological disorder. "Up to 2.4 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as mixed race, and most of these individuals describe themselves as biracial," said Nolan Zane, a professor of psychology and Asian American studies at UC Davis. "We cannot underestimate the importance of understanding the social, psychological and experiential differences that may increase…

Jennifer Cheavens, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University and Laura Dreer of the University of Alabama at Birmingham say that hope can battle depression and discussed some of the latest research during a symposium Saturday Aug. 16 in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Boston. How do you measure 'hope' in people, depressed or not? Cheavens uses a 12-item questionnaire developed by her mentor, the late C.R. Snyder of the University of Kansas. In this measure, hope has two components: a map or pathway to get what you want, and the…

While many studies have examined cheating among college students, new research looks at the issue from a different perspective – identifying students who are least likely to cheat. The study of students at one Ohio university found that students who scored high on measures of courage, empathy and honesty were less likely than others to report their cheating in the past – or intending to cheat in the future. Moreover, those students who reported less cheating were also less likely to believe that their fellow students regularly committed academic dishonesty. People who don’t cheat “have a more…

Have you ever looked at someone and known immediately not to trust them? Have you ever seen someone's earrings and thought to yourself, 'they've probably had way more sexual partners than I could count on two hands?' More importantly, do you trust these sort of split-second judgments? From implications in politics and economics, to simply testing your own split-second judgments of peoples' characteristics on WhatsMyImage.com, the study of our judgments and first-impressions offers a relevant and sometimes surprisingly fun look into the complexity of the brain. Alexander Todorov, an assistant…

Neither snap judgements nor sleeping on a problem are any better than conscious thinking for making complex decisions, according to new research that the researchers say debunks a controversial 2006 research result asserting that unconscious thought is superior for complex decisions, such as buying a house or car. If anything, the new study suggests that conscious thought leads to better choices. Since its publication two years ago by a Dutch research team in the journal Science, the earlier finding had been used to encourage decision-makers to make "snap" decisions (for example, in the best…

Everyone has pressure to perform and fit in at work; name any demographic and they will say it is tougher for them than it is for others. Is it equally hard for everyone and are some groups making it even harder on themselves? Sociologists Marlese Durr of Wright State University and her co-author Adia Harvey Wingfield of Georgia State University at the the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) say it is tougher for black women professionals than white women, lesbian women, all men, Hispanics, Latinos, Asians and even the French in America because black professionals…

From nursery rhymes to Shakespearian sonnets, alliteration has always been an important aspect of poetry whether as an interesting aesthetic touch or just as something fun to read. But a recent study suggests that this literary technique is useful not only for poetry but also for memory. In several experiments, researchers R. Brooke Lea of Macalester College, David N. Rapp of Northwestern University, Andrew Elfenbein and Russell Swinburne Romine of University of Minnesota and Aaron D. Mitchel of the Pennsylvania State University had participants read works of poetry and prose with…

A recent study published by the International Journal of Eating Disorders says that university undergraduate women who actively participate in sports and exercise-related activities tend to have higher rates of attitudes and behaviors related to eating disorders compared to those who do not regularly exercise. The researchers concluded that women who have higher anxiety about their sport or exercise-related performance were even more likely to experience eating disorder symptoms and body dissatisfaction. This study is one of the first to document that women who participate in high levels of…