Psychology

When we think of racial bias we usually think about differences when being stopped by the police or being watched more closely in a small deli, but there is another facet of it, an indirect bias by people who otherwise behave in ways that seem diverse and tolerant. In a recent preprint paper, the authors concluded that white liberal politicians and individuals engage in "competence downshift" when talking to minorities while conservatives don't. Liberals downplay their own verbal competence and use more emotional language. It's like mansplaining, except for people of color. Politicians have…

A new paper says that how much you look racially stereotypical, like other members of your racial group, influences how likely you are to get a degree in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) fields. What does looking "racially stereotypical" mean? Well, that was decided by the scholars, two management academics and an educator. They coded photos on the extent to which students exhibited physical features considered stereotypical for their races (white, black or Asian) and then used logistical regression and determined that Asian students who looked more racially stereotypical were…

Is love a mystery or can it be reduced to chemical processes in the brain? And, what are those chemical processes? And, perhaps most importantly, can you prepare the brain for love? Falling in Love When you are falling in love a kind of chemical bomb goes off in the brain. There’s a chemical storm of dopamine and noradrenaline that makes you feel excited and warm all over. Dopamine is a brain chemical associated with reward. It gets released when I receive something wonderful from you – as I do in the association we call love – or, when I have the pleasure of giving you something. Love is a…

We recently conducted one of the largest-ever studies on perfectionism. We learned that perfectionism has increased substantially over the past 25 years and that it affects men and women equally. We also learned that perfectionists become more neurotic and less conscientious as time passes. Perfectionism involves striving for flawlessness and requiring perfection of oneself and others. Extremely negative reactions to mistakes, harsh self-criticism, nagging doubt about performance abilities and a strong sense that others are critical and demanding also define the trait. As a clinical…

Mind reading and the ability to predict the future are not skills people generally associate with the human race. Yet, research shows many people genuinely believe in the existence of psychic powers. You would think that instances of proven psychic fraud over the years would weaken the credibility of psychic claims. There have been historical cases, such as Lajos Pap, the Hungarian spiritualist medium, who was found to be faking animal appearances at seances. And then more recently, self described psychic James Hydrick was revealed as a trickster. Hydrick confessed his paranormal…

In a recent experiment, participants were asked questions to gauge how religious they were and then about their willingness to purchase a fruit cup. Half were told the fruit cup was organic and half were told it was gluten-free. People who were very religious had more favorable attitudes toward the gluten-free fruit cup and were more likely to say they would buy it than they would the organic kind. The authors framed that result as religious people caring less about "sustainability" - they did not want to side with environmentalists.(1) But that may be the wrong conclusion. Forget…

Nothing killed science culture more than Spock from the 1960s television show "Star Trek." He was wildly popular because he was so logical and reasoned. Emotions did not enter into his decisions. Scientists flocked to that mystique and so a whole generation of scholars sought to be dispassionate and data-driven in their interactions with the public. And activists opposed to science gained a lot of ground as a result. When you have a passionate person on one side yelling that science is dooming us all and another saying 'let me show you some slides' people are going to get precautionary and…

Have your friends recently begun obsessively folding their t-shirts, or explaining how they have got rid of a book that no longer “brings them joy”? If so, they’ve probably been caught up in the new craze from lifestyle guru and “tidying consultant” Marie Kondo. Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and her new Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, describe the “KonMari” method. This is a series of simple ways of reorganizing your home to get rid of clutter and mess. According to the author, following her method will not only lead to a cleaner, more organized household,…

Is there sex-specific epigenetic regulation of fear memory? A new study says yes, for mice anyway, and if it later is found to be similar in humans it could explain why fear and stress-related disorders affect men and women differently. Fear and memory produce changes to genes that modulate gene expression, called epigenetic modifications, some contend. In a mouse model of traumatic memory, epigenetic activation of  gene important for creating fear memories and stress behavior, called cyclin dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) increased naturally in males, but not in females, after the mice…

Drake’s Organic Spirits is touting it is the "first and only spirits line in the world to receive all five major health certifications." By "health", for four of them they simply mean manufacturing or cultural preferences; kosher, vegan, Non-GMO Project, and USDA Organic. (1) For the health-related one, gluten-free, there is no gluten in rum (sugar/molasses) anyway and since they use the same ingredients for their vodka as their rum, there is no gluten in that either. And finally, by "spirits line" they mean the mixes that go in their rum and vodka, not the alcohol itself. In other words…