Psychology

Scholars say they have found a way to prevent procrastination. The trick? Think of the future as now. If you decide you will read this article tomorrow, you are already behind.  People often do things on deadline. Students cram for tests, employees stay up late to finish a project. There is no choice, the issue is imminent.  In an initial series of studies, 162 participants were asked to imagine themselves preparing for future events, such as a wedding or a work presentation, and then they were asked when this event would occur. Participants were randomly assigned to think of the…

The latest article exploring sexism in academia suggests that it no longer exists. Some have already grumbled about flaws in the study’s design. But more than that, I simply don’t believe the finding because there is clear evidence that sexism still exists. I’ve also recently heard numerous times via Twitter that playing video games makes you less sexist. But I don’t believe that finding either. This isn’t because either study is poorly designed, or because the samples are biased, or even that the researchers had ulterior motives. I don’t believe either of these studies because no explanation…

Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows that it's no fun to feel hungry - the drive to tame hunger pangs can sabotage even the best-intentioned dieter. But how exactly is it that fasting creates these uncomfortable feelings and consuming food takes them away?  Working to unravel the complex wiring system that underlies this intense physiological state, investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have identified a long-sought component…

Psychologists have postulated that blaming victims, such as saying 'you were in the wrong place at the wrong time', is a defense mechanism that helps blamers feel the world is still just even when there is evidence it's not. A team of social science scholars believe they have found a direct way to spare victims the unwarranted social insult to their personal injuries: Emotional disclosure by witnesses. They found that that witnesses blame victims much less if they express, in writing, the disturbing thoughts and feelings that victims' ordeals arouse in them. Witnesses who suppress these…

It's not a surprise that in a modern materialistic society, the desire to buy the latest iGimmick will lead to sadness if the money to do so is not available but we fortunately have the statistics to back that up. The recent Great Recession was accompanied by a significant and sustained  major depression claims by U.S. adults, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Prevalence of major depression increased from 2.33 percent during the years 2005-2006 to 3.49 percent in 2009-2010 to 3.79 percent in 2011-2012, according to the study by Loyola University…

If you want to know the secrets of healthier eating, think of the kitchen fruit bowl. A fruit bowl makes fruit more convenient, attractive, and normal to eat than if the same fruit were in the bottom of the refrigerator. A new Cornell study analyzed 112 studies that collected information about healthy eating behaviors and found that most healthy eaters did so because a restaurant, grocery store, school cafeteria, or spouse made foods like fruits and vegetables visible and easy to reach (convenient), enticingly displayed (attractive), and appear like an obvious choice (normal). "A healthy…

If you're finding it difficult to stick to a diet, a new paper says you can likely blame hunger-sensitive cells in your brain known as AGRP neurons. According to new experiments, these neurons are responsible for the unpleasant feelings of hunger that make snacking irresistible.  The negative emotions associated with hunger can make it hard to maintain a diet and lose weight, and these neurons help explain that struggle, says Scott Sternson, a group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus. In an environment where food is readily available, their difficult-…

When consumers taste cheap wine and rate it highly because under the belief it is expensive, is it just a placebo or has belief actually changed their brain function, causing them to experience the cheap wine in the same physical way as the expensive wine?  People enjoy identical products such as wine or chocolate more if they have a higher price tag so a new study examined the neural and psychological processes required for such marketing placebo effects to occur. The authors conclude that preconceived beliefs may create a placebo effect so strong that the actual chemistry of the brain…

The occurrence of altruism and spite - helping or harming others at a cost to oneself - depends on similarity not just between two interacting individuals but also to the rest of their neighbors, according to a new model developed by psychologist DB Krupp and mathematician Peter Taylor of Queen's University. Individuals who appear very different from most others in a group will evolve to be altruistic towards similar partners, and only slightly spiteful to those who are dissimilar to them but individuals who appear very similar to the rest of a group will evolve to be only slightly altruistic…

Self-driving cars are expected to revolutionize the automobile industry. Rapid advances have led to working prototypes faster than most people expected. The anticipated benefits of this emerging technology include safer, faster and more eco-friendly transportation. Until now, the public dialogue about self-driving cars has centered mostly on technology. The public’s been led to believe that engineers will soon remove humans from driving. But researchers in the field of human factors — experts on how people interact with machines — have shown that we shouldn’t ignore the human element of…