Psychology

When are members of opposing political parties not simply stupid, uninformed, inhuman hordes lacking in ethics and compassion, or incompetent? When they are in charge. Then they can be creators of a vast conspiracy whose manipulative efforts are everywhere. How can someone be both mindless and a threat? In the world of social psychology, where weak observational studies rule the land.  "It's hardly surprising that we dehumanize those who are not part of our groups," says co-author Jay Van Bavel, an assistant professor in NYU's Department of Psychology and one of the study's co-authors. "…

The results of a small clinical trial intervention found that mindfulness-based meditation could lessen some symptoms associated with cancer in teens. Mindfulness-based meditation sounds fuzzy, because it claims to focus on the 'present moment' and the connection between the mind and body.  But whatever works, works. Adolescents living with cancer face not only the physical symptoms of their condition, but also the anxiety and uncertainty related to the progression of the disease, the anticipation of physical and emotional pain related to illness and treatment, the significant changes…

How can you find a gay person? It's easy, just look on television. After the successes of "Will  &  Grace" and "Modern Family", networks have been putting gay characters everywhere they can. When the new comedy series "Whitney" flagged in the ratings, they even turned a married straight may gay because executives apparently think people want to watch gay characters on sit-coms rather than funny ones. The cancellation of "Sean Saves the World" shows that isn't true. Outside network television gimmicks and stereotypes, can you really tell if someone is gay? The phenomenon called "…

While instruments an provide an objective measure of earthquake intensity, the intensity of ground motion is often anecdotal. How accurate and reliable are public perceptions? A new study in Seismological Research Letters suggests that a person's activity at the time of the quake influences their perception of shaking more than their location. So whether a person is at rest or walking plays a greater role in their perception of ground motion than whether they were asleep on the first or sixth floor of a building. People in motion had the worst perception. The authors sought to analyze two…

Frequent Facebook users also share a greater risk of eating disorders, according to a new psychology paper. The small sample used 960 college students (naturally) and determined that more time on Facebook was associated with higher levels of disordered eating. Females who placed greater importance on receiving comments and "likes" on their status updates and were more likely to un-tag photos of themselves and compare their own photos to friends' posted photos reported the highest levels of disordered eating. "Facebook provides a fun way to stay connected with friends, but it also presents…

While Barbie was once as stereotypical as G.I. Joe, in modern years she can 'be anything.' Ken is still kind of annoying, however. Yet to some it is not enough. Barbie must go. You won't be surprised to find that an article in Sex Roles, which touts itself as "an interdisciplinary behavioral science journal offering a feminist perspective", finds that Barbie is still holding girls back. You can save yourself all the heteronormative jargon about objectification theory and just read this overview. Psychologists Aurora Sherman of Oregon State University and Eileen Zurbriggen of the University of…

Here's an intellectual puzzle; which is more real, the viability of wind power as anything more than a sustainable gimmick or Wind Turbine Syndrome? There is no wrong answer, they both have a lot of subjective inputs so basically it boils down to your preference. If you think cost is unimportant in return for being slightly greener, wind power may be viable to you. And if you are annoyed that rich progressive elites embraced it and then stuck the turbines in your backyard over your protests, you may have that irritation persist to such an extent that you have psychological or psychosomatic…

According to a paper in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, obesity may be a socially transmitted disease. Something has to explain why Samoa leads the world in obesity at 75 percent of the population - and they are proud of it The systematic review may have the answers. It looked at a total of fifteen studies from eleven publications. Eight of the studies examined how information about food intake norms influenced food consumed by participants. Seven other studies reported the effects of food choice norms on how people decide what food to eat. After examining the data,…

People believe that they know what moves them to act; marketers seem to agree.  To learn what people think and feel about a product or message, just ask them, right? As a result, marketing research has long relied on questionnaires, surveys and focus groups. Research may also try to show that a message was attended to and/or recalled. It is simply common sense to assume that the more attention one pays a message,and the more remembered, the more effective it is likely to be.  Unfortunately, both instances of common sense are wrong.  The “just ask” approach assesses only the…

Once a month, millions of women change their economic behavior and become more focused on their social standing relative to other women, says a paper written by scholars from The University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Minnesota. Why are women such slaves to the moon? It's the ovulatory cycle, they assert, and it alters women's behavior by subconsciously motivating them to outdo other women.  The conclusion was based on three studies, one of which had ovulating and non-ovulating women play the "dictator game." In this popular economic experiment, a person is given a…