Psychology
A person's gender in a leadership role is associated with the mental and physical health of subordinates, according to new research out of the University of Toronto.
The study conducted by Scott Schieman, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and Taralyn McMullen, a PhD candidate, involved data from a 2005 sample of 1,800 working adults in the United States. The participants were assessed on levels of psychological distress, physical symptoms, occupation, job sector, and numerous work conditions including authority, pressures, the quality of interpersonal relations, and…
The probability of someone cheating during the course of a relationship varies between 40 and 76 percent. "It's very high," says Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier, PhD student at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychology.
According to psychologists, people with avoidant attachment styles are individuals uncomfortable with intimacy and are therefore more likely to multiply sexual encounters and cheat. But this has never been proved scientifically, which is what Beaulieu-Pelletier attempted to do in a series of four studies.
The student wanted to know if the type of commitment a person…
Apparently, you can tell a lot about people from the way they move - gender, age, and even mood.
Researchers say they have found that observers perceive masculine motion as coming toward them, while a characteristically feminine walk looks like it's headed the other way.
Such studies are done by illuminating only the joints of model walkers and asking observers to identify various characteristics about the largely ambiguous figures.
"It's a really interesting thing," said Rick van der Zwan of Southern Cross University in Australia. "If you look at someone with just their joints illuminated…
Children born prematurely are four times more likely to have emotional problems or behavioral disorders, according to new research.
A team led by the University of Warwick's Department of Psychology and Warwick Medical School examined the behaviour of 200 six-year-old children who had been born below 26 weeks gestation, known as 'extremely pre-term'.
The researchers attempted to contact the family of every child born in the UK and Ireland at 25 weeks or earlier, between March and December 1995. From a possible 308 children who survived the first 6 years, the parents of 241 responded to the…
People are more frugal when paying cash than using credit cards or gift certificates. They also spend less when they have to estimate expenses.
The conclusion that cash discourages spending while credit and gift cards encourage it arises from four studies that examined two factors in purchasing behavior: when consumers part with their money (cash versus credit) and the form of payment (cash, cash-like scrip, gift certificate or credit card). The results, wrote the authors: "The more transparent the payment outflow, the greater the aversion to spending, or higher the 'pain of paying.'"
Cash…
What if society could identify aggressive behavior in individuals before a criminal act was committed? Sound a little like the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report (2002)?,well it should. Researchers at Brock University in Canada have recently completed a study of hockey players and found out that the aggressive tendencies of these individuals is associated with a higher width-to-height ratio of the face. This increased ratio is linked to higher levels of testosterone, which is linked to aggressiveness.
The problem with this research is that someone may attempt to pre-identify a criminal based…
A new study published online today in the British Journal of Nutrition found that timing of dietary protein intake affects feelings of fullness throughout the day. The study concluded that when people ate high-quality protein foods, from sources such as eggs and lean Canadian bacon, for breakfast they had a greater sense of sustained fullness throughout the day compared to when more protein was eaten at lunch or dinner.i
"There is a growing body of research which supports eating high-quality protein foods when dieting to maintain a sense of fullness," said Wayne W. Campbell, PhD, study…
If Leopold de Rothschild, Sir Winston Churchill, or the 5th Earl of Lonsdale were alive today their supreme goal would be to eliminate stress from the world with a nice smoke.
At the Tobacco Republic, in Loomis, California, such a place exists.
In this sort of separate universe where the motto is "Every cigar is like a mini vacation," one of the owners, Ron, tells the story of his first experience with cigars, in his usual calm demeanor, which can be fittingly compared to the alluring effect of cigar smoke.
"I stood there and watched them roll the cigar," Ron reflected on his monumental cigar…
Andrew Scholey, Ph.D., professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia has led a research study on the effects of chewing gum on stress relief and focus and concentration. The study found that chewing gum helped relieve anxiety, improve alertness and reduce stress among individuals in a laboratory setting.
The study examined whether chewing gum is capable of reducing induced anxiety and/or acute psychological stress while participants performed a battery of 'multi-tasking' activities. The use of chewing gum was associated with higher alertness,…
A new study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University sheds light on why smokers' intentions to quit “cold turkey” often fizzle out within days or even hours.
If a smoker isn't yearning for a cigarette when he makes the decision to kick the habit-and most aren't-he isn't able to foresee how he will feel when he's in need of a nicotine buzz.
Published in the September issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the study, “Exploring the Cold-to-Hot Empathy Gap in Smokers,” bolsters the theory that smokers not in…