Tag: Behavior

Anxious people take fewer risks — this is not surprising. However, a team of psychologists from the German Friedrich Schiller University Jena, together with partners from Würzburg in Germany and the Canadian University of Victoria have succeeded in making this decision process visible in the brain, allowing them to predict the behaviour of individuals. They

New research suggests that if people perceive the rise of vegetarianism as a threat to their way of life they are more likely to care less for some animals. Researchers from the University of Kent in the UK and Brock University in Canada studied the impact of human supremacy beliefs and vegetarianism on whether people

It’s natural for parents to do whatever they can to keep their children safe and healthy, but children need space to learn and grow on their own, without Mom or Dad hovering over them, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. The study, published in the journal Developmental Psychology, found that overcontrolling

Struggling to finish that report for your boss? One way to increase your interest in a task is to add immediate rewards, rather than wait until the end to reward yourself, according to new Cornell research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled “It’s About Time: Earlier Rewards Increase Intrinsic Motivation.” Kaitlin

‘Inattentional smell blindness’, or inattentional anosmia, has been proven to exist in a study from the University of Sussex. Just as it has previously been found that people can miss visual cues when they are busily engaged in a task, the same is true of smells. And unlike visual stimuli, which would be noticed once

In-home rehabilitation, using a telehealth system and supervised by licensed occupational/physical therapists, is an effective means of improving arm motor status in stroke survivors, according to findings presented by University of California, Irvine neurologist Steven C. Cramer, MD, at the recent 2018 European Stroke Organisation Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. “Motor deficits are a major contributor

Innate fear is an essential emotion for animals to avoid danger in a severe natural environment. Rodents kept in a laboratory also show instinctive fear behavior against the smell of predators such as foxes, cats or snakes despite having never seen them. This innate fear represents an evolutionarily conserved and genetically encoded survival mechanism. However,

Bochum-based philosopher Dr Beate Krickel has used psychoanalysis to investigate why people are often not aware of their prejudices. In her accounts, she has been elaborating how prejudices can become unconscious. As researcher at the Institute of Philosophy II at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, she outlines her theory in the journal Philosophical Psychology from May 15, 2018.

Smoking during pregnancy has well-documented negative effects on birth weight in infants and is linked to several childhood health problems. Now, researchers at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions have found that prenatal marijuana use also can have consequences on infants’ weight and can influence behavior problems, especially when combined with tobacco use.

Scientists have shone new light on how the human brain uses past experiences and generalizes them to future events, helping us safely navigate the world around us, a study in eLife reveals. Our ability to ‘generalize’ is an important survival technique, but over-generalizing from bad events could explain why some people fear and then avoid

Technology that allows BMW’s assembly lines to run more efficiently is now being used to accurately indicate when residents in Assisted Living Facilities (ALF) are at increased risk of falling. William Kearns, president of the International Society for Gerontechnology and associate professor at the University of South Florida College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, collected

Starting to play tackle football before age 12 could lead to earlier onset of cognitive and emotional symptoms among athletes who were diagnosed with CTE and other brain diseases postmortem, according to a new study. The findings, from researchers at VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) and Boston University (BU) School of Medicine, found that among

A new study suggests that the way our brains process everyday information helps to shape our ideological beliefs and political decision-making — including attitudes towards the UK’s 2016 EU Referendum. Scientists from the University of Cambridge combined objective cognitive tests with questionnaires designed to gauge social and political attitudes in a sample of over 300

People rely on financial managers, doctors and lawyers to be as objective as possible when making decisions about investments, health and legal issues, but findings from a new study suggest that an unexpected factor could be influencing these choices. In a series of experiments, researchers found that people at higher elevations in an office building

Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have for the first time found direct causal links between the neurotransmitter dopamine and avoidance—behavior related to pain and fear. Researchers have long known that dopamine plays a key role in driving behavior related to pleasurable goals, such as food, sex and social interaction. In general,

No one likes smug know- it-all friends, relatives or co-workers who believe their knowledge and beliefs are superior to others. But now these discussions at the dinner table, bar or office might be less annoying. A new University of Michigan study indicates what many people suspect: these know-it-all people are especially prone to overestimating what

For many people, one of the unspoken rules for being cool is maintaining an emotionally inexpressive attitude. This message is reinforced through advertisements where fashion models rarely smile and by quotes from celebrities. In an article in the Huffington Post, Kanye West said he doesn’t smile in photographs because “it just wouldn’t look as cool.”

(HealthDay)—Five psychological factors are associated with breastfeeding behaviors among women with a body mass index ≥30 kg/m², according to a review published online March 24 in Obesity Reviews. Stephanie Lyons, from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the correlation between any psychological factor and breastfeeding behavior among women with a

A comprehensive review of scientific literature surrounding the psychology of vaccinations has shown that shaping behavior rather than trying to change minds is far more effective at persuading people to get immunized. “There is very little evidence to suggest that we can change people’s beliefs or knowledge in a way that will lead to increased