Tag: Social Psychology

What makes people take risks? Not stunt women or formula 1 drivers. Just ordinary people like you and me. Research published this week in PLOS ONE suggests that unexpected improvements in everyday life (sunshine after many days of rain or a win by a local sports team) are correlated with a change in a city’s

Consumers make assumptions based on the language used by a brand or advertiser, and politeness does matter, say researchers at the University of Oregon and University of Washington. In a series of three studies, Aparna Sundar, a professor of marketing in the UO’s Lundquist College of Business, and Edita Cao, a doctoral student in UW’s

The basic human need to get along with others results in the formation of extreme political groupings, according to a study from Dartmouth College. The findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, add to the widening body of research on the behavior of social and political networks. The Dartmouth research demonstrates that individuals

Conventional wisdom holds that people set themselves up for even greater heartache when they jump into bed with their ex-partner after a breakup. However, according to the findings of a study in Springer’s journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, having sex with an ex doesn’t seem to hinder moving on after the breakup. This is true

Those pesky bees that come buzzing around on a muggy summer day are helping researchers reveal the genes responsible for social behaviors. A new study published this week found that the social lives of sweat bees — named for their attraction to perspiration — are linked to patterns of activity in specific genes, including ones

Social media sites often present users with social exclusion information that may actually inhibit intelligent thought, according to the co-author of a University at Buffalo study that takes a critical look not just at Facebook and other similar platforms, but at the peculiarities of the systems on which these sites operate. The short-term effects of

For most people, the sense of happiness derived from a luxurious vacation, a good movie or a tasty dinner at a restaurant may seem short-lived, but what if it were possible to extend these feelings of enjoyment? Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Texas A&M University decided to explore whether the way people frame

The importance of an inclusive workforce culture in health care is key to advancing scientific inquiry, improving the quality of care, and optimizing patient satisfaction. In fact, diverse student bodies and workforces have been shown to improve everyone’s cultural effectiveness and address inequities in health care delivery. Now, inclusiveness of workplace culture can be measured

The disparity between the number of sexual partners reported by men and women can largely be explained by a tendency among men to report extreme numbers of partners, and to estimate rather than count their lifetime total, a new study in The Journal of Sex Research finds. Together with gender differences in attitudes towards casual

Suicide rates are likely to rise as the earth warms, according to new research published July 23 in Nature Climate Change. The study, led by Stanford economist Marshall Burke, finds that projected temperature increases through 2050 could lead to an additional 21,000 suicides in the United States and Mexico. “When talking about climate change, it’s

Contrary to common suggestion, women are opting to freeze their eggs not to pursue education or careers but for reasons “mostly revolving around women’s lack of stable partnerships with men committed to marriage and parenting.” This is the conclusion of the largest qualitative study so far in elective egg freezing; 150 subjects from four IVF

When playing an economic game those that were assigned as ‘lower status’ were more likely to share their wealth than their ‘higher status’ counterparts, according to a new study at Queen Mary University of London. The social experiment involved a series of economic games in which people played with other people for real money. The

As World Cup fever sets in, increased hooliganism and football related violence are legitimate international concerns. Previous research has linked sports-related hooliganism to ‘social maladjustment’ e.g. previous episodes of violence or dysfunctional behaviour at home, work or school etc. However, social bonding and a desire to protect and defend other fans may be one of

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

Dogs are capable of understanding the emotions behind an expression on a human face. For example, if a dog turns its head to the left, it could be picking up that someone is angry, fearful or happy. If there is a look of surprise on a person’s face, dogs tend to turn their head to

What makes someone go from simply being hungry to full-on “hangry”? More than just a simple drop in blood sugar, this combination of hunger and anger may be a complicated emotional response involving an interplay of biology, personality and environmental cues, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. “We all know that hunger

Spending more years in full time education is associated with a greater risk of developing short-sightedness (myopia), finds a study published by The BMJ today. The researchers say their study provides “strong evidence” that more time spent in education is a risk factor for myopia, and that the findings “have important implications for educational practices.”

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

Are your friends very pain tolerant? Then it is likely that you are as well, provided you are a male. A recent study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain, along with an Editorial Comment by Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, published by De Gruyter, shows that there is a positive correlation between the pain tolerance of

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.