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Study: Do men flash cash to find a mate?
USA Today: When women seem scarce, men may compete for them by being impulsive, saving less and borrowing more, according to a new study. "What we see in other animals is that when females are scarce, males become more competitive. They compete more for access to mates," lead author Vladas Griskevicius, an assistant professor of marketing at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, said in a university news release. "How do humans compete for access to mates? What you find across cultures is that men often do it through money, through status and through products," Griskevicius said.
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De baas voelt zich groter
De Standaard: Als mensen zich machtig voelen, dan voelen ze zich ook groot. Dat besluiten de Amerikaanse psychologen Michelle Duguid van de Washington University en Jack Goncalo van de Cornell University uit een reeks van drie experimenten die ze beschrijven in het vakblad Psychological Science. De onderzoekers hebben voor hun experimenten geen machtige en niet-machtige mensen gerekruteerd om die te vergelijken - echt machtige mensen zouden zich waarschijnlijk niet zo gauw laten overtuigen om als proefkonijn te dienen. In de plaats daarvan hebben ze gewone proefpersonen in groepen opgedeeld, en die zó gemanipuleerd dat ze zich tijdelijk machtig of net niet-machtig voelden.
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APSSC Award Winners Talk About Identity and Race
Eighty-three years after the birth Martin Luther King, Jr., psychological scientists continue to investigate race, cultural identity, and prejudice. Three APSSC Award presentations at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC addressed how these factors influence health and social interaction. Watch Sabrica Barnett (The City University of New York), Bryan Jensen (Brigham Young University), and Lillian Polanco (Hunter College) present their research. Designing effective methods to combat prejudice is still a challenge for researchers. To learn more, read Wray Herbert’s blog on the problem with “colorblindness” or recent research on anti-prejudice messages from Psychological Science.
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How Do You Get Doctors to Wash Their Hands?
Huffington Post: The field of medicine has understood the importance of hand washing for almost 200 years. The Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis found that when people in an obstetric clinic washed their hands, incidence of infections plummeted. These days, hospitals have signs all over that remind patients and staff to wash their hands at every opportunity. The fact that you need signs, though, suggests that not everyone is washing their hands all the time. What kinds of signs are likely to be most effective? Lots of research on persuasion suggests that a good message is one that requires people to take individual responsibility for their own personal consequences.
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Tall tales: Powerful people tend to overestimate height
msnbc: In June 2010, the Swedish-born Chairman of BP Carl-Henric Svanberg touched off a firestorm of controversy with his remarks about his company's reaction to the Gulf oil spill. "... we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care. But that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people." The twice used reference to "small people" hit a raw nerve with residents of the Gulf in the wake of the manmade disaster. Svanberg was quickly forced to apologize and admit "he spoke clumsily." Read the full story: msnbc
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13 Common (But Silly) Superstitions
LiveScience: If you are spooked by Friday the 13th, you're in for a whammy of a year. This week's unlucky day is the first of three for 2012. And it would come as no surprise if many among us hold at least some fear of freaky Friday, as we humans are a superstitious lot. Many superstitions stem from the same human trait that causes us to believe in monsters and ghosts: When our brains can't explain something, we make stuff up. In fact, a 2010 study found that superstitions can sometimes work, because believing in something can improve performance on a task. Here, then, are 13 of the most common superstitions. Read the full story: LiveScience
