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Dana Carney
Columbia University, Graduate School of Business www.columbia.edu/~dc2534/ What does your research focus on? I am interested in the incredible power of tiny, ordinary, nonverbal cues. What drew you to this line of research? Why is it exciting to you? I was drawn to this research because of how diagnostic these cues can be when trying to make inferences about others’ mental states. Who were/are your mentors or psychological influences? I have had so many incredible mentors and I have been influenced by so many wonderful minds — I could fill all of these pages with the names. My very first mentor was Maureen O’Sullvan. Maureen died last year.
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World we see is make-believe, top British scientist says
Herald Sun: Professor Bruce Hood will explore the limits of the human mind in a series of prestigious lectures for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the oldest independent research body in the world, it was announced yesterday. The psychologist plans to induce false memories in audience members and use pickpockets to demonstrate how easily people are distracted, in a bid to prove how we have less control over our own decisions and perceptions than we like to imagine. "A lot of the world is make-believe. We're only aware of a fraction of what's going on," Hood told The (London) Times.
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Something for the weekend
Financial Times: Are women underrepresented in business and politics? And do they earn less than men because of gender inequalities in society or because women choose to opt out? Even more importantly, if there are still inequalities, why does society as a whole believe that women’s job opportunities are equal to men’s? Nicole Stephens, assistant professor of management at the Kellog school, and Stanford psychology doctoral student Cynthia Levine, have been investigating why there is a difference between what people perceive and the reality of the situation.
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Who Takes Risks?
U.S. News & World Report: It’s a common belief that women take fewer risks than men, and that adolescents always plunge in headlong without considering the consequences. But the reality of who takes risks when is actually a bit more complicated, according to the authors of a new paper which will be published in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Adolescents can be as cool-headed as anyone, and in some realms, women take more risks than men.
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Les aliments gras remonteraient le moral, indépendamment de leur goût
RTL Belgium: Les chercheurs de l'Université de Leuven (Belgique) ont choisi 12 participants de poids normal et en bonne santé auxquels ils ont injecté des solutions concentrées en acides gras et des solutions de sérum physiologique, en présence d'images et de musique triste ou neutre. Les sujets auxquels on a injecté la solution grasse se disaient moins tristes que les personnes ayant reçu le sérum physiologique. Ils ont aussi subi des IRM, pour que les chercheurs puissent analyser leur activité cérébrale pendant l'expérience. Lire plus: RTL Belgium
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When It’s An Error To Mirror
In human relationships, mimicry can act as a kind of ‘social glue’ and foster rapport in subtle ways. If, for example, Amy and Ted are engaged in a conversation, Amy might mirror some of Ted’s mannerisms, leading Ted to like Amy more, trust her, and think of Amy as more similar, even though both are unaware that any mimicry took place. All this has been confirmed by much of psychological research, leading to a popular perception (and advice) that imitating is “good for you”. But new research suggests that mimicry may not always lead to positive social outcomes. In fact, sometimes not mimicking is the smarter thing to do.