-
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…
Should I skip my morning workout today so I can sleep longer? Or perhaps, since it is summer after all, indulge in an ice cold Mocha Frappucino with whipped cream and chocolate syrup drizzled over it instead of my regular herbal tea? Where should I take my date on our first dinner date? Should I go to graduate school? Decisions, decisions, decisions… We all make numerous decisions everyday; unconsciously or consciously, sometimes doing it automatically with little effort or thinking and yet, at other times, we agonize for hours over another. Why do we make these choices – be it from deciding what to have for lunch or whether to say yes to that job offer halfway round the world.
-
Porteros se lanzan más a la derecha cuando van perdiendo
BBC Mundo: Un estudio por investigadores holandeses de las tandas de penaltis en los partidos de los Campeonatos Mundiales de 1982 a 2010 mostró que los arqueros por lo general tenían la misma probabilidad de ir a la izquierda o a la derecha para defender la portería. Pero estar sometidos a la enorme presión de una posición perdedora los empuja más a la derecha. El estudio, que será publicado en la revista Psychological Science, sugiere que los cerebros "orientados a la derecha" de los seres humanos tienen la culpa. Read more: BBC Mundo
-
Seek value, not status, when shopping
China Daily: I was in the States recently wearing my Armani suit that I bought in Beijing. Friends commented how great I looked and a stranger or two even stopped me to pay a compliment. Now I'm pretty sure Armani suits cost more than the $50 or so I paid and that probably holds true for my $75 prescription designer glasses, my $5 Polo shirts, and the $30 Adidas running shoes that have a Nike Swoosh on the front end. Or maybe I just got great deals. Read more: China Daily
-
Horizon stare still best option to find sea legs
New Zealand Herald: There is little doubt that the dreaded mal de mer or seasickness is one of the worst and most debilitating of ailments that strike those trying to enjoy a day at sea. It is a peculiar malady, seemingly attacking people at random. Some of the worst boaties I have known - in terms of their ability, seamanship and knowledge of how things work - are the least affected by seasickness and can happily party on in the worst of conditions. Read more: New Zealand Herald
-
When The Brain Decides
Every day we have to make decisions that involve evaluating or choosing between options, often without much information to go on. So how we do it? How do we prevent analysis paralysis? Psychological theory suggests that we often rely on the recognition heuristic, choosing the option that we recognize over the one we don’t. So, as psychological scientist Christian Frings points out, if we have to predict whether Roger Federer or Michael Berrer will win a tennis match, we’ll probably stick with Federer because he’s a well-known name.
-
Pursuing Non-Conscious Goals
You’re at dinner with your date’s family and you’re already feeling slightly nervous, anxious and wondering what type of an impression you will make. All of a sudden, your date’s little nephew comes running up to you and hands you bits of food from his mouth. How disgusted would you feel? In a new article to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, authors Ran Hassin and Daniella Shidlovski from The Hebrew University suggest that if you subconsciously want to impress the family, and taking the food would help you do so, you will be less disgusted than if you didn’t have such non-conscious motivation.
