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Is It Hot Outside? You Might Be More Likely to Believe in Global Warming
TIME: A study recently published in Psychological Science suggests that daily weather dictates climate change opinion, indicating that "irrelevant environmental information, such as the current weather, can affect judgments." Researchers from the Columbia University Center for Decision Sciences asked residents in the United States and Australia to detail their climate change opinions and report whether the day's temperature was warmer or colder than usual. They found that "respondents who thought that day was warmer than usual believed more in and had greater concern about global warming than respondents who thought that day was colder than usual.
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Advice for Online Daters: If You’re a Guy, Don’t Smile
TIME: Men, if you're trying to lure the ladies with a photograph, make like James Dean and brood. Women are turned off by guys who smile, according to a new study published in the American Psychological Association's journal Emotion. Men, however, were most attracted to photos of smiling women, the study found. And both men and women said they were attracted to people with a look of shame. The findings may have something to say about how non-verbal cues like posture and expression affect initial sexual attraction in both genders. Read more: TIME
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The dark side of happiness
Irish Medical Times: I knew it all along. Happiness kills. A study of traits in children which may lead to longer or shorter lives is quite conclusive in its findings: happy, cheerful youngsters are doomed to an early grave (see article in latest Perspectives on Psychological Science, May 18, 2011, vol. 6 no. 3 222-233 (doi: 10.1177/1745691611406927). The results are surprising — to some people at least. Not to me and other lifelong dysfunctionals. Remarks in a school report which state that the brat in question is ‘very cheery’ or ‘very cheerful’ or ‘happy’ are the kiss of death. Read more at : Irish Medical Times
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Stereotypical men, women more realistic
Times of India: The psychologists said that it is a very difficult skill to master, but stereotypical male and female are almost always accurate in their predictions of who wants to date them. In Psychological Science, psychology professor Mitja Back and his colleagues report that they studied several hundred participants in a German speed-dating group. They asked each participant to take a psychological test aimed at assessing how "sociosexually unrestricted" the men were, and how "agreeable" the women were. Read more: Times of India
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Monkeys Might Be More Logical Than We Think
You see a big cat nursing a kitten, and you assume Cat A is Cat B’s mother. Then you see a bird dropping worms in a smaller bird’s mouth. Different content, different context, but same relationship—you conclude that Big Bird is Little Bird’s mom. This is an analogy—a relationship between relationships. What is behind this ability—and is it uniquely human? “There is a long debate as to whether this ability is dependent on language,” says Center for Research in Cognitive Neurosciences and University of Provence cognitive psychologist Joël Fagot. “It has been shown in apes who have been language trained.” But can animals perceive analogies without language?
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Plan Your Way to Less Stress, More Happiness
TIME: A recent survey by psychologist and self-help author Robert Epstein found that 25% of our happiness hinges on how well we're able to manage stress. The next logical question is, of course, how best can we reduce our stress? Epstein's data, which he presented last month at the Western Psychological Association meeting in Los Angeles, was intended to help answer that question. It involved 3,000 participants in the U.S. and 29 other countries, who responded to an online questionnaire.
