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Intel Science Talent Search: Social Roles Seen Through Eye Movements
The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS), the nation's most prestigious pre-college science competition, recognizes and rewards 300 student semifinalists and their schools each year. The 40 finalists are then invited to Washington, DC, where they display their work in public, meet with notable scientists, and compete for a $100,000 prize. Representing the field of psychological science in this year’s contest was Michael Zhang of Smithtown High School East in New York, who investigated how visual behavior reflects the self-perception of human subjects playing one of four distinctive roles. Zhang assigned each participant the role of thief, security guard, cleaning person, or tourist.
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Write to be Read
Today many scientists struggle to get the public interested in psychological research. To help social psychologists reach larger audiences, In-Mind Magazine will organize a May 23 workshop, "Writing and Communicating with the General Public," in conjunction with the APS 25th Annual Convention in Washington, D.C. This workshop aims to support psychological scientists by offering a vital skill: the power to enchant a broad audience. How can you communicate important scientific findings to the media? Or, how do you turn your award-winning ideas into successful grant proposals?
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Events in the Future Seem Closer Than Those in the Past
People experience time as if they’re moving toward the future and away from the past We say that time flies, it marches on, it flows like a river -- our descriptions of time are closely linked to our experiences of moving through space. Now, new research suggests that the illusions that influence how we perceive movement through space also influence our perception of time. The findings provide evidence that our experiences of space and time have even more in common than previously thought.
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Language That Reinforces Inequality
Men solve problems differently than women. Women solve problems differently than men. At first glance, both sentences communicate the same information. But according to a 2012 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, one of these sentences — but not the other — probably reinforces inequality between men and women. Susanne Bruckmüller, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and her coauthors were interested in how the language used to compare people and groups can affect the way those people and groups are perceived.
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Babies Prefer Individuals Who Harm Those That Aren’t Like Them
Infants as young as nine months old prefer individuals who are nice to people like them and mean to people who aren’t like them, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In our social lives, we tend to gravitate toward people who have things in common with us, whether it’s growing up in the same town, disliking the same foods, or even sharing the same birthday. And research suggests that babies evaluate people in much the same way, preferring people who like the same foods, clothes, and toys that they like. This preference helps us to form social bonds, but it can also have a dark side.
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The Dark Side of Daylight Saving Time: Science Sheds Light on Sleep Deprivation
Each year, Daylight Saving Time forces everyone to move their clocks ahead before going to bed on Saturday night, and by Monday many are still feeling the effects of the hour of sleep that they lost.
