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Messages That Speak to Conservatives’ Morals Narrow Partisan Gap on Environment
Public opinion on environmental issues such as climate change, deforestation, and toxic waste seems to fall along increasingly partisan lines. But new research suggests that environmental messages framed in terms of conservative morals -- describing environmental stewardship in terms of fending off threats to the “purity” and “sanctity” of Earth and our bodies -- may help to narrow the partisan gap.
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New Research From Psychological Science
New research published in Psychological Science investigates the ways in which the physical state of our bodies may play a role in shaping what we think, feel, and perceive. Covert Painting Simulations Influence Aesthetic Appreciation of Artworks Helmut Leder, Siegrun Bär, and Sascha Topolinski How does art create aesthetic pleasure? Drawing from existing theory, Helmut Leder of the University of Vienna and his colleagues hypothesized that experiencing a physical resonance with the movements that the artist made when producing the artwork may be one source of aesthetic empathy and, therefore, pleasure.
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Feeling Disgust May Enhance Our Ability to Detect Impurities
Disgust – it’s an emotion we experience when we encounter things that are dirty, impure, or otherwise contaminated. From an evolutionary standpoint, experiencing the intense, visceral sense of revulsion that comes with disgust presumably helps us to avoid contaminants that can make us sick or even kill us. But new research suggests that disgust not only helps us to avoid impurities, it may also make us better able to see them. If something looks dirty and disgusting, we typically assume it’s contaminated in some way; when something is white, however, we are more likely to assume that it’s clean and pure.
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Short-term Summer Fellowship for Teaching Neuroethics
Would you or a neuroscience colleague like to develop and teach a course on neuroethics at your institution? The University of Pennsylvania is ready to help, by offering Short-term Visiting Fellowships for Teaching Neuroethics. This summer the Penn Center for Neuroscience & Society will host 16 college and university professors with primary expertise in neuroscience for a week-long intensive course on "neuroethics," that is, the ethical, legal and societal implications of neuroscience.
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Brain Stimulation May Buffer Feelings of Social Pain
Accumulating evidence suggests that certain brain areas involved in processing physical pain may also underlie feelings of social pain. But can altering brain activity in these areas actually change how people experience social pain? Paolo Riva of the University of Milano-Bicocca and colleagues wanted to examine whether there might be a causal relationship between activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) – known to be involved in the regulation of physical pain and negative expressions of emotion – and experiences of social pain. Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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APS Fellow Nakamura to Direct the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review
National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins announced that APS Fellow and Charter Member Richard Nakamura will be the new director for the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR). Nakamura has been serving as the acting director since September 2011. Nakamura came to NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 1976 as a postdoctoral fellow. In the mid-80's he coordinated NIMH’s Biobehavioral Program and later was Chief of its Integrative Neuroscience Research Branch. Between 1997 and 2007, he served as the institute's Deputy Director. From 2007 to 2011 he has been institute Scientific Director.
