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Cleanliness Is Next to…Conservatism?
In every election cycle, politicians on both sides of the aisle are accused of practicing ‘dirty politics.’ Neither side is immune from these charges but research from psychological science suggests that we may subconsciously associate our notions of ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ with specific political ideologies. In a research article published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers Erik Helzer and David Pizarro of Cornell University found that people who are reminded of physical purity report being more politically conservative and make harsher moral judgments regarding sexual behavior.
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Certain Kinds of Passion Can Take a Toll on Self-Esteem
Whether it’s the drive of an Olympic athlete, the vision of an entrepreneur, or the skill of a fantasy role-playing game champion (more on that later), intense passion often inspires admiration. But the findings from a recent study in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggest that not all passions are created equal; some kinds of passion may even be harmful to your health. Geneviéve A. Mageau and Joëlle Carpentier of the Université de Montréal and Robert J. Vallerand of Université du Québec à Montréal wanted to test Vallerand’s Dualistic Model of Passion.
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Athlete rituals a theater of the bizarre
Deutsche Welle: Michael Phelps may be known for winning a record 22 Olympic medals. What's less known is that whenever he gets ready to race, he walks to the starting block, takes off his headphones that have been blasting Michael Jackson, and swings his arms three times. Before tennis player Serena Williams won gold in women's singles, she took her shower sandals to the court, tied her shoelaces in a specific way and bounced the ball five times, as she has in every competition for more than 15 years. She also wore the same pair of socks she had been wearing throughout the Olympics, like she does at every tournament. Athletes are often a superstitious lot.
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Can You Guess These Athletes’ Nationalities?
Slate: Watching the Summer Olympics can be confusing; there are people of more nationalities in one place than you’d see in a Coke commercial. Depending on the sport, it can be hard to tell where the athletes are from (there’s not a lot of flag space on a Speedo). One minute you’re cheering for what you think is an American hero, the next she’s waving a Union Jack over her head and belting out “God Save the Queen.” But several decades of research suggests there are subtle ways to pick an American athlete out of a crowd based on just a smile or a wave. ...
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New Research on Language From Psychological Science
Read about new research on language published in Psychological Science and Current Directions in Psychological Science. Semantic Priming From Crowded Words Su-Ling Yeh, Sheng He, and Patrick Cavanagh Research has shown that visual crowding impairs word recognition. Because semantic processing occurs after word recognition, it follows that crowding should also eliminate semantic priming effects (i.e., when exposure to a word influences later responses to semantically similar target words). In this study, participants saw Chinese prime words presented with four nonwords flanking them (crowded condition) or by themselves (isolated condition).
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International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies 28th Annual Meeting
The 28th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies will be held November 1-3 in Los Angeles, CA. For more information visit: www.istss.org/Home1.htm
