-
The Whites of Our Eyes
The New York Times: SEVERAL years ago, while browsing the campus bookstore, one of us, Professor Segal, encountered a display table filled with Squirtles. A Squirtle is a plush-toy turtle manufactured by the company Russ Berrie. They were adorable and she couldn’t wait to take one home. Afterward, Professor Segal began wondering why this toy was so attractive and suspected that its large, round eyes played a major role. It’s well known that a preference for large eyes emerges in humans by 5 months of age. But the Squirtle was even more appealing than many of its big-eyed competitors. Was there something else about its eyes?
-
Looks could kill
The Economist: PEOPLE decide quickly how trustworthy a stranger is, based on what his face looks like. And experiments show that, regarding any particular individual, they generally come to the same conclusion. There really are, it seems, trustworthy and untrustworthy faces—though, surprisingly, there is little consensus among researchers as to whether someone whose face is deemed devious really is more likely to betray a trust. The perceivedly untrustworthy do, however, suffer for their phizogs. And a study published in this month’s Psychological Science suggests that in extreme cases—in America at least—this suffering may be fatal.
-
Do Know-It-Alls Really Know It All?
NPR's Science Friday: Pre-rated stocks,” “fixed rate deduction,” and “annualized credit” sound like fairly weighty financial terms. So much so, that a number of self-described finance experts said they were familiar with them. However, these concepts were invented by researchers at Cornell University seeking to understand why people say they know things when they don’t—what the team refers to as “overclaiming.” The resulting study, published in the journal Psychological Science, indicates that the more people see themselves as experts, the more likely they are to feign knowledge of phony information.
-
At What Age Does Hard Work Add a Shine to Lousy Prizes?
Putting in a lot of effort to earn a reward can make unappealing prizes more attractive to kindergartners, but not to preschoolers, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Visit Page
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Turbulent Times, Rocky Relationships: Relational Consequences of Experiencing Physical Instability Amanda L. Forest, David R. Kille, Joanne V. Wood, and Lindsay R. Stehouwer Can physical instability lead to instability in relationships?
-
Combining Cannabis and Alcohol Amplifies Crash Risks
Cannabis and alcohol are the drugs most commonly detected in the systems of drivers involved in crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Decades of research has looked at the impairing effects of drinking alcohol and driving, but little research has investigated how these two drugs affect behavior behind the wheel when combined. A team of Australian researchers, led by psychological scientist Luke Downey of Swinburne University of Technology, carried out a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment to find out how drivers react when these two drugs are combined.
