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Minimizing Belief in Free Will May Lessen Support for Criminal Punishment
Exposure to information that diminishes free will, including brain-based accounts of behavior, seems to decrease people’s support for retributive punishment, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. People who learned about neuroscientific research, either by reading a magazine article or through undergraduate coursework, proposed less severe punishment for a hypothetical criminal than did their peers. The findings suggest that they did so because they saw the criminal as less blameworthy.
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It’s the Last Bite That Keeps You Coming Back for More
Your memory for that last bite of a steak or chocolate cake may be more influential than memory for the first bite in determining when you want to eat it again, according to research published
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Sports Teams May Lose Out From Having ‘Too Much Talent’
As the FIFA World Cup kicks off and the NBA finals “heat” up, new research suggests that there is such a thing as having “too much talent” on a sports team. The research indicates that
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Science Behind Driving Behavior, Aptitude Explored in New Blog
For every law-abiding motorist, there is another driver who is breaking the speed limit and cutting off other drivers in traffic. For every person who easily follows driving directions to reach a destination, there are others who always seem to get lost. Psychological scientists have been studying these sorts of driving behaviors for decades, and have made many discoveries about the decisions, risks, and mistakes that occur behind the wheel. This line of research is the focus of Minds On The Road, a new blog devoted exclusively to the scientific study of behaviors, emotions, skills, and errors that we display when driving.
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Angry Faces Back Up Verbal Threats, Making Them Seem More Credible
We’ve all been on the receiving end of an angry glare, whether from a teacher, parent, boss, or significant other. These angry expressions seem to boost the effectiveness of threats without actual aggression, according to
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Distance From a Conflict May Promote Wiser Reasoning
If you're faced with a troubling personal dilemma, such as a cheating spouse, you may think about it more wisely if you consider it as an outside observer would, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "These results are the first to demonstrate a new type of bias within ourselves when it comes to wise reasoning about an interpersonal relationship dilemma," says psychology researcher and study author Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in Canada.