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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.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Serotonin and Social Norms: Tryptophan Depletion Impairs Social Comparison and Leads to Resource Depletion in a Multiplayer Harvesting Game Amy C. Bilderbeck, Gordon D. A. Brown, Judi Read, Mark Woolrich, Phillip J. Cowen, Tim E. J. Behrens, and Robert D. Rogers What factors influence the conservation of shared resources? The authors manipulated participants' levels of serotonin activity by having them consume a drink containing tryptophan or a placebo (tryptophan depletion reduces serotonin activity).
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Use of Gestures Reflects Language Instinct in Young Children
Young children instinctively use a "language-like" structure to communicate through gestures, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research, led by the University of Warwick, shows that when young children are asked to use gestures to communicate, their gestures segment information and reorganize it into language-like sequences. This finding suggests that children are not just learning language from older generations -- their own preferences in communication may have shaped how languages look today.
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Same Face, Many First Impressions
Slight variations in how an individual face is viewed can lead people to develop significantly different first impressions of that individual, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our findings suggest that impressions from still photos of individuals could be deeply misleading,” says psychological scientist and study author Alexander Todorov of Princeton University. Previous research has shown that people form first impressions about someone's personality after viewing their face only briefly.
