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Identifying People by Their Bodies When Faces Are No Help
Every day we recognize friends, family, and co-workers from afar -- even before we can distinctly see a face. New research reveals that when facial features are difficult to make out, we readily use information about someone’s body to identify them -- even when we don’t know we’re doing so. “Psychologists and computer scientists have concentrated almost exclusively on the role of the face in person recognition,” explains lead researcher, Allyson Rice of the University of Texas at Dallas.
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Eye Contact May Make People More Resistant to Persuasion
Making eye contact has long been considered an effective way of drawing a listener in and bringing him or her around to your point of view. But new research shows that eye contact may actually make people more resistant to persuasion, especially when they already disagree. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “There is a lot of cultural lore about the power of eye contact as an influence tool,” says lead researcher Frances Chen, who conducted the studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and is now an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia.
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Testosterone Promotes Reciprocity in the Absence of Competition
Boosting testosterone can promote generosity, but only when there is no threat of competition, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that testosterone is implicated in behaviors that help to foster and maintain social relationships, indicating that its effects are more nuanced than previously thought. “Testosterone may mediate competitive and potentially antisocial behavior when social challenges or threats need to be confronted and handled,” explains lead researcher Maarten Boksem of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) in the Netherlands.
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Studies Explore Interplay Between Self-Control, Reward Processing, and Diet
Two new studies investigate the relationship between self-control and reward processing for chronic dieters and people who would like to control their food intake. The Future Is Now: Reducing Impulsivity and Energy Intake Using Episodic Future Thinking Tinuke Oluyomi Daniel, Christina M. Stanton, and Leonard H. Epstein Past studies have shown that thinking about a future event reduces delay discounting -- when people forgo large future rewards for immediate smaller rewards.
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Warning of Potential Side Effects of a Product Can Increase Its Sales
Drug ads often warn of serious side effects, from nausea and bleeding to blindness, even death. New research suggests that, rather than scaring consumers away, these warnings can improve consumers’ opinions and increase product sales when there is a delay between seeing the ad and deciding to buy or consume the product. “Messages that warn consumers about potentially harmful side effects — presumably with the intent to nudge them to act more cautiously — can ironically backfire,” says psychological scientist Ziv Carmon of INSEAD in Singapore.
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Some Parts of Memory Still Developing Deep Into Childhood
Young Children Have Difficulty When Elements of Memory Overlap Memory for not only what happened, but where and when something happened, undergoes substantial development even after the age of 7, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study suggests that this kind "episodic memory" takes longer to develop than often assumed. The findings indicate that young children may have no problem with remembering certain simple events or facts. But, in some cases, they may have difficulty placing them in the right place, time or context.