-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. Features of Planned Hand Actions Influence Identification of Graspable Objects Daniel N. Bub, Michael E. J. Masson, and Terry Lin Research has shown that motor cortical brain regions are activated when people attend to graspable objects. Participants viewed pictures of a left or right hand in a vertical or horizontal grasping position before being asked to identify an object with its handle facing to the left or right.
-
Low Self-Control Promotes Selfless Behavior in Close Relationships
When faced with the choice of sacrificing time and energy for a loved one or taking the self-centered route, people’s first impulse is to think of others, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “For decades psychologists have assumed that the first impulse is selfish and that it takes self-control to behave in a pro-social manner,” says lead researcher Francesca Righetti of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
-
People Prefer ‘Carrots’ to ‘Sticks’ When It Comes to Healthcare Incentives
To keep costs low, companies often incentivize healthy lifestyles. Now, new research suggests that how these incentives are framed -- as benefits for healthy-weight people or penalties for overweight people -- makes a big difference. The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that policies that carry higher premiums for overweight individuals are perceived as punishing and stigmatizing. Researcher David Tannenbaum of the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles wanted to investigate how framing healthcare incentives might influence people’s attitudes toward the incentives.
-
Kids’ Reading Success Boosted by Long-Term Individualized Instruction
Students who consistently receive individualized reading instruction from first through third grade become better readers than those who don’t, researchers find.
-
Physical Environment May Affect Likelihood of Dishonest Behavior
New research shows that expansive physical settings -- such as having a big desk to stretch out while doing work or a large driver's seat in an automobile -- can cause individuals to feel more powerful, which may, in turn, elicit more dishonest behavior, such as stealing, cheating, and even traffic violations. The new research is forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Edward Gibson, Steven T. Piantadosi, Kimberly Brink, Leon Bergen, Eunice Lim, and Rebecca Saxe Research has suggested that the default word order across languages is subject, object, then verb (SOV), so why have so many languages developed with a subject-verb-object (SVO) order? One explanation is the noisy-channel hypothesis, which supposes that individuals choose a speech pattern that gives the listener the best chance of understanding the original meaning of a message.
