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Bitter Food = Bitter Guest: Choose Thanksgiving Menu Wisely
It’s that time of year again: turkey, stuffing, and gravy! As you prepare your Thanksgiving meal for family and friends, heed this warning from an upcoming article in Psychological Science: The taste of the food and drinks that you serve your guests may impact their moral judgments of you in more ways than one. Psychological scientist Kendall J. Eskine and coauthors from the University of New York noted that several studies have linked physical disgust to moral disgust, but no study has explored morality in conjunction with taste. In their experiment, students drank either a sweet (Minute Maid Berry Punch), bitter (Swedish Bitters), or control (water) beverage.
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Getting Lost in Buildings: Architecture Can Bias Your Cognitive Map
Some people always know which way is north and how to get out of a building. Others can live in an apartment for years without knowing which side faces the street.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Effects of Adult Attachment and Emotional Distractors on Brain Mechanisms of Cognitive Control Stacie L. Warren, Kelly K. Bost, Glenn I. Roisman, Rebecca Levin Silton, Jeffrey M. Spielberg, Anna S. Engels, Eunsil Choi, Bradley P. Sutton, Gregory A. Miller, and Wendy Heller Adults with insecure attachment styles may have difficulties regulating emotions and this may put them at an increased risk for mental health problems. Volunteers underwent fMRI scans while performing an emotion-word Stroop task.
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Upper-Class People Have Trouble Recognizing Others’ Emotions
Upper-class people have more educational opportunities, greater financial security, and better job prospects than people from lower social classes, but that doesn't mean they're more skilled at everything. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds surprisingly, that lower-class people are better at reading the emotions of others. The researchers were inspired by observing that, for lower-class people, success depends more on how much they can rely on other individuals.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Interpersonal Sensitivity, Status, and Stereotype Accuracy David A. Kenny, Amanda Snook, Eliane M. Boucher, and Jeffrey T. Hancock Previous studies have suggested that subordinates are more accurate in judging how their bosses view them than are bosses at judging how subordinates view them. Those studies also suggest that bosses are more accurate in judging how subordinates view themselves than are subordinates in judging how bosses view themselves.
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Dire Messages About Global Warming Can Backfire, Study Shows
Scientists and environmental advocates may have more success convincing people about the dangers of global warming if they communicate those risks in less apocalyptic ways, research suggests.