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Can I Buy You a Drink? Genetics May Determine Sensitivity to Other People’s Drinking Behavior
Your friend walks into a bar to meet you for happy hour. He sidles up to the bar and orders a drink--does that make you more likely to get a drink yourself? According to new findings reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, genetics may determine the extent to which you are influenced by social drinking cues — signals such as advertisements, drinks placed on a bar, and seeing other people around you drinking. Drinking alcohol increases levels of dopamine — a brain chemical that causes pleasure and makes us feel good. The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) has been shown to be involved in motivation of seeking out rewards.
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Cultural Reactions to Anger Expression can Affect Negotiation Outcomes
Most research on negotiations has shown that showing anger can win you larger concessions, but a psychological study shows it can hurt your cause when used in certain cultural environments.
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Meditation Helps Increase Attention Span
It's nearly impossible to pay attention to one thing for a long time. A new study looks at whether Buddhist meditation can improve a person's ability to be attentive and finds that meditation training helps people do better at focusing for a long time on a task that requires them to distinguish small differences between things they see. The research was inspired by work on Buddhist monks, who spend years training in meditation.
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Keep Your Fingers Crossed! How Superstition Improves Performance
Players’ superstitious rituals may seem silly but research shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve performance – by increasing self-confidence.
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A Person’s Language May Influence How He Thinks About Other People
The language a person speaks may influence their thoughts, according to a new study on Israeli Arabs who speak both Arabic and Hebrew fluently. The study found that Israeli Arabs' positive associations with their own people are weaker when they are tested in Hebrew than when they are tested in Arabic. The vast majority of Arab Israelis speak Arabic at home and usually start learning Hebrew in elementary school. The subjects in this study were Arab Israelis, fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic, who were students at Hebrew-speaking universities and colleges.
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Musical Skill Reflects Working Memory Capacity in Addition to Practice Time
Practice will help you play piano better – but it's not going to turn you into Liberace. A new study looks at the role that working memory capacity plays in piano players' ability to sight read a new piece of music, an important and complex skill for musicians. Scientists have debated the role of practice in developing expertise for over a century. Genius used to be thought of as coming from inherited ability. Now many researchers think practice is the key. In 2007, researchers proposed that it takes a decade of intense practice to become an expert. Elizabeth J. Meinz of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and David Z.