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Statisticians can prove almost anything, a new study finds
National Post: Catchy headlines about the latest counter-intuitive discovery in human psychology have a special place in journalism, offering a quirky distraction from the horrors of war and crime, the tedium of politics and the drudgery of economics. But even as readers smirk over the latest gee whizzery about human nature, it is generally assumed that behind the headlines, in the peer-reviewed pages of academia, most scientists are engaged in sober analysis of rigorously gathered data, and that this leads them reliably to the truth.
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Dietary Supplements Instill Illusion of Invincibility
LiveScience: Imagine a pill that can make you invincible to the dangers of smoking, overeating or other hedonistic pursuits? Some people might think such a pill exists at the local pharmacy in the form of a daily vitamin, two new studies reveal. Researchers from Taiwan found that smokers instructed to take a daily multivitamin smoked more cigarettes than smokers not taking a multivitamin. These results appear in the December issue of the journal Addiction.
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The Psychological Science Behind an Oops Moment
Over the last week or so, the phrase “brain freeze” has taken on a new meaning and caused a bit of media frenzy – first over Rick Perry’s debate flub on television, followed immediately by Herman Cain’s floundering on a question. A moment like this can happen to the best of us, whether it is captured live on national television or in private. The media has focused extensively on these two politicians and their momentary lapses in memory, but perhaps it is time to examine the psychological science of these kinds of brain-freeze moments and why they occur.
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Mom-to-be's mental state may affect child's development
USA Today: A fetus is sensitive to, and can be affected by, the expectant mother's mental state, a new study suggests. University of California, Irvine, researchers recruited pregnant women and tested them for depression before and after they gave birth. The women's babies were tested after birth to assess how well they were developing. Consistency in the mother's mental state appeared to be important to a baby's well-being. Development was best in babies with mothers who were either depression-free or had depression before and after giving birth.
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Anti-Thanksgiving? Complaining can be a good thing
msnbc: If Thanksgiving weekend is a time for gratitude, let's make the weekend before the holiday a time for whining. Actually, two studies out this week explore the upside of negative thinking. Sometimes, believing that everything's the worst can ultimately be for the best, the research suggests. Fun fact 1: Complaining can help inspire people to change a bad situation. “In order to actually change the system, you’ve got to know what’s wrong with it,” says India Johnson, a graduate student at Ohio State University who helped lead a study set to appear in the journal Psychological Science.
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Lost in the Shopping Center
You go to the mall to buy one pair of jeans and leave with your jeans plus new shoes, a pretzel, and a couple of magazines. Sound familiar? Watch Marc Fennell of Hungry Beast explain how store design can encourage impulse buying — and why Ikea shoppers in particular tend to overbuy. According to Alan Penn of University College London, Ikea really is designed like a maze. You can read more about Penn’s research from Daily Mail and the Telegraph. If you’re looking for tips on orienting yourself and escaping from maze-like buildings, Laura A.
