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This Just In: Study Shows Songs About Sex Are Hot Sellers
The New York Times: Psychologists sometimes have a way of proving what you always suspected was true. A recent study of popular song lyrics done at the State University of New York in Albany shows not only that messages about sexual relationships dominate the songs at the top of the charts, but also that songs about sex sell better than other songs. Perhaps more surprising were the study’s findings on the gaps between genres. The authors of the study, Dawn R. Hobbs and Gordon G. Gallup Jr., found a large difference between the “reproductive messages” embedded in country music and those found in pop and R&B.
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Can You Raise Your IQ? Yes, If You Think You Can
ABC News: If you think you can, you probably can. If you think you can't, you probably can't. New research shows that it's how you think about your level of intelligence and your ability to grow that determines how quickly you can correct even a minor error and move on. The work suggests that it's not whether you can pump your IQ up a notch or two, but whether you think you can that really matters. Psychologists at Michigan State University in East Lansing conducted a series of experiments to see if "mind set" makes a difference in how humans process and react to mistakes. And it turns out that it not only makes a difference, it does so almost instantaneously.
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The Upside to Embarrassment
National Geographic: If you’re the sort of person who turns red at the mere thought of committing a social faux pas, scientists have some reassuring news for you. A recent study by psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley found that people who are easily embarrassed are more likely to be trusted than individuals who are harder to fluster.
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You Can Wash Away Your Troubles, With Soap
“Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain,” goes the song. Is there such a thing as soap and water for the psyche? Yes: Metaphor is that powerful, say Spike W.S. Lee and Norbert Schwarz of the University of Michigan in a literature review appearing in the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. Religious rites like baptism make psychological sense, the article suggests. Says Lee: “Cleansing is about the removal of residues.” By washing the hands, taking a shower, or even thinking of doing so, “people can rid themselves of a sense of immorality, lucky or unlucky feelings, or doubt about a decision.
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Is Serena Williams angry or ecstatic? Context is everything in reading facial emotion, say psychologists
The Daily Mail: With her mouth is wide open, teeth bared and eyes pressed tensely shut, tennis star Serena Williams looks a picture of pure anger in this close-up photograph. Has she just lost the final of a Grand Slam? Or perhaps had to withdraw through injury? Or is she, in fact, ecstatically happy? When the image is widened out to include her body language the answer is made more clear. The pumped fist is an indicator of her happiness and, as it happens, this photograph was actually taken at the moment she defeated her sister Venus at the 2008 U.S. Open.
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Music Training Enhances Children’s Verbal Intelligence
Miller-McCune: A just published study from Canada suggests early music education stimulates a child’s brain, leading to improved performance in an entirely different arena – verbal intelligence. “These results are dramatic not only because they clearly connect cognitive improvement to musical training, but also because the improvements in language and attention are found in completely different domains than the one used for training,” said York University psychologist Ellen Bialystok, one of the paper’s co-authors. “This has enormous implications for development and education.” Read the full story: Miller-McCune
