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Men and women perceive risks differently
Yahoo India: The results of a new study have challenged the assumption that women take fewer risks than men, and that adolescents do not consider consequences when making decisions. The new findings depict that the reality of who takes risks and when goes beyond stereotypes. It reveals how adolescents can be as cool-headed as adults, and in some realms, women take more risks than men. The study, conducted by Bernd Figner, research scientist at the Centre for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School, and Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the University of Amsterdam; and Professor Elke Weber, Co-Director, Centre for Decision Sciences and the Jerome A.
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Spoiler Alert! Knowing the End of a Story Makes It Better, Study Finds
TIME: We might have to change the name of "spoilers" to "giveaways." They may not be that bad after all. A recent study shows that people enjoy movies, books and other stories when they know the ending ahead of time. Nicholas Christenfeld, a University of California, San Diego professor of social psychology, along with Jonathan Leavitt, a PhD candidate at UC San Diego studying psychology, organized an experiment where volunteers were given three stories of different genres, written by well-known authors such as John Updike and Anton Chekhov.
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Spoiler Alert: Stories Not Ruined if Ending Revealed
ABC News: Spoiler alert: This story has a happy ending. If it were a suspense novel, would knowing that make you enjoy it less? To their surprise, psychology researchers found that people rated stories higher if they knew how they came out. Whoa -- can ruining the surprise make a story more enjoyable? That's what Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt found, and Christenfeld says he was at first stumped. Leavitt is getting his doctorate in psychology at the University of California at San Diego, and Christenfeld is a professor there. Read the whole story: ABC News
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Wealthy lack empathy, generosity of lower classes, study finds
Edmonton Journal: Turns out, the rich really are different. But not necessarily in the ways we assume. Though economically privileged, people from upper-class backgrounds consistently display deficits in empathy, social engagement, generosity and sensitivity as compared to those from the lower classes. The differences in behaviour are so marked, in fact, that neutral observers can detect a person's socioeconomic background based on 60 seconds of interaction. The findings, published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, have researchers concluding that wealth comes at considerable personal cost - and that being poor isn't without its wages.
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How The Visual System Constructs Moving Objects: One by One
Although our eyes record the word as millions of pixels, “the visual system is fantastic at giving us a world that looks like objects, not pixels,” says Northwestern University psychologist Steven L. Franconeri. It does this by grouping areas of the world with similar characteristics, such as color, shape, or motion. The process is so seamless that we feel we’re taking it all in simultaneously. But this, says a new study by Franconeri and his colleague Brian R. Levinthal, is “an illusion.” Instead, they say, that for some types of grouping, the visual system is limited by its ability to perceive only one group at a time.
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Surprise! Spoilers don’t spoil stories: Study
Toronto Sun: With so many sources of information available to us every day, it's hard to avoid finding out who won the hockey game you PVR'd last night or how the last Harry Potter book ends. But there's no need to plug your ears or stay off the Internet, because a new study found that knowing the outcome doesn't ruin a story - in fact, it enhances our enjoyment of it. Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt, of University of California San Diego's psychology department, say people who flip to the end of the book first have the right idea.
