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Seasick? Look to the Horizon for Help
If you have a weak stomach and find yourself in rough seas, this may prove immensely important: Research by Thomas A. Stoffregen of the University of Minnesota published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that looking to the horizon may in fact help stabilize your posture (and possibly your stomach). Stoffregen and his coauthors, Anthony M. Mayo and Michael G. Wade, know how much an individual on average rocks back and forth in normal situations – roughly four centimeters every 12 to 15 seconds. They have been studying body sway for decades. In order to see how life on the sea affects these tendencies, Stoffregen tagged along with a series of U.S.
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Mean Girls and Queen Bees: Females Under Threat of Social Exclusion Respond by Excluding Others First
Many studies have suggested that males tend to be more physically and verbally aggressive than females. According to a new study, to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, it may not be the case that women are less competitive than men—they may just be using a different strategy to come out ahead. Specifically, women may rely more on indirect forms of aggression, such as social exclusion. To investigate how men and women respond when faced with a social threat, psychological scientist Joyce F.
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Harvard Thinks Big
The Wall Street Journal: Who needs TED, when you’ve got a faculty like ours? That must have been what Harvard students were thinking when they came up with Harvard Thinks Big, an event that bears more than a passing resemblance to the TED gatherings that promise “riveting talks by remarkable people.” Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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People With Low Self-Esteem Show More Signs of Prejudice
When people are feeling badly about themselves, they're more likely to show bias against people who are different. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, examines how that works. “This is one of the oldest accounts of why people stereotype and have prejudice: It makes us feel better about ourselves,” says Jeffrey Sherman of the University of California, Davis, who wrote the study with Thomas Allen.
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Talk Therapy May Help Treat Social Anxiety
WebMD: A 12-week course of talk therapy, when used to treat social anxiety disorder, produces changes in the electrical activity of the brain, according to new research. The findings appear in Psychological Science. Symptoms of social phobia or social anxiety disorder include anxiety and self-consciousness in everyday social situations. This anxiety may also have associated physical symptoms such as sweating, nausea, and difficulty speaking. In some, the anxiety is limited to a specific situation, such as public speaking. In other people, it becomes so overwhelming and debilitating they can no longer leave the house. Read the whole story: WebMD
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Emotions drive us to do the right or wrong
The Times of India: A new study has shown that it's our emotions that drive us to do a right or wrong thing. A study by Rimma Teper, Michael Inzlicht, and Elizabeth Page-Gould of the University of Toronto Scarborough tested the difference between moral forecasting and moral action—and the reasons behind any mismatch. They found that emotions such as fear, love or guilt play a big role in determining our actions but when people are contemplating how they'll act, "they don't have a good grasp of the intensity of the emotions they will feel" in the breach, says Teper, so they misjudge what they'll do. Read the whole story: The Times of India
