New Research From Psychological Science

Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science:

Five-Month-Old Infants Have General Knowledge of How Nonsolid Substances Behave and Interact

Susan J. Hespos, Alissa L. Ferry, Erin M. Anderson, Emily N. Hollenbeck, and Lance J. Rips

Research has shown that infants have a sophisticated understanding of the properties of objects, but it is less clear whether infants develop a similar understanding of nonsolid objects. Four- and 5-month-old infants were habituated to the sight of a solid object or the sight of a nonsolid substance (sand or liquid). The infants watched as researchers tipped the solid object and the nonsolid substance from one glass into another glass containing a grid. The nonsolid substance moved through the grid, while the solid object was stopped by the grid. Infants looked longer at the novel event than at the one they were familiar with, and no difference was found in the learning curves for habituation to the solid object and to the nonsolid substance. These results suggest that expectations about nonsolid substances emerge early and may be similar to those created for solid objects.

Internalized Impressions: The Link Between Apparent Facial Trustworthiness and Deceptive Behavior Is Mediated by Targets’ Expectations of How They Will Be Judged

Michael L. Slepian and Daniel R. Ames

Can a person’s behavior be predicted by his or her face? Independent judges rated the trustworthiness of participants’ faces before participants completed an interaction task in which they could behave in a trustworthy (i.e., telling the truth) or untrustworthy (i.e., lying) manner. Before completing the interaction, participants predicted how they would be judged by their partner during the task and how they would act during the interaction. Raters’ photograph-based judgments of trustworthiness predicted participants’ expectations of how they would be judged and in turn how they intended to act. Participants’ intentions to act predicted the trustworthiness of their actual behavior. These findings are consistent with the internalized-impressions account, in which people become used to being treated in a trustworthy or untrustworthy manner, internalize these expectations, and act in accordance with them.