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Longer Acquaintance Levels the Romantic Playing Field
Partners who become romantically involved soon after meeting tend to be more similar in physical attractiveness than partners who get together after knowing each other for a while, according to new findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our results indicate that perceptions of beauty in a romantic partner might change with time, as individuals get to know one another better before they start dating,” says lead researcher Lucy Hunt of the University of Texas at Austin.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Perceived Partner Responsiveness Predicts Diurnal Cortisol Profiles 10 Years Later Richard B. Slatcher, Emre Selcuk, and Anthony D. Ong Decades of research has shown that marriage affects health; however, few studies have actually investigated how marriage "gets under the skin" to influence biological and psychological health. The authors hypothesized that cortisol might provide this link. Cortisol has a diurnal rhythm, peaking in the morning and decreasing over the course of the day. Research has linked flatter cortisol slopes to a host of negative psychological and psychological outcomes.
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Holding on to the Blues: Depressed Individuals May Fail to Decrease Sadness
Given that depression is characterized by intense and frequent negative feelings, like sadness, it might seem logical to develop interventions that target those negative feelings. But new research suggests that even when depressed people have the opportunity to decrease their sadness, they don’t necessarily try to do so. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our findings show that, contrary to what we might expect, depressed people sometimes choose to behave in a manner that increases rather than decreases their sadness,” says the study's first author Yael Millgram of The Hebrew University.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Reduced Prospective Motor Control in 10-Month-Olds at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder Therese L. Ekberg, Terje Falck-Ytter, Sven Bölte, Gustaf Gredebäck, and the EASE Team Prospective motor control (i.e., the ability to plan actions related to future events) is not a central part of Autism Spectrum diagnosis (ASD); however, many people who have an ASD display deficits in this ability. The researchers examined prospective motor control in 10-month-olds who did (high-risk group) or did not (low-risk group) have siblings with an ASD.
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Medical Resources Allocated Equally Across Groups, but More Efficiently Across Individuals
People make dramatically different decisions about who should receive hypothetical transplant organs depending on whether the potential recipients are presented as individuals or as part of a larger group, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that when recipients are considered in groups, people tend to allocate organs equally across the groups, ignoring information about the patients’ chances of success.
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Attention to Angry Faces May Predict Future Depression
Using eye-tracking technology, researchers have found that women with a history of depression tend to spend more time looking at the angry faces compared to women with no history of depression.