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Virtual Avatars May Impact Real-World Behavior
How you represent yourself in the virtual world of video games may affect how you behave toward others in the real world, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our results indicate that just five minutes of role-play in virtual environments as either a hero or villain can easily cause people to reward or punish anonymous strangers,” says lead researcher Gunwoo Yoon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Auditory Processing in Growth-Restricted Fetuses and Newborns and Later Language Development Barbara S. Kisilevsky, Beverly Chambers, Kevin C. H. Parker, and Gregory A. L. Davies Past research has found that children who are born small for their gestational age are at risk for language deficits. In the first of three studies, fetuses that were of average size for their gestational age (AGA) were played audio recordings of a passage of text being read by their mothers.
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Heart Disease Risk Linked With Spouses’ Social Support
Matters of the heart can influence actual heart health, according to new research. A study from researchers at the University of Utah shows that the ways in which your spouse is supportive -- and how you support your spouse -- can actually have significant bearing on your overall cardiovascular health. The findings reveal that when both partners perceive the support they get from each other as ambivalent -- that is, sometimes helpful and sometimes upsetting– each partner’s levels of coronary artery calcification (CAC) tend to be particularly high. These results are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Wider-Faced Dates More Attractive as Short-Term Mates
Women may perceive men with wider faces as more dominant and more attractive for short-term relationships, according to a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our study shows that within three minutes of meeting in real life, women find more dominant, wider-faced men attractive for short-term relationships, and want to go on another date with them,” says psychological scientist and lead researcher Katherine Valentine of Singapore Management University. According to Valentine, there’s considerable academic debate about whether physical dominance is advantageous in mating – that is, actually attractive to women.
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For Athletes, There’s No Place Like Home
Research on sports and athletic competition suggests that there is scientific support for the idea of a “home field advantage.”
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For Infants, Stress May be Caught, Not Taught
Babies not only pick up on their mother’s stress, they also show corresponding physiological changes, research shows.
