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The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience and the Science of Persuasion
Scientific American: On the heels of the decade of the brain and the development of neuroimaging, it is nearly impossible to open a science magazine or walk through a bookstore without encountering images of the human brain. As prominent neuroscientist, Martha Farah, remarked “Brain images are the scientific icon of our age, replacing Bohr’s planetary atom as the symbol of science”. The rapid rise to prominence of cognitive neuroscience has been accompanied by an equally swift rise in practitioners and snake oil salesmen who make promises that neuroimaging cannot yet deliver.
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Disaster Relief Donations Track Number of People Killed, Not Survivors
People pay more attention to the number of people killed in a natural disaster than to the number of survivors when deciding how much money to donate to disaster relief efforts, according to new research
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‘Everyday sadists’ receive emotional boost from seeing others suffer, studies show
National Post: Two new studies show that people who score high on a measure of sadism seem to enjoy pleasure from behaviours that hurt others, and are even willing to spend extra effort to make someone else suffer. New research led by psychological scientist Erin Buckels of the University of British Columbia suggests that everyday sadism is real and more common than previously thought. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Parents’ Music Shapes the Way Kids Think, Study Finds
The Wall Street Journal: Today’s music fans have more positive memories of the songs of their parents’ generation than had been previously thought, according to a study published in the current edition of Psychological Science.
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Don’t waste your time: The best and worst study techniques
The Journal News: Are you highlighter happy? If so, you can blame that B- on the bright fluorescent pink, yellow and greens lines running through your textbooks. When it comes to study techniques, highlighters, mnemonics and re-reading just don’t make the grade, according to a report released by the Association for Psychological Science. In the report, Professor John Dunlosky of Kent State University and a team of psychological scientists reviewed the scientific evidence for 10 learning techniques commonly used by students. So what gets an A+, or as the report puts it, “high utility”?
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When Teams Lose, Fans Tackle Fatty Foods
The New York Times: When Vinnie Richichi started watching the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home opener against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday, he was feeling great. After all, the Steelers had won their first home game six years in a row. Then things indeed went south. “The worse they looked, the more I kept going to the fridge,” recalled Mr. Richichi, a co-host of a sports talk show on KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh. “First a couple of Hot Pockets. By the second quarter I threw in a box of White Castle hamburgers. As the game progressed, I just went through the refrigerator: the more fear, the more emotion, I’m chomping down. But I’m not going near the salad or the yogurt.
