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Is Free Will Just an Illusion?
NPR Science Friday: What would it mean to live in a world in which people are simply mechanical devices responding to natural laws beyond their control, bobbing like corks in a sea of causes? If determinism is true, then the consequences are profound. First, we would need to radically overhaul our conception of moral responsibility. After all, if the choice you make in a given situation is preordained—is the only choice you can make—then what are we to do about blame? Absent the capacity to choose, according to a school of thought called hard determinism, there cannot be any blame. And if no one can be blamed, no one is morally deserving of punishment.
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Warum sich Frauen Gesichter besser merken (Why do women remember faces better)
ORF Austria: "Die Art und Weise, wie unser Blick über Gesichter streift, beeinflusst unsere Fähigkeit, jemanden wiederzuerkennen", sagt Jennifer Heisz von der McMaster University in Kanada. Sie hat soeben Frauen und Männern Bilder von Gesichtern am Computer präsentiert und ihre Reaktionen per Eye-Tracking-Technologie verglichen. Wie Heisz im Fachblatt "Psychological Science" schreibt, blicken Frauen offenbar mehr auf neue Gesichter als Männer es tun und sie nehmen auch mehr Details wahr - allerdings ohne es zu wissen: "Menschen sind sich in der Regel nicht bewusst, wo sie ihren Blick fixieren." Read the whole story: ORF Austria
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Physical Environment, Dishonesty Linked In New ‘Embodied Cognition’ Research
The Huffington Post: Sitting in the wrong chair can certainly send you to the chiropractor -- but can it make you a crook? That question's not as far-fetched as you might imagine. Provocative new studies link dishonesty with sprawling on a big chair or at a big desk. ... "Power causes you to focus on rewards and take risks to achieve those gains," Dr. Andy Yap, postdoctoral associate and visiting assistant professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, told The Huffington Post in an email. "If you hang a carrot in front of a powerful person (assuming they like carrots), they will act on it, take risks, or cheat and do whatever it takes to get it." Read the whole story: The Huffington Post
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The Long-Term Cost of Short-Term Stress
Youbeauty: Life throws you curveballs all the time. Some are big—like divorce and downsizing—and some fall into the category of run-of-the-mill daily stress—spilling coffee on your laptop, say, or getting your driver’s license renewed. While it may seem that major traumas are clearly more meaningful in the long run than minor annoyances, research shows that it’s our reactions to these events, not the events themselves, that predict our future wellbeing. In fact, while you may barely remember the latte-laptop incident of 2003, how you dealt with it at the time might be an important factor in how you feel right now. ...
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. Temporary Deafness Can Impair Multisensory Integration: A Study of Cochlear-Implant Users Simon P. Landry, Jean-Paul Guillemot, and François Champoux Does temporary deafness in adults disrupt other multisensory processes? Participants who had or had not experienced a period of deafness performed a nonspeech task meant to illicit an audiotactile illusion. Participants without a history of hearing loss experienced the audiotactile illusion, whereas those with restored hearing did not. This suggests that the maintenance of audiotactile processes might require an uninterrupted bond between the two modalities.
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Your Friends Are More Important Than You Think
Yahoo: On May 14, 1998, my life changed quite substantially: "Seinfeld" ended. At that time, I felt like I lost some of my closest friends. In fact, until I discovered that I could watch an unlimited amount of re-runs, I felt like I was missing a part of myself. Maybe you've felt this way about a TV show-perhaps the recent ending of "The Office" has spurred these feelings. More seriously, I am sure you've felt this sense of emptiness when a friend has moved or when someone has passed away or even after a breakup. ... Indeed, psychological science has known for quite some time that we define ourselves-that is, we come to know who we are as a person-through our closest relationships.
