-
Context helps interpret facial emotions accurately
MSN India: A close up shows Serena Williams' eyes tensely shut; her mouth wide open, teeth bared and her face livid. Now zoom out: The tennis star is on the court, racquet in hand, fist clenched in victory. She's not angry. She's ecstatic, having just beaten her sister Venus at the 2008 US Open. Context helps interpret facial emotions accurately, according to this research. 'Strip away the context, and it is difficult to accurately perceive emotion in a face,' argues Lisa Feldman Barrett, psychologist at the Northwestern University and Harvard, who led the study. Read the full story: MSN India
-
Teens Get Smarter as They Age, Especially the Older Ones
International Business Times: Parents need not worry on the mental advancement of their teens as a U.S. study showed that adolescence actually breeds more excellence, thanks much to years of learning and experience. Results of a research work published on September by the medical journal Psychological Science pointed to suggestions that regular teens, with sufficient stimulus and nutrition, are bound to undergo mental faculty enhancement.
-
In Reading Facial Emotion, Context Is Everything
In a close-up headshot, Serena Williams’ eyes are pressed tensely closed; her mouth is wide open, teeth bared. Her face looks enraged. Now zoom out: The tennis star is on the court, racket in hand, fist clenched in victory. She’s not angry. She’s ecstatic, having just beaten her sister Venus at the 2008 U.S. Open. “Humans are exquisitely sensitive to context, and that can very dramatically shape what is seen in a face,” says psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard School of Medicine.
-
Do Baboons Monkey With Metaphors?
The Wall Street Journal: Monkeys can reason by using analogy, it seems. In an experiment recently reported in the journal Psychological Science, baboons in a lab proved capable of realizing that a pair of oval shapes is "like" a pair of square shapes and "unlike" a pair made of two different shapes. This finding suggests that you can have analogy without language.
-
‘Self-compassion’ can help divorced people heal
USA Today: Self-compassion can help the newly divorced get through one of the most difficult periods of their lives, researchers suggest. They explained that self-compassion -- a combination of kindness toward oneself, recognition of common humanity, and the ability to let painful emotions pass -- "can promote resilience and positive outcomes in the face of divorce." University of Arizona researchers studied 38 men and 67 women with an average age of 40 who had been married for more than 13 years and were divorced an average of three to four months. Those who had higher levels of kindness to themselves were able to recover faster from the emotional effects of divorce.
-
Being Easily Embarrassed Could Make You More Trustworthy
The Huffington Post: Easily embarrassed? That could make you more trustworthy, a new study suggests. People who are easily embarrassed -- not to be confused with people with social anxiety or constant feelings of shame -- were shown in several experiments to be more generous, trustworthy and desirable in social situations, according to a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Moderate levels of embarrassment are signs of virtue," study researcher Matthew Feinberg, a doctoral student in psychology at University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.
