-
Humans’ Aversion to Red Stems from Evolutionary Past
Discovery News: Red can symbolize danger, heat and even anger. It's true: The color's appearance in road signs, stop lights, labels and flushed cheeks often cautions humans to avoid harm. One study even found that Olympic competitors donning red uniforms were more successful at winning events, suggesting the color intimidates competition. And a recent set of experiments featured in the journal Psychological Science indicates humans' apprehension of red may have evolutionary roots, leading to greater consideration of the color's use in human sports and primate habitats.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Do 18-Month-Olds Really Attribute Mental States to Others? A Critical Test Atsushi Senju, Victoria Southgate, Charlotte Snape, Mark Leonard, and Gergely Csibra Studies have suggested that infants can attribute beliefs to other people. In an independent test of this hypothesis, infants were blindfolded with an opaque blindfold (opaque condition) or a transparent blindfold that appeared opaque (trick condition). Then both groups watched a video of an actor wearing a blindfold while a puppet (the white bear) removed a toy from a box.
-
Life is one big priming experiment . . .
One of the most robust ideas to come out of cognitive psychology in recent years is priming. Scientists have shown again and again that they can very subtly cue people’s unconscious minds to think and act certain ways. These cues might be concepts—like cold or fast or elderly—or they might be goals like professional success; either way, these signals shape our behavior, often without any awareness that we are being manipulated. This is humbling, especially when you think about what it means for our everyday beliefs and actions.
-
L’amore in una coppia? È come il tango
Style Italia: Non è il caso di mettersi a "lavorare" da soli per salvare la coppia, quando ci sono dei problemi e il partner non si sta più impegnando. Non servirà. Anzi, è addirittura controproducente che uno dei due sia dia molto da fare, mentre l'altro trascura la relazione. Lo dice la ricerca (pubblicata sull'ultimo numero di "Psychological Science", la rivista della Association for Psychological Science) di sei studiosi, Minda Oriña del St. Olaf College; Andrew Collins, Jeffry Simpson, Jessica Salvatore e John Kim dell'Università del Minnesota e Katherine Haydon della University of Illinois. Leggere piu/Read more: Style Italia
-
The Power of Red
Allure Magazine: Red is not a color you wear when you're feeling shy. You swipe on red lipstick or put on a red dress when you want to be noticed. It's sexy but assertive, not demure. After all, it's also the color of stop signs, of anger, of extreme heat. But where does red get its power? A few new studies aimed to answer that question. The first, published in the upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, asks whether our ideas about the color red are cultural or if they have deeper, biological roots. The authors think it might be a product of evolution, not just convention.
-
IMHO
The New York Times: Humility has a bad reputation. The definition for humility and humbleness in my Random House dictionary includes: “having feelings of insignificance, inferiority, subservience…low in rank, importance, status, quality etc.” But recently I sat in on a panel at the Association for Psychological Science convention where the scholars had a much more appreciative view. June Tangney of George Mason University emphasized that humility is not equivalent to low self-esteem. Rather, the humble person has an accurate view of herself. She can acknowledge her mistakes. She has low self-focus.
