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Why people with a European background can’t help but judge a book by its cover
The Daily Mail: It is often said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But it seems that some of us can’t help but do just that. A study found people from European backgrounds are more likely to be guilty of jumping to conclusions than those with an Asian heritage. And brain scans show that these cultural differences are embedded deep within people’s minds. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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How a bottle of hand sanitizer can make you conservative
The Toronto Star: Just standing next to a bottle of hand sanitizer brings out the conservative in people, a Cornell University study has found. And just looking at a reminder to wash your hands can bring out the sexual puritan, according to the research in the journal Psychological Science. “It is weird,” allows study co-author Erik Helzer, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology. “These results suggest that everyday reminders of cleanliness (“Employees must wash hands before returning to work” signs or hand sanitation stations) may have unintended effects on people’s social attitudes.” Read the whole story: The Toronto Star
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Too Much Trauma
Newsweek: First Japan was hit by a triple whammy. The country of 127 million has just endured one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, followed by a shockingly voracious tsunami. Together, these two brutes of nature wreaked havoc on the towns and villages of the northern Japanese coastline. If only the damage had stopped there. When the deadly combo of earthquake and tsunami breached the protective barriers and engulfed one of Japan’s oldest nuclear-power plants, a nuclear nightmare began, one that at this point has shown no clear signs of ending. Then last Thursday a 7.4 quake hit, knocking out power for more than 3 million, and again shaking the country to its core.
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Is it torture? Those who decide have not felt it
Reuters: Those who approve "enhanced interrogation techniques" probably have a flawed idea of whether this constitutes torture, because few have felt the pain these methods can cause, researchers reported Monday. A new study that gave its subjects a mild taste of such interrogation methods as solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and extreme cold found most respondents characterized what they felt as torture. Those who did not experience these techniques but were told about them generally underestimated how much pain they might cause, the researchers found. Read the whole story: Reuters
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Crossing the Line: What Constitutes Torture?
Torture. The United Nations defines it as the “infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” But how severe is severe? That judgment determines whether or not the law classifies an interrogation practice as torture. Now, a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, condemns this method of classification as essentially flawed. The reason: The people estimating the severity of pain aren’t experiencing that pain—so they underestimate it. As a result, many acts of torture are not classified—or prohibited—as torture, say authors, Loran F.
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Physicians May Heal Themselves Differently .
The Wall Street Journal: Doctors weigh treatment options differently when they are deciding for themselves and when they are treating patients, according to a new study. Doctors were more likely to opt for treatments with a higher chance of death—but lower risk of serious side effects—for themselves than for their patients in a survey of 940 primary-care physicians evaluating one of two hypothetical medical scenarios. The results suggest that the "act of making a recommendation changes the psychological processes influencing their decisions," write the authors, from Duke University and the University of Michigan.
