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Why Are Area 51 Conspiracy Theories So Popular? Here’s What Psychologists Say
Here’s hoping there are aliens at Area 51. For one thing: they probably have cool spaceships. For another, the extraterrestrials are said to have arrived in 1947, so if they were going to eat us, they likely would have done so by now. Finally, answer this question: What’s more interesting, a world with aliens or a world without them? Area 51 has been much in the news lately, ever since the June 27 launch of the Facebook page named “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” The crowdsourced semi-satirical raid on the secretive Air Force base is scheduled for Sept. 20 at 3:00 a.m.
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Psychologists proved their value to political campaigns with one fundraising trick
In the last decade, psychological advisors have gone from an oddity to standard feature of major political campaigns. Back in 2008, when Barack Obama turned to a group of behavioral scientists to help him win the United States presidential election, their worth was yet unproven. Little is known about the academic group, who were unpaid and rarely give interviews on their political work.
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A psychologist explains why everyone is obsessed with a new viral app that shows what you’ll look like when you’re old
If you've ever wanted to find out how you'll look in, say, 40 years, you can do it on a controversial app that's going viral, FaceApp. ... To learn about these effects, Business Insider spoke with William Chopik, social-personality psychologist and professor at Michigan State University, who said that the filter may be good for coming to terms with old age, but, like other social media, it might appeal to users' vanity. "People are naturally drawn to know more about themselves," Chopik told Business Insider. "Life is really uncertain, so any type of feedback that helps us predict what the future is like is useful."
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Want To Feel Happier Today? Try Talking To A Stranger
The doors open wide, you enter, and they close behind you. As the elevator begins its ascent, you realize it's just you and one other person taking this ride. The silence soon grows uncomfortable. Pop quiz. What's your go-to move? A) Stare at your shoes. B) Pull out your cellphone. C) Make brief eye contact. D) Initiate chitchat. ... Social anxiety, however, could be preventing these types of interactions, says Nicholas Epley, a University of Chicago behavioral scientist. One day, during a daily train ride, he noticed something paradoxical. People — social creatures — were basically ignoring one another.
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What your spending habits say about who you are
Decisions on how you spend your money can signal key traits about your personality, according to a new study. People who tend to be neurotic typically spend less on mortgage payments than others, for instance. On the theory that consumers use money to express themselves as individuals, researchers at University College London and Columbia University analyzed spending by more than 2,000 consumers in the U.K. who agreed to provide their financial data for analysis. Overall, the researchers analyzed more than 2 million spending records, including purchases made at Amazon and British supermarkets like Tesco.
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You Are Probably Overconfident. (If You Skip This, Doubly So.)
When I lived in the mountains of Utah, I used to ski in the backcountry often. This is not resort skiing, and there is no patrol checking for avalanche risk, so assessing that risk becomes your own responsibility. It is an imprecise science, and there is always a chance you’ll get it wrong. But the more my friends and I skied, the more certain we were of our ability to get it right. Here’s what happened over and over again: 1. We’d get to a slope, assess the risk and decide to ski. 2. We’d get to the bottom safe and sound. 3. We’d pat ourselves on the back for being so good at judging avalanche danger. 4. Repeat.
