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This is why your brain wants to swear
The Guardian: Most of the time, words behave themselves. They're just a useful arrangement of sounds in our mouths, or letters on a page. They have no intrinsic power to offend. If I told you that skloop was a vile swearword in some foreign language, with the power to empty rooms and force ministerial resignations, you might laugh. How could an arbitrary combination of sounds have such force? But then think of the worst swearwords in your own language and you quickly understand that something else is at play here. Our reaction to them is instant and emotional.
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A face doesn’t speak for itself
Aljazeera: It is common sense — espoused by “Sesame Street” and psychology textbooks alike — that humans have distinct emotions, each with characteristic expressions. When you’re angry, you furrow your brow and yell. When you’re sad, you frown and cry. Charles Darwin hypothesized that human emotions have evolved just as physical features have, and the psychologist Paul Ekman, known for his work on microexpressions, has traveled the world showing that people everywhere recognize the same facial movements as expressing the same emotions — anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. A few psychologists, including Lisa Barrett of Northeastern University, are upending this view.
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Cap’n Crunch Is Looking at You
The New York Times: Walking through the cereal aisle, you would be justified in feeling you were being watched. According to a study published in the journal Environment and Behavior, the characters on cereal boxes gaze at prospective buyers from different angles: an average of 0.4 degrees upward if the cereal is meant for adults, 9.6 degrees downward if it is aimed at children, for a total difference of 10 degrees. The boxes’ positions — generally on the top two shelves for adult brands and the bottom two for children’s — further ensures that those characters catch the eyes of their intended audience.
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ScienceShot: Want to Understand This Article?
Science Magazine: Does reading faster mean reading better? That’s what speed-reading apps claim, promising to boost not just the number of words you read per minute, but also how well you understand a text. There’s just one problem: The same thing that speeds up reading actually gets in the way of comprehension, according to a new study. When you read at your natural pace, your eyes move back and forth across a sentence, rather than plowing straight through to the end. Apps like Spritz or the aptly named Speed Read are built around the idea that these eye movements, called saccades, are a redundant waste of time.
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Justifying Atrocities Alters the Memory
LiveScience: Torture and atrocities are often downplayed by those inflicting the pain. Now, research reveals how attempting to justify the behavior of one's own group literally alters memory. In the new study, people from the United States listened to accounts of torture and war crimes shared by Afghani or American soldiers. Researchers found that the listeners clung to their memories of the justifications for these crimes only if they heard another American telling the tale. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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To Get Help From A Little Kid, Ask The Right Way
NPR: Motivating children to stop playing and help out with chores isn't exactly an easy sell, as most parents and teachers will attest. But how you ask can make all the difference, psychologists say. If you say something like, "Please help me," the kids are more likely to keep playing with their Legos. But ask them, "Please be a helper," and they'll be more responsive, researchers report Wednesday in the journal Child Development. Being called a helper makes kids feel like they're embodying a virtue, says Christopher Bryan, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego and one of the researchers behind the study. Read the whole story: NPR
