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Girls’ fear of math debunked, study suggests
CBC News: While girls tend to say they feel anxious about doing math, they are not actually much more anxious than their male counterparts during math classes or exams, according to new research by German and Canadian researchers. Researchers from Humboldt University Berlin, the University of Munich and McGill University in Montreal say they've identified a key failing in previous studies that said girls are far more apprehensive about doing math than their male peers. Previous studies asked students about generalized perceptions of mathematics anxiety rather than asking them directly about their anxiety while doing math.
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Food Is Tastier When Part of a Ritual
Scientific American: Food can taste better when you’re really hungry. Now a study reveals another condition that can enhance the flavor of a meal: when it’s part of a ritual. Scientists asked volunteers to eat some chocolate. They told one group to relax for a few minutes, then eat the chocolate in any way they wanted. But another group was given these instructions: “Without unwrapping the chocolate bar, break it in half. Unwrap half of the bar and eat it. Then, unwrap the other half and eat it.” Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Selfish U.S.?: Study says country becoming more self-centered
CBS: New research shows that as culture has evolved over the last two centuries — with increasing urbanization, greater reliance on technology, and widespread availability of formal education — so has human psychology. Listen to the whole story: CBS
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Young Adults Reminisce About Music From Before Their Time
Research suggests that young adults today are fond of and have an emotional connection to the music that was popular for their parents’ generation.
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Understanding trypophobia: Why some people fear holes
CBS: A growing number of people are reporting a fear of holes. The reaction is so severe that even seeing photos of holes can set off a panic attack. The condition is called trypophobia. According to the website Trypophobia.com, "Trypophobia is a weird kind of phobia and it can generally be considered as the fear of shapes. We are talking especially by the shapes created by nature." Until recently, it didn't garner much attention from scientists or doctors. But now, a study in the journal Psychological Science attempts to explain the fear.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. From Glue to Gasoline: How Competition Turns Perspective Takers Unethical Jason R. Pierce, Gavin J. Kilduff, Adam D. Galinsky, and Niro Sivanathan Perspective taking is thought be beneficial for social interactions. In the second of four studies examining whether this is always true, participants were asked to imagine they were going to engage in a negotiation with a person they had cooperated with (cooperation condition) or competed against (competition condition) in the past. Participants were asked to imagine the negotiation from their own (baseline) or the other person's (perspective-taking) point of view.
