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Unhappiness Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Science: A smile and a frown mean the same thing everywhere—or so say many anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists, who for more than a century have argued that all humans express basic emotions the same way. But a new study of people's perceptions of computer-generated faces suggests that facial expressions may not be universal and that our culture strongly shapes the way we read and express emotions. The hypothesis that facial expressions convey the same meaning the world over goes all the way back to Charles Darwin.
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Born This Way
New York Magazine: A few weeks before the 2008 election, Democratic strategists were running out of ideas for how to help Al Franken. His race against incumbent Minnesota senator Norm Coleman was a stubborn one: Even after some of the country’s highest ever per capita spending, the contest remained close, with a small number of undecided, seemingly unbudgeable voters. The job of pollsters in these situations is to figure out who the undecided actually are and what could make them move. Often, they focus on demographics (playing to older suburban women) or issues (talk of school reform).
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Going the Distance: Stereotypes and Hard Work
I plead guilty to trading in stereotypes. For example, I’ve somehow gotten the idea that East Africans are especially good distance runners, and I think I’ve even said as much on a few occasions. But I don’t know this to be true. I’ve never done the work to verify that East Africans are statistically superior at distance running. It just seems that every time I flip on ESPN and happen on a long-distance event, an East African is winning. This kind of stereotyping seems harmless enough, but is it? I intend it with admiration rather than disrespect, but new research suggests that my intentions may be irrelevant, as irrelevant as the truth or falsity of the stereotype.
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Association for Psychological Science, SAGE Launch Clinical Psychological Science
Association for Psychological Science’s new journal opens new field of science WASHINGTON (April 23, 2012) – The Association for Psychological Science and SAGE announce the launch of Clinical Psychological Science, a new peer-reviewed journal focused on publishing advances in clinical science and providing a venue for cutting-edge research across a wide range of conceptual views, approaches, and topics. This is the APS’s fifth scholarly journal, joining Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, and Perspectives on Psychological Science.
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Niceness Is at Least Partly in the Genes
What makes some people give blood and bake casseroles for their neighbors, while others mutter about taxes from behind closed blinds? A new paper published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science finds that part of the answer—but not all—may be in their genes. The hormones oxytocin and vasopressin are thought to affect how people behave toward each other. For example, lab tests have found that people play nicer in economic games after having oxytocin squirted up their nose. “This is an attempt to take this into the real world a little bit,” says Michael Poulin, of the University at Buffalo.
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Empathy may be negated by political party
United Press International: People may lack empathy for those who are hungry or cold if they perceive them to be of another political party, U.S. researchers said. Study co-authors Ed O'Brien and Phoebe C. Ellsworth, both of the University of Michigan, and colleagues approached people who were waiting for a bus in winter in Ann Arbor, Mich. Each was given a short story to read about a person who went hiking in winter but got lost with no food, water or extra clothes. In one version of the story, the hiker was a left-wing, pro-gay rights Democrat, while in another it was a Republican proponent of traditional marriage. Read the whole story: United Press International
