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Even Strangers Can Make You Feel Left Out
msn: The need for a connection to other people is so powerful that being ignored by a stranger can make someone feel left out, according to a new study. People need to feel they are part of a group or connected to others in order to be happy, the researchers explained. This sense of belonging can come from joining a club, a friendly neighbor or -- as this study reveals -- even eye contact from a stranger. In conducting the study, researchers randomly chose people walking on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette, Ind. A research assistant either looked them in the eye, looked them in the eye and smiled or looked in their general direction but not directly at them.
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Qual o sexo da voz de Deus?
Yahoo! Brasil: Essa pergunta tem sido feita por místicos através das eras, mas no santuário do cinema a voz sonora, de autoridade, que inspira medo e ao mesmo tempo uma presença familiar é, invariavelmente, masculina. Lembre-se dos trailers e da voz onisciente, sem corpo, que introduz os espectadores ao mundo ficcional. "A maioria dos trailers de filmes são barulhentos e fortes e os estúdios querem um impacto masculino, tanto no vocal quanto na temática", disse Jeff Danis, representante de dubladores, "Mesmo se for uma comédia romântica ou filme sem ação, eles ainda querem mostrar um certo poder e drama que a voz masculina tende a transmitir em maior escala".
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Thinking Outside the Box — Literally
The Wall Street Journal: Just how potent is the metaphor “thinking outside the box”? To find out, researchers built a literal box out of PVC pipe and cardboard — 5′ cubed. Roughly 100 test subjects were given a 10-question word-association test designed to measure one kind of creativity (sample item: What one word links “measure,” “worm,” “video”?). As they answered, participants sat inside the box, sat outside of it, or sat in a room sans box. People sitting outside the box answered more questions correctly than either of the other two groups (and the difference couldn’t be explained by claustrophobia or confusion, both of which were measured).
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Stay awake chaps! Pillow talk really does matter to the ladies
Daily Mail: It is easy to dismiss as just sweet nothings, but the key to relationship happiness may be in your pillow talk. Scientists have found that women whose partners finish off a night of passion by immediately turning over and nodding off are left feeling insecure and craving affection. Psychologists at the University of Michigan said cuddling and talking after sex is a crucial way for a couple to express their commitment to each other. In relationship terms, they say it could be just as important as what happens before sex, or even the act itself. They questioned 456 heterosexual people, who completed online surveys about their sleep patterns with their partner.
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Facebook is Not Such a Good Thing for Those with Low Self-Esteem
In theory, the social networking website Facebook could be great for people with low self-esteem. Sharing is important for improving friendships. But in practice, people with low self-esteem seem to behave counterproductively, bombarding their friends with negative tidbits about their lives and making themselves less likeable, according to a new study which will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “We had this idea that Facebook could be a really fantastic place for people to strengthen their relationships,” says Amanda Forest, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo. She cowrote the new study with her advisor, Joanne Wood.
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The Perils of ‘Bite Size’ Science
The New York Times: In recent years, a trend has emerged in the behavioral sciences toward shorter and more rapidly published journal articles. These articles are often only a third the length of a standard paper, often describe only a single study and tend to include smaller data sets. Shorter formats are promoted by many journals, and limits on article length are stringent — in many cases as low as 2,000 words. This shift is partly a result of the pressure that academics now feel to generate measurable output. According to the cold calculus of “publish or perish,” in which success is often gauged by counting citations, three short articles can be preferable to a single longer one.
