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People Seek Out a Certain Kind of Person When They Are Happy
Heaps of research suggest that social relationships make people happier—but which relationships, specifically? A guilt-ridden afternoon with a mother-in-law might not have the same effect as drinks with a best friend. A “fair-weather friend” stands by your side only during good times. Recently a group of researchers set out to determine whose company we actually seek out when we’re happy or unhappy. Their findings, published this month in the journal Psychological Science, suggest that when times are actually good, the people we turn to aren’t friends at all. They’re strangers.
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Experts Say ‘Emotion Recognition’ Lacks Scientific Foundation
Emotion recognition is a hot new area, with numerous companies peddling products that claim to be able to read people’s internal emotional states, and AI researchers looking to improve computers’ ability to do so. This is done through voice analysis, body language analysis, gait analysis, eye tracking, and remote measurement of physiological signs like pulse and breathing rates. Most of all, though, it’s done through analysis of facial expressions. A new study, however, strongly suggests that these products are built on a bed of intellectual quicksand. The key question is whether human emotions can be reliably determined from facial expressions.
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Too Late To Apologize – Unless You Have an Excuse
Making excuses for a minor workplace transgression – like arriving late to a meeting – may go over better with colleagues than simply apologizing, a study suggests.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring perceived weight discrimination and physiological dysregulation, fear conditioning, motor-memory consolidation, and infants’ learning to reach to the self.
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Weaknesses in Emotion-Expression Research Outlined in New Report
Software that purportedly reads emotions in faces is being deployed or tested for surveillance, hiring, market research, and more. But a report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest finds that facial movements are an inexact gauge of a person’s feelings, behaviors or intentions.
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Your Spending Data May Reveal Aspects of Your Personality
Analyses of financial data from more than 2,000 people show that spending in certain categories signals personality traits.
