-
Predicting Uncertain Events on a Global Scale
When it comes to predicting world events, some of the most influential decisions are fraught with a significant amount of uncertainty: Will this national economy stabilize or crash? Will that country follow through with their promises to halt production of WMDs? Will these public demonstrations lead to democratic change or violent revolt? “Governments rely routinely and heavily on intuitive beliefs about high-stakes outcomes,” write psychology researchers Barbara Mellers, Philip Tetlock, Don Moore, and colleagues. Despite this, training the people who make these intuitive judgments is difficult, because there is little scientific research available that can shed light on the issue.
-
Accents Can Carry Over When You Switch Between Languages
Switching back and forth between two different languages presents a cognitive challenge that can trip up even the most fluent bilingual speakers. Researcher Matthew Goldrick of Northwestern University and colleagues wondered whether the disruptions caused by language-switching might extend beyond the ability to produce words to influence how bilingual speakers actually pronounce words. They hypothesized that switching between languages might lead to accent “contamination,” whereby a speaker’s native language influences the subsequent pronunciation of words in a nonnvative language.
-
Are We Overreacting to Cyberbullies?
Research suggests that there is likely a high degree of overlap between traditional forms of bullying and bullying online.
-
Stay Connected at the 26th APS Annual Convention
The 26th APS Annual Convention is fast approaching! Download the mobile app, and stay connected with up-to-date convention information at your fingertips. The app is available on iPhone, iPad, and Android. Once downloaded, the app requires no Internet connection, though updates do require Internet connectivity, which is provided free by APS at the Convention. *Note: Click the login button at the bottom of your screen to sync your schedule, notes and favorites across multiple devices. To download: You can search for "2014 APS Convention" in your phone’s App Store. Don’t have a smart phone or tablet? No problem! Use the web version of the App.
-
Innovation on Display at Inaugural SAS Conference
“Ideas worth spreading” were on display in Bethesda, Maryland, April 24–26. It wasn’t a TED Conference; it was the Inaugural Conference of the Society for Affective Science, a new nonprofit dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of emotions. Leaders in the study of affect delivered eight 15-minute “TED-Inspired” talks on the following topics: Beyond Stereotype Threat: Reframing the Game to Quiet the Mind Toni Schmader, University of British Columbia (Friday, 1:56) Emotional Impact APS William James Fellow Jerry Clore, University of Virginia (Friday, 27:58) Social Regulation of Human Gene Expression Steve Cole, University of California, Los Angeles (Friday, 48:56) Not Happy?
-
From Our Pets to Our Plates: The Psychology of Eating Animals
We love animals, caring for some as if they were members of our families, and yet we eat animals, too. In fact, we eat a lot of meat -- data show that the average person on this planet eats about 48 kg or 106 lbs of meat per year. This duality between loving and eating animals is what researcher Steve Loughnan of the University of Melbourne and colleagues call the “meat paradox”: “Most people care about animals and do not want to see them harmed but engage in a diet that requires them to be killed and, usually, to suffer,” the researchers explain.
