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White as Snow, Black as Sin: The Colors of Moral Purity and Pollution
What do wedding dresses and doves have to do with toothpaste and soap? Psychologists Gary Sherman and Gerald Clore from the University of Virginia found that the perceptual symbols of purity, such as snow and
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Is That Your Final Answer? Study Suggests Method For Improving Individual Decisions
Herd mentality. Angry mob. Mass hysteria. As these phrases suggest, we are not always confident that a large group of people will come up with the smartest decisions. So it may be surprising to learn
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Picky Preschoolers: Young Children Prefer Majority Opinion
When we are faced with a decision, and we’re not sure what to do, usually we’ll just go with the majority opinion. When do we begin adopting this strategy of “following the crowd”? In a
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Oh, How Wonderful! A Study on the Cognition of Verbal Irony
Irony is commonplace in everyday conversation. When you get stuck in traffic and say to yourself, “Perfect!” we know that’s not what you really mean. But how exactly are we able to hear something and
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When the Powerless Rise Up: Power Leads to Positive Action, But Only When Acquired Legitimately
In an effort to reconcile the science stating that power leads to action and lack of power leads to inhibition — despite constant historical reminders of the powerless rising up and taking action — new
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Do Today’s Young People Really Think They Are So Extraordinary?
When asked about the state of today’s youth, former president Jimmy Carter recently mused “I’ve been a professor at Emory University for the past twenty years and I interrelate with a wide range of students…I
