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Wrinkles make faces appear sadder and madder
NBC News: Creases and furrows on someone's face may put a wrinkle in our ability to properly judge his or her emotions, a new study suggests. In the study, participants viewed photographs of 64 faces, and were asked to rate the faces based on the level of emotion they showed. People in the study rated the faces of older adults as much more sad and angry than faces of younger adults, despite the fact that all the faces had neutral expressions, according to the researchers.
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Men With High-Testosterone More Likely To Choose Red In Competitions
Toronto Telegraph: Why do so many sports players and athletes choose to wear the color red when they compete? A new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that it may have to do with their testosterone levels. The new study, conducted by psychological scientist Daniel Farrelly of the University of Sunderland and colleagues, demonstrated that males who chose red as their color in a competitive task had higher testosterone levels than other males who chose blue. Read the whole story: Toronto Telegraph
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Revision techniques – the good, the OK and the useless
BBC: Revision charts, highlighter pens and sticky notes around the room are some of the methods people use to ensure information stays in their mind. But now psychologists in the US warn many favourite revision techniques will not lead to exam success. Universities, schools and colleges offer students a variety of ways to help them remember the content of their courses and get good grades. These include re-reading notes, summarising them and highlighting the important points. ...
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Human psychology (with emphasis on the human)
Times of Higher Education: Psychological thinking, particularly of the cognitive ilk, used to take place only in philosophy or physiology departments. For centuries, psychology did not exist as a separate discipline. Then a more experimental cognitive approach was pioneered in the late 1870s by Wilhelm Wundt, the German “father of modern psychology”, and later in the Anglo-Saxon world by American behaviourist John B. Watson. The effect was to shift the discipline into the social and educational sciences.
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The business case for happiness in the workplace
The Globe and Mail: Forget spreadsheets, swot analysis and risk management; the latest topic on the business school agenda is happiness. Those academics who research the topic prefer to classify it a bit differently, however. “Meaning” is the term used by Lee Newman, dean of innovation and behaviour at IE Business School in Spain. At the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Jane Dutton, professor of business administration and psychology, says it is about “human flourishing.” Christie Scollon at Singapore Management University describes it as “subjective well-being.” Read the whole story: The Globe and Mail
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You Are Less Beautiful Than You Think
Scientific American: Most people believe that they are above average, a statistical impossibility. The above average effects, as they are called, are common. For example, 93 percent of drivers rate themselves as better than the median driver. Of college professors, 94 percent say that they do above-average work. People are unrealistically optimistic about their own health risks compared with those of other people. For example, people think that they are less susceptible to the flu than others. Stock pickers think the stocks they buy are more likely to end up winners than those of the average investor.