A new study published in Psychological Science finds that the trustworthiness of our intuition is linked to what's happening physically in our bodies. Subtle changes in heart rate and sweat responses affect decision making, with some people relying on intuition to win at a card game.
Researchers found that people distinguish between living and non-living faces, particularly around two-thirds of the way along a continuum from doll to human face. The study suggests that our brains scrutinize faces, especially the eyes, for signs of life.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that genetic traits are linked to difficult students' inherited characteristics, which affect teacher effort and classroom behavior. The researchers used a twin study of over 1,100 pairs of British twins to identify heritable factors influencing challenging student behavior.
A recent study published in Psychological Science found that a positive mood enhances creative problem solving and flexible yet careful thinking. Volunteers who listened to happy music and watched funny videos performed better on a category learning task than those in negative moods.
This special section of Perspectives on Psychological Science explores how psychologists can avoid stigmatizing groups by framing individual and group differences as strengths. Experts discuss the importance of challenging biases and stereotypes in research, teaching, and advocacy to promote a more inclusive field of psychology.
A new study found that individuals with a strong need for justice perceive tragedy as giving the victim's life more meaning. This 'justice motive' fosters perceptions of benefits in the later lives of tragedy victims.
A new twin study links ADHD behaviors, reading achievement, and math skills in children, suggesting a common genetic and environmental influence. The researchers found that identical twins were more alike on these traits than fraternal twins, indicating a strong genetic component.
This special section of Perspectives on Psychological Science explores the promises and issues facing neuroimaging, including its potential to reveal the anatomy of mental functions. Researchers discuss the need for more emphasis on cognitive processes and the importance of clear communication with the public.
A recent study found that individuals in high-powered jobs that don't align with their gender are more likely to be judged less competently and face greater scrutiny for mistakes. This phenomenon, known as the glass cliff, can hinder women's career advancement in traditionally male roles.
A recent study published in Psychological Science suggests that imitating someone who speaks with a regional or foreign accent may help you understand them better. Participants who imitated the accent performed significantly better at understanding sentences spoken in an unfamiliar accent.
New research in Psychological Science found that the fear of being the target of malicious envy motivates people to act more helpfully toward those they think might be jealous. This fear encourages prosocial behavior, such as sharing resources with others.
Research by University of Minnesota psychologists shows that invisible emotional and practical support from partners significantly reduces anger, anxiety, and increases self-efficacy. The study provides new insights into the dynamics of social support in couples.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that making people believe their efforts will be successful motivates them to take action against racism. Participants who felt they could make a difference took more actions and had more positive attitudes towards African Americans.
Research reveals that architecture can influence people's ability to navigate buildings, with some designs favoring spatial skills over others. A study suggests strategies for improving wayfinding in complex environments.
Adults with insecure attachment styles may have difficulties regulating emotions, leading to increased risk for mental health problems. Cultural differences in the endowment effect suggest that independence and self-enhancement values influence giving up possessions.
A new study published in Psychological Science reveals that lower-class individuals are better at reading emotions than their upper-class counterparts. The researchers found that people from higher social classes performed worse on emotion perception tasks, suggesting they rely less on others for emotional support.
Studies examine how people perceive gaze direction, detect kinship, and identify objects in space. Researchers find that subordinates' perceptions are generally more accurate than those of their bosses, while firstborns may struggle with detecting kinship among strangers.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that negative gender stereotypes can influence women's financial decision-making, making them more wary of risk. The researchers discovered that when participants were exposed to these stereotypes, women became less likely to take calculated risks and more cautious in their decisions.
A study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science found that people with mastery goals are more open to hearing different perspectives and less deceitful, while those with performance goals are more competitive and less willing to share information. Balancing different levels of goals can help establish constructive work...
New research shows sleep consolidates memories and reorganizes emotional details to aid in creative idea production. Studies have found that a person tends to retain the most emotional part of a memory, leading to improved recall.
Researchers discovered that when a person's personality matches the prevalent personalities of others in a culture, it enhances positive effects on self-esteem and well-being. Additionally, social threats induce bodily freeze-like behavior in humans, while cultural differences in spatial representations affect time perception.
Research reveals bilinguals outperform monolinguals in tasks requiring distraction-blocking and task-switching, potentially leading to improved cognitive outcomes. Bilingualism may also protect against age-related cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's disease.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that people can understand actions by recognizing underlying syntax. The researchers tested whether the structure of action sequences affected how quickly participants read sentences describing those actions.
Studies reveal that our brains tend to remember birthdays closer to our own, while facial processing may prioritize change detection. Additionally, research finds that state borders can influence risk perception and lead people to categorize locations differently. These findings have important implications for policy and decision-making.
A study published in Psychological Science found that associating an object with anger motivates people to want it, similar to how positive emotions motivate us. This surprising result suggests that anger has some positive features and can even drive motivation.
Cordelia Fine argues that reports of sex differences in the brain are often based on flawed research methods and misunderstood findings. She advocates for a critical evaluation of these claims to avoid reinforcing outdated gender stereotypes.
Research suggests that women choose not to pursue careers in math-intensive fields due to personal preferences and family commitments. Women are more likely to prioritize family needs over academic ambitions.
Researchers found that male rats raised with lots of sisters spent less time mounting female rats, but still ejaculated equally. The males may be compensating for reduced attractiveness, suggesting families play a role in shaping personality and behavior.
A new report reviews the current state of publicly funded preschool in the US, highlighting the need for improved quality to meet their full potential. Research suggests that teacher interactions and professional development are key factors in determining program effectiveness.
Researchers found that individuals with autism were more likely to believe in the vanishing ball trick illusion, despite having trouble interpreting social cues. The study suggests that people with autism may have difficulties allocating attention to the right place at the right time, which could impact their performance in social situ...
A new study finds that American friends are more likely to share intimate details of their lives with each other compared to Japanese friends. This disparity may be attributed to the different social systems in the two countries, particularly the utility of investing in relationships through self-disclosure.
A new study finds that three-year-olds have a specific, highly robust bias to trust testimony, prioritizing verbal information over visual cues. This trust in verbal testimony can lead to continued acceptance of misinformation even after repeated corrections.
This special issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science investigates the potential of genetics research, personalized medicine, and behavioral intervention to improve patient care. The articles examine the intersection of behavior and genetics, with a focus on tailoring treatments to individual genetic characteristics.
Research suggests that while some survivors of disasters experience severe psychological trauma, others may recover within a few months or years. Effective psychological first aid and community-centered interventions have been shown to be beneficial in supporting survivors' recovery.
Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of California, Berkeley found that reflecting counterfactually on an institution's origins increases employee commitment and morale. By thinking about alternative scenarios, employees see their current circumstance in a more positive light, fostering a renewed sense of devotion.
Researchers found that alienation increases aggression in children who feel like outcasts after being rejected by peers. The study recruited students aged 10-13 and found they were more aggressive when receiving negative feedback.
A new study finds that people who think about time plan to spend more time with loved ones, while those who focus on money fill their schedules with work. The research suggests that prioritizing time for social connections can lead to increased happiness.
A study found a group of genetic mutations that predict sensation seeking behavior, linking it to dopamine levels. The research used a new technique to analyze genes in the dopamine system, identifying 12 potentially important SNPs that explained about 4% of the difference between individuals' sensation-seeking scores.
A new study finds that social rejection triggers a momentary decrease in heart rate, mirroring the brain's response to physical pain. Participants' heart rates slowed in anticipation of and after receiving news about another person's opinion of them, with further drops observed when told they were rejected.
A new study explores how genetic and environmental factors influence educational outcomes in identical and fraternal twins across Minnesota and Sweden. Family background plays a significant role in determining education, especially in Minnesota, while Sweden prioritizes grades and test scores.
Researchers Tali Sharot and Cristina M. Velasquez improved on a previous experimental design to test subliminal decision making. The study found that participants' evaluations of chosen destinations increased after blind choice, suggesting a psychological mechanism to reduce tension from rejecting alternatives.
The report examines how individuals behave in stock and credit markets, noting that people tend to be more influenced by perceived risk than objective risk. It also discusses how financial crises impact people's well-being, including the role of cognitive biases and affective social influences.
A study published in Psychological Science found that hearing only one side of a conversation makes it more distracting than hearing both sides. Volunteers performed worse on concentration tasks when they could only hear half of the conversation.
A new study examines how Dutch and Japanese people assess others' emotions, finding that Japanese participants rely more on vocal tone than facial expressions. This cultural difference in perception can lead to misunderstandings between individuals from different backgrounds.
Researchers found that people who watched videos of someone else performing simple actions were more likely to falsely remember doing the same action themselves two weeks later. This phenomenon, known as observation inflation, may be due to internal simulation of what others are doing while observing them.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that children who have a more linear mental number line are better at remembering numbers. This was true for preschoolers and elementary school children alike, with the ability to estimate the sizes of numbers influencing exact recall.
A recent study published in Psychological Science found that females with a male co-twin score higher on mental rotation tasks than those with a female co-twin. The study suggests that prenatal masculinization may play a role in this skill, which is often associated with testosterone levels.
Researchers analyzed text messages sent on September 11, 2001 to track emotional reactions. They found spiking anxiety in the morning and increasing anger throughout the day. The study suggests that anger dominated immediate reactions, which may explain consequences of the attacks.
A recent study found that girls who experienced an insecure attachment to their mother at a young age tend to develop earlier and have their first period sooner. This is because an unstable environment can lead to accelerated pubertal maturation as an evolutionary adaptation to increase reproductive chances.
A new study published in Psychological Science reveals that eyes move differently when minds are wandering versus paying attention. When readers zone out, their eyes fixate on individual words for longer periods, suggesting a strong link between eye movements and language processing in the brain.