Articles tagged with Experimental Psychology
Researchers found that feeling inferior in social status leads people of all races to crave expensive products. Whites who imagined themselves in low-status positions rated high-status goods more positively than those in higher positions.
A study by Ohio State University researchers found that writing down thoughts and then disposing of the paper can reduce their influence on mental judgments. Participants who threw away the paper showed no difference in their attitudes towards positive or negative thoughts, suggesting that physical action influences thought use.
A study published in Journal of Consumer Research found that people vary widely on the level of detail required for understanding a product. Explanation fiends require more details to feel informed, while explanation foes feel confident with superficial explanations. Understanding what consumers want is crucial for marketers.
Researchers at University of Bristol found that participants drank more slowly from curved 'beer flute' glasses than straight-sided glass containing lager, suggesting curved glasses compromise ability to gauge liquid levels and pace drinking. This could have positive impact on reducing intoxication and excessive drinking.
Researchers found that confident consumers pay more attention to high-level product features and abstract benefits, while less confident consumers focus on concrete details. This shift in attention is attributed to psychological confidence affecting consumers' perception of information relevance.
A new UH experiment evaluates whether changing perpetrator communication skills can improve arguments and reduce abuse. The study found that interventions worked to decrease aggressive behavior, contemptuous behavior, and criticism.
Researchers propose a new explanation for Milgram's findings, suggesting that participants' behavior is driven by their patterns of social identification. Conditions that encouraged identification with the experimenter led to increased obedience, while conditions that encouraged identification with the learner led to decreased obedience.
Researchers discovered that vampire jumping spiders prefer female mosquitoes with blood-fed abdomens over other insects due to their distinctive antennae. The spiders can identify the females by their antennae even when they are too small to be seen, and this unique ability may play a crucial role in their prey classification process.
Research reveals that death anxiety makes atheists more unconsciously receptive to religious beliefs, while religious individuals strengthen their beliefs at both conscious and unconscious levels. This study contributes to understanding why religion endures as a fundamental aspect of human culture.
A new study from MIT neuroscientists found that sharing stories about one's life with members of the opposing group improves attitudes and reduces prejudice. The benefits were greatest for members of the less empowered group, who reported improved attitudes towards the other group after sharing their own perspectives.
A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that creating psychological distance can reduce cognitive difficulty and anxiety in choice situations. By manipulating abstract thinking and body postures, researchers discovered that leaning away from a screen or task can make decisions feel less difficult.
Researchers found that even with explicit knowledge of probabilities, people tend to make suboptimal choices when relying on experience-based estimates. Despite extensive practice, participants in the study made similar mistakes as those without any training, suggesting a distorted appreciation of probability remains.
A new study by Rotman School of Management researchers reveals that treating time as money can undermine well-being. The study shows individuals who perceive their time as monetizable tend to experience greater impatience and lower satisfaction during leisure activities compared to those who do not.
Researchers found that acting out metaphors about creative thinking improved performance on tests of creativity and originality. This suggests that physical representations of thought can enhance creative thinking by breaking down mental barriers.
A new article published in Perspectives on Psychological Science reveals that Norman Triplett's 1889 experiment was incorrect, with children reeling a reel rather than reeling in a fishing line. The study also shows that Triplett was not the first psychologist to investigate social influence.
A study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making found that people tend to overestimate their willingness to engage in embarrassing public performances. However, inducing immediate emotions can help reduce this illusion of courage. The research has practical implications for understanding human behavior and decision-making.
Two studies by USC Marshall School of Business professor Scott Wiltermuth found that synchronized physical activities can foster aggression and obedience, potentially leading to destructive outcomes. Participants who moved in sync with their groups or authority figures performed better in tasks that involved harming others.
A new study by Beijing Normal University cognitive psychologist Jia Liu and colleagues found that holistic processing is critical to face recognition. Individuals who perform well in tasks measuring holistic processing, such as the composite-face effect and whole-part effect, also excel at recognizing faces.
Researchers suggest that passing through doorways impairs memory recall due to 'event boundaries,' which compartmentalize decisions made in different rooms. The study found subjects forgot more after walking through a doorway compared to moving across a room.
Researchers found that metaphorical associations with weight are just as influential as physical weight on consumer judgments. In experiments, participants who were primed to think about weight responded similarly to those who physically carried heavy loads.
Researchers used a novel experiment to investigate the brain's perception of surface lightness, finding that the ratio hypothesis does not explain the observed performance. Instead, participants could distinguish between shades with ratios up to 50 times higher than expected, suggesting other mechanisms are at work.
A study by Kristin Laurin found that reminding people of God decreases their motivation to pursue personal goals, yet improves their ability to resist temptation. Participants who believed in an omniscient entity watching over them were more likely to resist temptations and achieve major life goals.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that fans of baseball teams tend to remember the games their teams won more than the ones they lost. The researchers discovered that positive experiences and social factors play a significant role in boosting memory for winning events.
Researchers found that the brain can selectively focus on visual information from one eye, even when both eyes are receiving images. This selective attention enhances the processing of visual information from the focused eye.
A study by Columbia Business School researchers finds that women's lower negotiation outcomes are driven by heightened concerns about social backlash, rather than a lack of capability or motivation. To address this, training programs should focus on coaching role shifting and reframing self-advocacy as other-advocacy.
Researchers found that people judge others based on sexual orientation even if they're not consciously aware of it. Gay men were perceived as more likable than straight men, especially among black men.
Research shows that older decision makers trounce their younger counterparts due to improved ability to evaluate options, develop strategies, and utilize pre-frontal cortices. This increased wisdom enables them to make more rational choices in complex environments.
A study by academics at UEA found that people who do not conform are most likely to work together for the public good, while conforming to social norms can actually make people less likely to co-operate. Non-conformists were more willing to invest in a joint project when praised for their investment.
Researchers suggest dependent individuals may exhibit proactive behavior to impress authority figures and maintain relationships. This new perspective offers a shift in how therapists treat dependent patients, focusing on turning unhealthy dependency into healthy one.
A study published in Journal of Vision found that pigeons recognize human faces and emotional expressions in a way similar to humans. The researchers suggest that both specialized and general processes are involved in face recognition, contradicting previous assumptions about uniquely human cognitive processes.
Researchers found that using a ski glove to hinder motor fluency can reverse right-handers' judgments of good and bad, making them associate left with the 'right side' of space. This study suggests that people's conceptions of good and bad depend on their bodily experiences.
Researchers found that those primed to think of their own unethical nature subjected themselves to more pain, but experienced reduced feelings of guilt after the painful experience. Pain has been imbued with meaning as punishment, leading to its psychological effect of resolving guilt.
A recent study from the University of New Hampshire found that individuals who feel more secure in their relationships place a lower monetary value on their possessions. This heightened sense of security can lead to decreased valuation of possessions, as people perceive them as already being protected by their loved ones.
A new Iowa State University study found that subjects who witnessed a criminal event and were tested about it immediately afterward were more susceptible to having misinformation instilled in their later recall of the event. This effect, known as retrieval-enhanced suggestibility, may lead to false convictions in criminal cases.
A recent study found that married couples and close friends may not communicate as well as they think. The researchers used an experiment to test this idea, finding that accuracy rates for spouses and strangers were statistically identical. Closeness can create the illusion of insight, leading to communication problems.
Bilingual toddlers as young as 24 months exhibit comparable vocabulary in both languages and show cognitive advantages over unilingual peers. This early bilingual advantage is likely due to infants' experience with two languages, providing a competitive edge in executive functioning.
A new study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that imagining eating a certain food decreases appetite for it. Participants who repeatedly imagined consuming a food ate significantly fewer pieces than those who performed different tasks or imagined a different food.
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.
A recent study published in Psychological Science found that people find humor in moral violations when they seem harmless or non-threatening. The researchers tested this theory by presenting volunteers with different scenarios and rewarding them with candy bars. They discovered that the situations involving a moral violation were more...
Researchers discovered that daydreaming about distant memories can improve memory recall and reduce remembering of recent events. Participants who thought about a vacation within the U.S. remembered more words than those who thought about an overseas trip.
Researchers found that hearing the name of an object improves participants' ability to see it, even when flashed onscreen in conditions that render it invisible. The effect was specific to language and did not depend on visual preview or pre-experiment familiarity with the target.
A new study found that those who expect unexpected events are no better at detecting them than those who don't, and may even be worse. The study used a video featuring basketball players and a gorilla, and showed that familiarity with the original experiment did not improve detection of other unexpected events.
A Yale-led team of psychologists found that physical sensations can shape our thoughts and perceptions, leading to different behaviors towards others. The study demonstrated how dramatic the impact of touch can be on our interactions with job applicants, relationships, and negotiations.
A study by University of Illinois professors found that those who ask themselves whether they will complete a task tend to do better than those who tell themselves they will. This phenomenon has implications for cognitive, social, and clinical psychology, as well as education and work settings.
A recent study published in Psychological Science found that students who expected to receive grades quickly performed better than those who anticipated delays. This counterintuitive result may be due to the threat of disappointment being more prominent for early expectants, leading them to perform better as a result. The study has imp...
A new Rotman paper finds that physically enclosing relevant materials from unpleasant memories improves psychological closure, creating a sense of well-being. The study's findings have implications for products and services that relieve stress and anxiety related to past events or tasks.
Researchers found that darkness can lead to an increase in dishonest and self-interested behaviors, even when participants are anonymous. In three experiments, those in dimly lit rooms cheated more than those in well-lit rooms, while wearing sunglasses made participants behave more selfishly.
Researchers found that a negative mood imparts a warm glow to familiar stimuli, while a happy mood eliminates this preference for familiarity. This discovery has applications in various fields, including parenting, marketing, and politics.
A study published in Psychological Science found that directed prayer can spark forgiveness in both the person praying and their wronged partner. Praying for a close friend also increased selfless concern, which boosted forgiveness. The researchers believe prayer shifts attention from the self back to others, allowing resentments to fade.
Research in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that women's fascination with true crime stems from a desire to learn strategies for prevention and survival. The study found that women are more likely to be drawn to true crime books than men, as they seek to understand warning signs and escape tips.
A new study found that personal connections can lead to further investment in failing programs, even to one's own financial detriment. Business leaders and organizations should carefully consider integrating a true outsider to make more decisive decisions.
Researchers found that 15-month-olds struggle to distinguish Jamaican-accented words, but 19-month-olds exhibit cross-dialect recognition. By 19 months, children demonstrate phonological constancy for both familiar and unfamiliar words in any English dialect.
Researchers discovered a preference for processing information on the left side of faces, which can aid in facial recognition. In contrast, experts who read Chinese characters exhibit reduced holistic processing and show a left-side bias, indicating general visual expertise.
Research by Joshua M. Ackerman and John A. Bargh found that imagining another person's self-control can lead to a depletion of one's own self-control, causing impulsive behaviors like overspending. In experiments, participants who imagined exerting self-control in someone else performed worse on cognitive tasks after the simulation.
Research finds that three- and four-year-old children favor majority opinions, even in follow-up experiments with only two individuals present. This suggests young children can recognize and trust consensus, and remember group membership.
Recent experiments using brain waves have shown that our brains rapidly draw upon a wide range of information to understand unfolding sentences. Key findings include the rapid classification of speakers based on their voice and social stereotypes.
Research by Kristin R. Ratliff and Nora S. Newcombe found that human adults rely on both geometric and feature cues for reorientation, with a preference depending on the environment and past experiences. The study used experiments with different room sizes and landmarks to investigate this phenomenon.
A social psychologist replicated Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiment and found that compliance rates remained largely unchanged, with no difference between men and women. The study suggests that situational factors still operate today, influencing people's willingness to follow authority figures.
Researchers found that when we see an object, multiple motor programs are involuntarily activated, competing for control. The brain uses a common mechanism to filter out irrelevant information, allowing us to execute precise movements.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that spending time in nature improves attention and memory processes. Volunteers who took a walk in a park performed better on a task than those who walked downtown or viewed urban scenes.