Watching TV Increases Empathy
s. Via an excellent piece by Jonathan Gottschall in the Boston Globe: As the psychologist Raymond Mar writes, “Researchers have repeatedly found that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative.” For example, studies reliably show that when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgmentally (say, “Modern Family”), our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction. And it's not just TV. It's fiction, in…
2 minutes
How To Be A Better Person: 7 Steps Backed By Research
all want to know how to be a better person. The science can be surprising. First, remember context, context, context. Your context dramatically affects your behavior, so manipulating it is the easiest, most painless way to change yourself. This is why the religious are nicer on Sundays and mentioning God makes people clean up their act. Thinking about your childhood (seriously, get a teddy bear) and seeing others do nice things can make you act more ethically. Our circumstances…
2 minutes
Can being bad be very very good?
ung women and women who enjoy sex more prefer bad boys over nice guys. The best leaders have a significant number of negative personality traits. Criminals who kill more people get shorter prison sentences. Jerks and sexist men make more money. Being ethical can hurt your income. Narcissists actually are more attractive. They aren't more creative but you'll think they are. It's actually their worst characteristics that you're most attracted to. And they'll do better in job interviews than you…
1 min read
This Is The Key To A Woman’s Orgasm
bsp; More sex = more likely to have an orgasm. Not so for foreplay. INTRODUCTION: It has been asserted that women's likelihood or consistency of partnered orgasm (her orgasm as a result of sexual activities with a partner) is determined by duration of foreplay, but not by duration of penile-vaginal intercourse. AIMS: The objective was to examine the extent to which women's likelihood or consistency of partnered orgasm is associated with duration of foreplay, duration of penile-vaginal intercourse, and age.…
2 minutes
Which side of your face is your “best side”?
ft side. Via Eurekalert: Your best side may be your left cheek, according to a new study by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schirillo from Wake Forest University in the US. Their work shows that images of the left side of the face are perceived and rated as more pleasant than pictures of the right side of the face, possibly due to the fact that we present a greater intensity of emotion on the left side of our face. Their work…
1 min read
Does email turn you into a jerk?
mmunicating via email (vs. face-to-face) makes people less cooperative and makes them feel more justified in being noncooperative: Two empirical studies are presented that explore how and why e-mail communication (versus face-to-face communication) influences cooperation in mixed motive group contexts. Results indicate that, relative to those engaging in face-to-face interaction, those who interacted via e-mail were (1) less cooperative and (2) felt more justified in being noncooperative. Feelings of justification mediated the relationship between communication media and the decision to…
1 min read
How can you know who to trust?
you know nothing about them you might want to look for whether they're emotionally expressive. People who showed more emotion - positive or negative - were more cooperative in research studies: Previous research has suggested that the spontaneous display of positive emotion may be a reliable signal of cooperative tendency in humans. Consistent with this proposition, several studies have found that self-reported cooperators indeed display higher levels of positive emotions than non-cooperators. In this study, we defined cooperators and…
1 min read
What’s the best type of movie to see with someone you’re really attracted to?
rget documentaries and drama. Comedy won't cut it. You want something exciting. "Misattribution of emotions" means that when exciting things happen we'll associate those feelings with the people in our presence when they occur. And studies show that mental arousal can, um, lead to other kinds of arousal. The research directly confirms that you want movies that get the heart racing. Horror does the trick: Related to this is the ‘snuggle theory’ – the idea that viewing horror films may…
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