Does Facebook make us miserable?
Facebook we all show the best and not the worst, leading to portraits of unattainable lives that may very well make us feel bad by comparison: Via Slate: Led by Alex Jordan, who at the time was a Ph.D. student in Stanford's psychology department, the researchers found that their subjects consistently underestimated how dejected others were–and likely wound up feeling more dejected as a result. Jordan got the idea for the inquiry after observing his friends' reactions to Facebook:…
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Can you tell Nobel Peace Prize winners from America’s Most Wanted just by their faces?
ople's guesses were generally better than random chance. Nobel Prize winners could often be detected after seeing a picture for 100 milliseconds. Distinguishing who was one of America's Most Wanted took a little longer: Although trustworthiness judgments based on a stranger's face occur rapidly (Willis & Todorov, 2006), their accuracy is unknown. We examined the accuracy of trustworthiness judgments of the faces of 2 groups differing in trustworthiness (Nobel Peace Prize recipients/humanitarians vs. America's Most Wanted criminals). Participants viewed 34…
1 min read
What do women look for in a one-night stand vs a long term relationship?
r both men and women, one night stands were primarily about physical attractiveness. Attractiveness and agreeableness were key for long term relationships. Another key factor (much more for women than for men) was dominance. Physical dominance in a man made him appealing for a one night stand. Social dominance (leadership, etc) led to female interest in a longer term relationship. Dominance is a key feature on which romantic partners are evaluated, yet there is no clear consensus on its definition.…
2 minutes
How can you make a gathering more social and friendly?
rning up the temperature a few degrees physically and emotionally makes people warmer: "Holding warm feelings toward someone" and "giving someone the cold shoulder" indicate different levels of social proximity. In this article, we show effects of temperature that go beyond these metaphors people live by. In three experiments, warmer conditions, compared with colder conditions, induced (a) greater social proximity, (b) use of more concrete language, and (c) a more relational focus. Different temperature conditions were created by either handing…
1 min read
What’s a good trick for outsmarting liars?
king them unexpected questions dramatically raises the chance you'll be able to detect their lies: We hypothesised that the responses of pairs of liars would correspond less with each other than would responses of pairs of truth tellers, but only when the responses are given to unanticipated questions. Liars and truth tellers were interviewed individually about having had lunch together in a restaurant. The interviewer asked typical opening questions which we expected the liars to anticipate, followed by questions about…
1 min read
How you can deal with angry people without losing your cool:
ll yourself they are having a bad day and that it's not about you. Via US News: Telling yourself that an angry person is just having a bad day and that it's not about you can help take the sting out of their ire, a new study suggests. This strategy of finding another way to regard an angry person is an approach commonly suggested in cognitive behavioral therapy. For example, you can tell yourself that the angry person has just…
1 min read
Here’s Why Women Fake Orgasms
e of the reasons is to hold on to a guy they think might be prone to straying: The current study tested the hypothesis that women pretend orgasm as part of a broader strategy of mate retention. We obtained self-report data from 453 heterosexual women (M age, 21.8 years) in a long-term relationship (M length, 32.8 months) drawn from universities and surrounding communities in the southeastern United States. The results indicated that (1) women who perceived higher risk of partner infidelity were…
1 min read
5 Easy, Scientifically Proven Tips To Make Your Holiday Shopping Easier
Want to pick a creative gift that the receiver will be surprised by? Don't do it. Studies show people are much more satisfied by presents they said they wanted. 2) Accept that context can warp your thinking. The music in a store, a "SALE" sign, and how many items are on a shelf can all affect what and how much you buy. 3) To control your spending, hide the credit card and make sure your wallet contains only big…
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