Reading Can Help Satisfy Our Need For Belonging
a Eurekalert: In an upcoming study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Gabriel and graduate student Ariana Young show what that something is: When we read, we psychologically become part of the community described in the narrative—be they wizards or vampires. That mechanism satisfies the deeply human, evolutionarily crucial, need for belonging. And: As predicted, on both measures, Harry Potter readers "became" wizards and the Twilight readers "became" vampires. In addition, participants who were more…
1 min read
Can a man be TOO rich and good-looking?
men appear to exhibit a subtle reluctance to engage in long-term relationships with physically attractive, high-status men. We propose that this bias away from men of very high market value is based on fear that these males may desert a relationship and also on the comparative self-perceived market value of the women. Therefore, interpersonal trust and perceived market value should moderate the extent of this counterintuitive bias. To test this proposal, we asked women with varying levels of interpersonal trust…
1 min read
These Are The Type Of People Most Likely To Fake Orgasms
this paper, we develop a signaling model of rational lovemaking. In the act of lovemaking, a man and a woman send each other possibly deceptive signals about their true state of ecstasy. For example, if one of the partners is not in ecstasy, then he or she may decide to fake it. The model predicts that (1) a higher cost of faking lowers the probability of faking; (2) middle-aged and old men are more likely to fake than young…
1 min read
What are the top reasons for Facebook un-friending?
a Science Daily: After surveying more than 1,500 Facebook users on Twitter, Sibona found the number-one reason for unfriending is frequent, unimportant posts. "The 100th post about your favorite band is no longer interesting," he said. The second reason was posting about polarizing topics like religion and politics. "They say not to talk about religion or politics at office parties and the same thing is true online," he said. Inappropriate posts, such as crude or racist comments, were the third…
1 min read
Is “tit-for-tat” the best way to deal with people?
recent episode of the consistently excellent Radiolab explored the idea, covering the work of Robert Axelrod. Turns out the age old cliche can be an incredibly powerful way to deal with others: A tit-for-tat strategy plays the iterated prisoners' dilemma game by cooperating on the first move, and then making the same choice as the other player did on the previous move. This strategy has been shown to be a very robust in that it does well with a…
2 minutes
Is expecting others to be selfish a self-fulfilling prophecy?
a Eurekalert: The expectations people have about how others will behave play a large role in determining whether people cooperate with each other or not. And moreover that very first expectation, or impression, is hard to change. "This is particularly true when the impression is a negative one," says Michael Kurschilgen from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, summarising the key findings of a study in which he and his colleagues Christoph Engel and Sebastian…
1 min read
Can teddy bears help us cope with rejection?
ere is little empirical research to date that looks at how the deleterious effects of social exclusion can be mitigated. We examined how touching an inanimate object—a teddy bear—might impact the effect of social exclusion on prosocial behavior. Across two studies, we found that socially excluded individuals who touched a teddy bear acted more prosocially as compared to socially excluded individuals who just viewed the teddy bear from a distance. This effect was only observed for socially excluded participants and…
1 min read
Are long distance relationships more stable?
ople in long distance relationships "evidence greater relational stability than partners in geographically close dating relationships..." Two studies explore the seeming paradox reported in prior research on long-distance dating relationships (LDDRs): Despite limited interaction, LDDR partners evidence greater relational stability than partners in geographically close dating relationships (GCDRs). We investigate speculations that romantic idealization may be a key component in LDDR stability. Idealization (i.e., idealistic distortion, romantic love, relational reminiscence, perceived agreement) and satisfaction with communication was more pronounced in…
1 min read
