Are videotaped criminal confessions really as objective as we think?
mera perspective has been shown to influence our perceptions (if a Hollywood movie can make you feel scared or suspicious, why can't a videotaped confession unwittingly cause similar effects?) But more specific to this study, it's been shown that Caucasians direct more of their attention to minorities. This racial salience phenomenon can cause a skewed perspective: Evaluations of videotaped criminal confessions can be influenced by the camera perspective taken during recording. Interrogations and confessions recorded with the camera directing observers'…
2 minutes
When does the sex of a judge affect their rulings?
explore the role of sex in judging by addressing two questions of long-standing interest to political scientists: whether and in what ways male and female judges decide cases distinctly—"individual effects"—and whether and in what ways serving with a female judge causes males to behave differently—"panel effects." While we attend to the dominant theoretical accounts of why we might expect to observe either or both effects, we do not use the predominant statistical tools to assess them. Instead, we deploy…
2 minutes
Does having a big head protect you against Alzheimer’s?
llow @bakadesuyo New research shows that people with Alzheimer's disease who have large heads have better memory and thinking skills than those with the disease who have smaller heads, even when they have the same amount of brain cell death due to the disease. The research is published in the July 13, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "These results add weight to the theory of brain reserve, or the individual capacity to…
1 min read
Can having an overweight waitress make you blow your diet?
s: This paper investigates how people's food choices can be shaped by the body type of others around them. Using a professionally constructed obesity prosthesis, we show that the body type of a (confederate) server in a taste test study was sufficient to alter both the quantity (Experiment 1) and specific choices (Experiment 2) participants made but that chronic dieters and non-dieters exhibited opposite effects. While non-dieters ate more snacks when the server was thin, dieters ate more when the…
1 min read
Does the Biblical character Job meet the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
is project involved asking a group of clinicians experienced in working with trauma to rate (among other things) how well descriptions from the Book of Job matched current DSM diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This research found high ratings of congruence between descriptions of Job's reactions and symptoms of PTSD described in DSM-IV-TR. However, the congruence with the traumatising events was less certain. These findings are discussed in relation to the construct validity of PTSD diagnostic criteria. While…
2 minutes
What are the top 10 reasons for accepting or rejecting a “booty call”?
ughan Bell (via @NoahWG) covers a study on booty calls here. There's a September '09 expanded discussion with the study's authors that gives more insight on what they theorize might be the differing motivations for men and women: “For men… a booty call offers sexual access at a low, although not minimal, cost. For women, a booty call relationship offers more affection than a one-night stand,” the authors wrote. At the same time, an existing platonic friendship that turns sexual…
2 minutes
Does having a low level job affect men and women differently?
is article aims to examine gender and cohort differences in life-course occupational mobility in Britain and in particular the strength of the effects of career entry on subsequent upward or downward mobility. Does a ‘bad start’ in working life typically result in being trapped in the bottom tier of the occupational hierarchy or can it represent a stepping-stone towards more rewarding positions? Are there any gender differences in the effects of low entry occupations on subsequent careers? If so, are…
2 minutes
Recommended links:
fell behind on my RSS feeds while in San Diego, which, as regular readers can well imagine, is a potentially overwhelming problem. I'm all caught up and thought I'd share some not-abstracts that caught my eye: Technology may help James Bond but it's actually hurting real spies. Corporate espionage is easy. And if you're good at it you can win an iPad. If either of those two links interest you, you should check out Bruce Schneier's book Beyond Fear.…
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