What can you accurately tell about a person just by looking at their face?
lot, actually: Several studies have demonstrated some accuracy in personality attribution using only visual appearance. Using composite images of those scoring high and low on a particular trait, the current study shows that judges perform better than chance in guessing others' personality, particularly for the traits conscientiousness and extraversion. This study also shows that attractiveness, masculinity and age may all provide cues to assess personality accurately and that accuracy is affected by the sex of both of those judging…
1 min read
How can you improve learning while you sleep?
onomists are fond of telling us that "people respond to incentives." It seems that's true even when we're passed out on the couch: Sleep is known to promote the consolidation of motor memories. In everyday life, typically more than 1 isolated motor skill is acquired at a time, and this possibly gives rise to interference during consolidation. Here, it is shown that reward expectancy determines the amount of sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Subjects were trained on 2 different sequences of a…
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Does darkness increase dishonesty?:
s, it does: via boston.com In several experiments, researchers found that light levels influence selfish behavior. People who were placed in a dimly lit room were significantly more likely to cheat than people placed in a well-lit room. Likewise, people who were asked to wear sunglasses were less generous in a sharing game than people who were asked to wear clear glasses. This pattern appears to be the result of an increased sense of anonymity in lower light levels, even…
1 min read
How much does a firm handshake matter during a job interview?
bsp; The authors examined how an applicant's handshake influences hiring recommendations formed during the employment interview. A sample of 98 undergraduate students provided personality measures and participated in mock interviews during which the students received ratings of employment suitability. Five trained raters independently evaluated the quality of the handshake for each participant. Quality of handshake was related to interviewer hiring recommendations. Path analysis supported the handshake as mediating the effect of applicant extraversion on interviewer hiring recommendations, even after controlling…
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Can personalities be judged by physical appearance alone?
a Eurekalert: Observers were able to accurately judge some aspects of a stranger's personality from looking at photographs, according to a study in the current issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSBP), the official monthly journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Self-esteem, ratings of extraversion and religiosity were correctly judged from physical appearance. Researchers asked participants to assess the personalities of strangers based first on a photograph posed to the researchers' specifications and then on a…
1 min read
Want to predict the result of a sporting event? Don’t even think about it:
..people with expertise in football are better at predicting match outcomes when they spend time not consciously thinking about their predictions." Via bps-research-digest.blogspot.com: Imagine you've just paid an expert good money for their verdict and they say to you: "Can you hang on a couple of minutes whilst I don't think about this". You'd be forgiven for thinking they've gone silly. They may have. But another possibility is that you've chosen a shrewd expert who's totally up-to-speed with the latest…
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The 4 Psychological Techniques That Increased Navy SEAL Passing Rates
er since reading The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228 I've been interested in Navy SEAL training, particularly the psychological aspects. In his blog at Psychology Today, Bakari Akil covers a History channel documentary The Brain and what it revealed about the four techniques the Navy used to increase passing rates in the elite SEAL program: Goal Setting "With goal setting the recruits were taught to set goals in extremely short chunks. For instance, one former Navy Seal…
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Here’s What The Research Says About Whether You Could Really Become Batman
ybe, but even if you could, you wouldn't last long. In his book Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero, E. Paul Zehr discusses what it would take to become the caped crusader as well as the practical limitations inherent in being a superhero without superpowers. He was interviewed about it in Scientific American: Keeping in mind that being Batman means never losing: If you look at consecutive events where professional fighters have to defend their titles—Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Ultimate…
1 min read
