psychological research

17 Stories

That Emoji Doesn't Always Mean What You Think It Does

Study shows men, women get different emotional impact

(Newser) - Communication is hard. And in fraught or ambiguous situations, or in a context where precision is important, word choice is all important. But what if you aren’t even using words? What does that smiley face even mean? Turns out emoji can mean different things to different people, and the...

Dark Knight Killer's Shrink: Here's Why He Did It

Psychiatrist William Reid gives his insights into mass killer James Holmes

(Newser) - A psychiatrist who spent hours talking with mass murderer James Holmes says that what led Holmes to open fire in a crowded Colorado movie theater was a one-of-a-kind vortex of his mental illness, his personality, and his circumstances—and some other, unknown currents that will probably never be uncovered, the...

Ballet Lessons May Come With a Dark Side
Ballet Lessons
May Come
With a Dark Side
new study
Feb 19, 2017 3:18 PM CST

Ballet Lessons May Come With a Dark Side

Study sees a psychological toll on young students seeking perfection

(Newser) - Parents who think their kids are learning discipline by taking ballet may be right, but a new study suggests that it comes at a cost. Reporting in the journal Psychology of Music , researchers say they've found that young ballet students show greater "psychological inflexibility" than their peers studying...

For Those With Psychological Sex Problems, Potential Relief

Kisspeptin is now being explored as a way to help couples struggling to conceive

(Newser) - Kisspeptin, a naturally occurring hormone that kicks off puberty and is thought to fuel what the Telegraph describes as the "voracious sexual appetites of young people," could well be a sort of "mental Viagra" for people with psychosexual disorders—that is, disorders that are psychological as opposed...

This Study Just Slammed All Psych Studies

Finds major issues in reproducibility of research

(Newser) - A new study on psychology research is essentially bashing all other psychology studies. The research area has gotten a bad rap recently thanks to retracted research papers, so psychologists set out to discover what was going on. When research is valid, others should be able to duplicate the study and...

The Science of Mood: Fatty Foods May Make You Happier, Study Says
 It's True: Fatty Foods 
 Make You Happier 
study says
Aug 8, 2011 11:50 AM CDT

It's True: Fatty Foods Make You Happier

Chowing down when depressed may just be instinct

(Newser) - There’s a reason we gorge on chocolate bars or French fries when we’re down: Fatty foods actually do make us feel better, a study suggests. Scientists in Belgium had subjects look at images of sad people and listen to sad music while being fed through a tube, the...

iPhone App Gauges Your Happiness

And finds that daydreaming is tied to bad moods

(Newser) - Turns out the all-powerful iPhone can also moonlight as your personal therapist, by way of the "Track Your Happiness" app. The app pings users at random times during the day, asking how they're feeling and what they're doing. Researchers looked at the responses of 2,250 adults and found...

Liars Feel Need to Wash Up Afterward

Study: They like to cleanse either their hands or mouth

(Newser) - Liars like to literally clean up after their deceit, a new study suggests. What's more, if they typed their fib in an email, they want hand sanitizer; if they spoke the lie, they prefer mouthwash, reports AOL News . So say University of Michigan researchers who put student volunteers in an...

The Power of Negative Thinking
The Power
of Negative Thinking
Jul 8, 2009 2:50 PM CDT

The Power of Negative Thinking

Better to acknowledge bad feelings than recite phony good ones

(Newser) - Deliberate positive thinking—from Norman Vincent Peale to Stuart Smalley—has long been touted as a way to overcome feelings of worthlessness and self-doubt. But a new study suggests that repeating positive mantras may often backfire, making people with low self-esteem feel even worse about themselves. For many, it may...

Your Toddler's Listening, Really
 Your Toddler's Listening, Really 
Mar 25, 2009 12:46 PM CDT

Your Toddler's Listening, Really

It just might not seem that way

(Newser) - If your toddler seems to be ignoring everything you tell them to do, take heart: They’re just squirreling that advice away for later, researchers tell LiveScience. “The good news is what we’re saying to our kids doesn’t go in one ear and out the other, like...

Salary Gender Gap May Be All in Your Head

Traditional-minded men outearn supporters of equal pay

(Newser) - Not only is the gender gap in pay persistent, it affects men as well as women. Men with traditional views on a woman's place in the world earn, on average, $12,000 more per year than men who believe in egalitarian business practices, the Washington Post reports. Traditionally minded women...

Cruel TV Makes for Crueler Viewers: Study

Meanness of Mean Girls as influential as killing in Kill Bill

(Newser) - Psychologists have long known about the link between on-screen violence and real-life aggression, but a new study suggests video cruelty has much the same effect, USA Today reports. Groups of subjects shown either footage from Mean Girls of the hands-off hostility known as "relational aggression" or a knife fight...

Children Can Count Without Numbers
Children Can Count Without Numbers
Aug 19, 2008 8:30 AM CDT

Children Can Count Without Numbers

Study suggests that kids have innate math abilities

(Newser) - A study sure to fan a fiery disagreement among developmental psychologists has found that children can count objects even if their language lacks words for the numbers involved. Researchers found that Australian Aboriginal children, who know words for only a few small numbers, did just as well as English-speaking children...

Bronze Medalists Happier Than Silver Winners

2nd place a letdown, 3rd is a thrill

(Newser) - Newly minted gold medalists are ecstatic, second-place finishers slightly less so, and bronze winners the least happy—or so conventional wisdom would have it. But psychologists find that bronze medalists are usually happier than those who finish with silver, the Washington Post reports. Why does this Olympic paradox play out...

Traumatized? Keep It to Yourself
Traumatized? Keep It to Yourself
Jun 2, 2008 6:19 PM CDT

Traumatized? Keep It to Yourself

Talking things out after crises not always beneficial: study

(Newser) - Contrary to popular belief, talking about your emotions after a traumatizing large-scale event can be less helpful than keeping your feelings bottled up. A study of nearly 3,000 people who were exposed to but not directly affected by the 9/11 attacks reached the startling conclusion that people who didn't...

Mental Exercises Boost Brain Power, Study Says

Researchers in field of memory call it a breakthrough

(Newser) - Psychological research has long supported the conclusion that training on cognitive tasks doesn’t result in intelligence gains that transfer to other tasks—ie, memorizing long strings of numbers doesn’t help learning long strings of letters. But researchers say they've made a long-sought breakthrough that could lead to better...

Humans Wired to Fear Snakes
Humans Wired to Fear Snakes
Mar 5, 2008 4:42 PM CST

Humans Wired to Fear Snakes

Scientists find innate ability to discern slithering critters in the wild

(Newser) - Evolution seems to have given humans a hard-wired ability to recognize snakes and spiders, LiveScience reports. Intrigued by the widespread fear of serpents despite the fact that most humans rarely interact with them, researchers showed groups of adults and 3-year-olds natural scenes containing various hidden animals. Both groups were consistently...

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