It’s not just in movies where nerds get their revenge.Social rejection can inspire imaginative thinking, particularly in individuals with a strong sense of their own independence.
Children as young as 3 apparently can tell the difference between whining and when someone has good reason to be upset, and they will respond with sympathy usually only when it is truly deserved, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
If you sing, dance, draw, or act -- and especially if you watch others do so -- you probably have an altruistic streak, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Researchers led by James Lampinen of the University of Arkansas received a $400,380 grant from the National Science Foundation to learn when and how children develop memory-editing skills and suggest methods of learning such skills.
Fat women who accept their bodies find more self-confidence and better sexual relationships. Those who struggle with their body size, however, report less sexual fulfillment and are more likely to say that men used them sexually.
Researchers have long known that people are very frequently overconfident – that they tend to believe they are more physically talented, socially adept, and skilled at their job than they actually are. For example, 94% of college professors think they do above average work (which is nearly impossible, statistically speaking). But this overconfidence can also have detrimental effects on their performance and decision-making. So why, in light of these negative consequences, is overconfidence still so pervasive? The lure of social status promotes overconfidence.
When conflict breaks out in social groups, individuals make strategic decisions about how to behave based on their understanding of alliances and feuds in the group. But it’s been challenging to quantify the underlying trends that dictate how individuals make predictions, given they may only have seen a small number of fights or have limited memory.
Psychotherapy is effective, helps reduce the overall need for health services and produces long-term health improvements, according to a review of research studies conducted by the American Psychological Association.
Hearing generic language to describe a category of people, such as “boys have short hair,” can lead children to endorse a range of other stereotypes about the category, a study by researchers at New York University and Princeton University has found.
Telling the truth when tempted to lie can significantly improve a person’s mental and physical health, according to a “Science of Honesty” study presented at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.
Determining when a teenage brain becomes an adult brain is not an exact science but it’s getting closer, according to an expert in adolescent developmental psychology, speaking at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.
New technology has led to the creation of virtual humans who can interact with therapists via a computer screen and realistically mimic the symptoms of a patient with clinical psychological disorders, according to new research presented at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.
A new University of Houston (UH) experiment takes an unconventional look at the treatment for domestic violence, otherwise known as intimate partner violence (IPV), by focusing on changing the perpetrators’ psychological abuse during arguments rather than addressing his sexist beliefs.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis who were decoding the activity of populations of neurons in the motor cortex discovered that they could tell how a monkey was planning to approach a reaching task, in effect, reading their minds.
People are more likely to show forgiving behavior if they receive restitution, but they are more prone to report they have forgiven if they get an apology, according to Baylor University research published in the Journal of Positive Psychology.
New research into behavioral health prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS shows that involving couples and families may be more effective than treating individual patients. A special issue of the American Psychological Association journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice includes articles that reveal how interventions for couples and families may have more impact in both preventing the spread of HIV and its consequences. The authors are available to discuss their findings before and during the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., July 22-27
A new study conducted by associate professor Bruce McKinney at the University of North Carolina Wilmington shows Facebook users are not as narcissistic as once thought.
A study of university students is the first evidence to refute the supposed link between depression and the amount of time spent on Facebook and other social-media sites.
According to a cognitive psychologist, the common responses to celebrity deaths demonstrate important realities about how people build relationships with the media they consume.
Students receiving special-education services for behavioral disorders and those with more obvious disabilities are more likely to be bullied than their general-education counterparts – and are also more likely to bully other students, a new study shows.
A web-based study found that our inborn “number sense” improves during school years, declines during old age, and remains linked throughout the entire lifespan to our ability in formal mathematics.
We’ve all been there: Meeting someone new and seconds later forgetting his or her name. According to an expert, it’s not necessarily your brain that determines how well we remember names, but rather our level of interest.
Loneliness – the unpleasant feeling of emptiness or desolation – can creep in and cause suffering to people at any age. But it can be especially debilitating to older adults and may predict serious health problems and even death, according to a new study by UCSF researchers.
Fans of the New York Yankees incorrectly perceive Fenway Park, home of the archrival Boston Red Sox, to be closer to New York City than is Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, a study by New York University psychologists has found. Their research shows how social categorization, collective identification, and identity threat work in concert to shape our representations of the physical world.
An experiment that Sigmund Freud could never have imagined 100 years ago may help lend scientific support for one of his key theories, and help connect it with current neuroscience.
Scientists have found new evidence that people spot a face in the crowd more quickly when teeth are visible — whether smiling or grimacing — than a face with a particular facial expression. The new findings, published in the Journal of Vision, counters the long held “face-in -the-crowd” effect that suggests only angry looking faces are detected more readily in a crowd.
Need to do some serious multitasking? Some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful, new research from the UW Information School shows.
The velvety voice of Elvis Presley still makes hearts flutter—and in a new study with people who have the rare genetic disorder Williams syndrome, one of the King’s classics is among a group of songs that helped to cast light on part of the essence of being human: the mystery of emotion and human interaction.
Ideas are all around us — helping solve problems, develop new products, and make important decisions. Good ideas are rarely created in a vacuum, however. They often emerge when people refine their ideas in response to suggestions and comments received from colleagues. Having strong bonds to an idea can make that necessary collaboration challenging, finds new research from Washington University in St. Louis. The study suggests that psychological ownership — the extent to which people feel as though an object, or idea, is truly theirs— may be at the root of this phenomenon.
An Indiana University biologist has shown that natural variation in measures of the brain's ability to process steroid hormones predicts functional variation in aggressive behavior.
Working memory training is unlikely to be an effective treatment for children suffering from disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity or dyslexia, according to a research analysis published by the American Psychological Association. In addition, memory training tasks appear to have limited effect on healthy adults and children looking to do better in school or improve their cognitive skills.
If you are a white girl, a black girl or a black boy, exposure to today's electronic media in the long run tends to make you feel worse about yourself. If you're a white boy, you'll feel better, according to a new study led by an Indiana University professor. Nicole Martins, an assistant professor of telecommunications in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, and Kristen Harrison, professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, also found that black children in their study spent, on average, an extra 10 hours a week watching television.
As daily news of cyber crimes, such as bullying, sextortion and pornography, and other forms of fraud are reported, deciphering good from bad web sites is key to navigating the Internet in today’s fast paced technological society according to communications professor Dr. Pavica Sheldon, at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAHuntsville).
Researchers have identified a protein necessary to maintain behavioral flexibility, which allows us to modify our behaviors to adjust to circumstances that are similar, but not identical, to previous experiences. Their findings may offer new insights into addressing autism and schizophrenia—afflictions marked by impaired behavioral flexibility.
Little research has examined couple-level substance abuse within young adult romantic relationships. Jacquelyn Wiersma of the University of Arkansas is available to discuss her research into mate selection and risky behaviors.
Advertisers spend enormous amounts of time and money attempting to tailor their advertising campaigns to the needs of different demographic groups. After all, the concerns of first-year college students are going to be different from those of retired professionals.
Even within a given demographic category, however, there are many individual differences, such as personality, that shape consumer behavior. A new study in Psychological Science, a publication of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that advertisements can be more effective when they are tailored to the unique personality profiles of potential consumers.
How good are married couples at recognizing each other’s emotions during conflicts? In general, pretty good, according to a study by a Baylor University researcher. But if your partner is angry, that might tell more about the overall climate of your marriage than about what your partner is feeling at the moment of the dispute.
After seeing faces for less than a blink of an eye, college students have accuracy greater than mere chance in judging others’ sexual orientation. Their "gaydar" persisted even when they saw the photos upside-down, and gay versus straight judgments were more accurate for women’s faces than for men’s.
Children in the United States and Great Britain share a number of common risk factors that increase the likelihood that they will have behavioral problems—and Britain’s broader social welfare programs don’t appear to mitigate those risks, according to a new study.
Much like their male counterparts, female terrorists are likely to be educated, employed and native residents of the country where they commit a terrorist act, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
By comparing the testosterone levels of five-month old pairs of twins, both identical and non-identical, University of Montreal researchers were able to establish that testosterone levels in infancy are not inherited genetically but rather determined by environmental factors.
Alex Chaparro, director of Wichita State University's psychology department, studies drivers who multitask behind the wheel, especially drivers who try to text or call while driving.
Wouldn’t it be nice if all our decisions were the results of clear, rational, deductive reasoning? Of course they rarely are. A full range of emotions influence decision-making and experts in the field will look at fear and our transportation decisions following 9/11, psychic numbing and genocide and the effect of emotions on risky choices during the Association for Psychological Science annual convention in Chicago, from May 24-27, 2012.
In the eyes of young college men, it’s more unethical to use steroids to get an edge in sports than it is to use prescription stimulants to enhance one’s grades, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.