Versione italianaSocial Psychology
Respect Matters More Than Money for Happiness in Life
New research suggests that overall happiness in life is more related to how much you are respected and admired by those around you, not to the status that comes from how much money you have stashed in your bank account.
Empathy Doesn't Extend Across the Political Aisle
ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2012) — When we try to put ourselves in someone else's shoes, we usually go all the way, assuming that they feel the same way we do. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that we have limits: we don't extend this projection to people who have different political views, even under extreme circumstances.
Study: Women Prefer Chefs Over Lovers
Sure, a healthy sex life is great. But it’s nothing compared to a cheese soufflé.
Traumatic Experiences May Make You Tough
Your parents were right: Hard experiences may indeed make you tough. Psychological scientists have found that, while going through many experiences like assault, hurricanes, and bereavement can be psychologically damaging, small amounts of trauma may help people develop resilience.
Social Networks make you more cooperative
Rand, a post-doctoral fellow in Harvard’s Department of Psychology and a Lecturer in Human Evolutionary Biology, is the lead author of a new paper, which found that dynamic, complex social networks encourage their members to be friendlier and more cooperative, with the possible payoff coming in an expanded social sphere, while selfish behavior can lead to an individual being shunned from the group and left – literally – on their own.
Babies Show Sense of Fairness, Altruism as Early as 15 Months
ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2011) — A new study presents the first evidence that a basic sense of fairness and altruism appears in infancy. Babies as young as 15 months perceived the difference between equal and unequal distribution of food, and their awareness of equal rations was linked to their willingness to share a toy.
Big city got you down? Stress study may show why
NEW YORK – This may come as no surprise to residents of New York City and other big urban centers: Living there can be bad for your mental health.
Acts of Kindness Spread Surprisingly Easily: Just a Few People Can Make a Difference
ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2010) — For all those dismayed by scenes of looting in disaster-struck zones, whether Haiti or Chile or elsewhere, take heart: Good acts -- acts of kindness, generosity and cooperation -- spread just as easily as bad. And it takes only a handful of individuals to really make a difference.
What you see is what you do: Risky behaviors linked to risk-glorifying media exposure
WASHINGTON – Exposure via the media to activities such as street racing, binge drinking and unprotected sex is linked to risk-taking behaviors and attitudes, according to a new analysis of more than 25 years of research.
Bitter tastes make you more judgemental
Don't drink and judge - bitter tastes alter your moral compass, making you more judgemental.
Is crime a virus or a beast?
Stanford study shows the word you pick can frame the debate on how to fight it
Unhappy People Watch TV, Happy People Read/Socialize
Newswise — A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time reading and socializing. The study appears in the December issue of the journal "Social Indicators Research."
Female Social Sensitivity and Effective Problem Solving
Cambridge, MA, USA. Researchers have documented the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people who cooperate well, showing that such intelligence extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups' individual members, while linking the tendency for effective cooperation to the number of women in a group.
Intuition Only Works Between Two People
A new scientific research shows that two people can learn to cooperate intuitively – even without communication or a clear intention to coordinate, but larger groups need to communicate.
Why happy couples start to sound alike
People match each other’s language styles more during happy periods of their relationship than at other times, according to new research.
People Are Cautious in Asking Help from Their Community, Online Gift Exchange Study Finds
People are cautious in exchanging favours and items with other people in their community. Researchers, who studied an online gift exchange service, say that many people buy services because it does not occur to them that someone in their community could help them or they are too shy to ask for a favour.
It's the Little Things: Everyday Gratitude as a Booster Shot for Romantic Relationships
ScienceDaily (May 24, 2010) — Our busy lives sometimes feel like they are spinning out of control, and we lose track of the little things we can do to add meaning to our lives and make our loved ones feel appreciated. A new article in Personal Relationships points the way to the methods of gratitude we can use to give a boost to our romantic relationships, and help us achieve and maintain satisfaction with our partners
Robin Dunbar: we can only ever have 150 friends at most…
Evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar tells Aleks Krotoskiwhy even Facebook cannot expand our true social circle: our brains just aren't big enough to cope
Being near nature improves physical, mental health
Being outside in nature makes people feel more alive, finds a series of studies published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology. And that sense of increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world, the studies show.
Weekends Are Good For You, Study Finds
Just about everybody – even workaholics – should look forward to the weekend, when most people get a mood boost, a new study suggests.
Teamwork done right: New study sheds light on how to avoid destructive conflict
Experts agree that when it comes to teamwork, constructive conflict can result in better decisions and performance. When teams develop ideas together, debate differing perspectives, and synthesize those perspectives, the resulting group decision is often superior to a decision made by one person. But what about destructive conflict – when personalities clash, rivalries erupt, emotions flare, and the whole dynamic turns bad?
New research by economists at the Universities of Warwick and Oxford has provided surprising information on just how much people hate a winner. It also shows what lengths human beings are prepared to go to damage a winner out of a sense of envy or fairness.
Why teens take risks
PARIS - UNPROTECTED sex, wild rides on a motorbike, smoking, drugs or alcohol - the litany of risk-taking by teenagers is famously long. But what drives it? The answer could lie with adolescents' hypersensitivity to signals that unleash dopamine, a powerful brain chemical that underpins the pleasure from a reward, US psychologists suggest.
Cooperative Behavior Meshes With Evolutionary Theory
ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2009) — One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist.
Titanic study: It takes time to do the right thing Researchers learn about social norms in crises by comparing the Titanic and Lusitania sinkings
Researchers learn about social norms in crises by comparing the Titanic and Lusitania sinkings
