Psychology

Virtual Drivers Resembling The User May Increase Trust In Smart Cars

Objections to automated driving seem a little silly, since millions of lives are lost in car accidents and human error is estimated to cause more than 90% of them. It may just be fear of the unknown, the same precautionary principle that makes people worry ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2015 - 12:23pm

'Natural' Sounds Improve May Improve Office Mood And Productivity

Playing natural sounds such as flowing water in offices could boosts worker moods and improve cognitive abilities in addition to providing speech privacy, according to a new study. An increasing number of modern open-plan offices employ sound masking syst ...

Article - News Staff - May 24 2015 - 8:58am

Sense Of Self: Whether You Place It In The Brain Or Heart Says A Lot About You

If you think of your 'sense of self', do you locate it in your heart or your brain?  It can tell people a lot about your decision-making process. Obviously, advertising is one area.  Messages targeted at people with independent self-construals (y ...

Article - News Staff - May 20 2015 - 11:00am

Why 'Wellness' Isn't The Answer To Working Too Much

Many of the people who visit me in my therapy practice spend time talking about work. How much work there is, how they never seem to be able to get it all done, how many hours they spend at work, how tired they are all the time and how fearful they are ab ...

Article - The Conversation - May 22 2015 - 7:30am

Seen And Clean: What People In Surveys Say They Want In Nutrition Labels

A new survey finds that 87 percent of Americans look at the Nutrition Facts panel on packaged foods and beverages and 56 percent actively seek out nutritional information and guidelines. 67 percent favor groceries with fewer and simpler ingredients, while ...

Article - News Staff - May 23 2015 - 10:00am

Expecting Temptation May Reduce Unethical Behavior

Why do good people do bad things? It's a question that has been pondered for centuries, and new research may offer some insight.  In a series of experiments with undergraduates, participants who anticipated a temptation to act unethically were less l ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2015 - 11:00am

Teens, Suicide And Schools: Screening Versus Privacy

A recent World Health Organization report points to depression as the leading cause of illness and disability worldwide in 10- to 19-year-olds. Suicide by teens is ranked as the third leading cause of death in this age group. A question that comes up time ...

Article - The Conversation - May 27 2015 - 7:30am

Handsome Men Do Catch More Breaks From Women

Women are a lot more likely to put up with misbehavior in a man if he looks like Ryan Gosling, but if he is ugly, shunning will happen much quicker, according to a paper by Jeremy Gibson and Jonathan Gore of Eastern Kentucky University, who found that a wo ...

Article - News Staff - May 27 2015 - 12:19pm

Hallucinations And Delusions More Common Than Thought

Hallucinations and delusions in the general population are more common than previously thought, according to a study which found that hearing voices and seeing things others cannot impacts about five percent of the general population at some point in thei ...

Article - News Staff - May 30 2015 - 1:30pm

How Public Relations Turned Dunkirk From Catastrophe Into Cultural Icon

For most British people the Dunkirk evacuation between May 26 and June 4 1940 was the most significant early event of World War II. And in the 75 years since those momentous events it has come to occupy, in Penny Summerfield’s words, “an iconic place in B ...

Article - The Conversation - May 28 2015 - 10:00am