Psychology

Hot Or Not: The Science Of Attractiveness

Have you heard about HOTorNOT.com? It's perhaps the most superficial of all superficial dating site, allowing members to vote on other members' attractiveness and promoting dating decisions based almost solely on attractiveness scores. (You carr ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 10 2010 - 9:34pm

Halloween Movies Vs Bad Poetry

Are you traumatized by terror flicks? Maybe more than you know. Scary  movies actually create a light version of post-traumatic stress disorder. This is what causes bad dreams and irrational fears of kids riding Big Wheels in hotel hallways (and, perhaps ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 30 2010 - 3:59pm

Clinical Evidence Of Intuition: The Iowa Gambling Task

In the Iowa Gambling Task, a participant is presented with four, facedown decks of cards. He or she can flip over cards from any deck. Most cards earn a reward and some cards incur a penalty. Of the four decks, some are better (contain more reward-earning ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Nov 13 2010 - 10:35am

Turkeys Prefer Blondes

In my post about the somewhat wretched dating website HotOrNot.com, I wrote about researchers' determination that all humans value the same standards of beauty. Really, no matter if you're hot or plain, you recognize a set standard of hotness—you ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Nov 25 2010 - 12:08am

Copycat Behavior Universal Among Children, Study Finds

A new study of Australian preschoolers and Kalahari Bushman children suggests that overimitation, in which a child copies everything an adult shows them, appears to be a universal human activity, rather than something the children of western middle-class p ...

Article - News Staff - May 3 2010 - 7:03pm

The Rat-Brained Navigation Of Men

Imagine you're navigating a three-dimensional maze. Believe it or not, in this situation, both men and women think. Only, women think with the distinctly human right prefrontal cortex, while men use the rat-brain navigational instincts of their left ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Nov 27 2010 - 1:08pm

Music-Induced Holiday Homicide

In the month of December (and October, November, and January), PA systems in malls around the country play holiday music. And when we hear the telltale pa-rum-pum-pum-pum we want to strangle the nearest elf. Maybe kick a reindeer. In the month of December ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Dec 18 2010 - 10:32am

A Guide To Gift Buying And Marital Bliss

The age-old dilemma: do you take your sig other's hints, buy that electronic picture frame, and load it with family highlights from holidays past (yawn)? Or do you go with your gut and get her the unexpected gift of a new XBox-360? ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Dec 13 2010 - 12:29pm

Pregnant Smokers Put Kids At Risk For Psychiatric Problems

Pregnant mothers who smoke during pregnancy may be putting their children at risk psychiatric problems in childhood and young adulthood, according to a new study. Finnish researchers found that adolescents who had been exposed to prenatal smoking were at i ...

Article - News Staff - May 4 2010 - 10:48am

It's New Years: No More Lying

Does it take effort to tell the truth or are you naturally honest? In other words, are you truthful or a liar? A Harvard neuroimaging study showed that you're wired to be one or the other. The study watched subjects' brains as they were presente ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Jan 1 2011 - 12:04pm