Psychology

The Broad Autism Phenotype: How Family Members Often Have Some Autistic Traits

In the autism community, it can’t help but be noticed that a good portion of the parents of autistic kids deal with the same kinds ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Jul 17 2011 - 9:05pm

Diet Psychology- People Eat Less When They Have Big Forks

Larger portions mean we eat more food but bigger  bites less intuitively lead to eating less in restaurants,  according to new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. The authors conducted their study in an Italian restaurant by using two sizes of forks ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2011 - 9:47pm

Rock-Paper-Scissors: Not So Random After All?

Rock-paper-scissors (henceforth, it shall be known as RPS) is a game, or method to determine who has to do something nobody really wants to do. The rules are pretty well-known. The players simultaneously form a rock, paper or scissors gesture with their h ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Jul 20 2011 - 3:18am

Born Evil: Is This The Rebirth Of Phrenology?

There hasn't been much of a debate about this paper at Science 2.0, so I thought I might briefly review it, and see what everybody else thinks. But, before we start, I should make one thing clear. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not even an evol ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Jul 26 2011 - 6:22pm

Maybe We Need A Geopolitical Rumspringa

Norway just had a tragedy- the kind of random violence that social scientists, who we all wish would take a holiday during horrific events, will try and find correlation and causation for, like he was right wing or he was left wing or he was angry about fa ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 23 2011 - 1:34pm

Hiccups And Ever-Expanding Comfort Zones: Coping Adaptively

You know how you'll be swimming along (metaphorically), going, well geez, things are going pretty well, knock on wood? And then, bamm! You say those words, even invoking superstitious protections, and you're hit with anecdotal evidence that you s ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Jul 24 2011 - 9:41am

Stargate, Belief Systems, And The Misguided Assumption That The Truth Will Set Them Free

Occasionally, my interests in the psychology of belief and my love of sci-fi intersect. Imagine if you will my howling with disgust when one of my favorite shows perpetuates the 10% myth of brain use (and they all do it!).  Last night, we watched " Ru ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Jul 26 2011 - 9:42pm

Human Generosity As Evolutionary By-Product?

In both biology and economy, game-theory models are used to understand human behavior, mainly concerning cooperation. These models usually incorporate gains, benefits, and reciprocity. And this reciprocity seems to be very important. Basically, if you do ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Aug 2 2011 - 1:33am

Bedwetting: What Causes It And What To Do About It

What is Bedwetting? The medical name for not being able to control urination is Enuresis (pronounced: en-yuh- ree-sis). It is sometimes also called involuntary urination. Nocturnal enuresis is involuntary urination that occurs at night, usually while the ...

Article - Paul Bretherton - Aug 2 2011 - 3:17pm

What's Wrong With Evolutionary Psychology?

With several articles recently appearing that were based on various aspects of evolutionary psychology, I thought it would be worth taking a closer look. One of the ironies in examining evolutionary psychology is how many stories we can make up for ourselv ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Aug 3 2011 - 12:47am