Psychology

A New Kind Of Reward Teaches Intrinsic Motivation

I would like for my son, Leif, to play the violin. I’m a serious ex music geek and so in addition to pegging me as an abhorrent tiger parent intent on thrusting my offspring into the one-percent where they can be hedge fund managers and own things like fu ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Mar 19 2014 - 10:12am

Most People Trust Computers More Than Their Business Partners

Trust is an essential basis for business relationships but it can be easily shaken if one business partner exhibits dishonest behavior.  And so a subconscious strategy to help avoid the negative emotions associated with any breaches of trust may cause som ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 19 2014 - 1:55pm

Why Russia Is Laughing At Sanctions

This week, the people of Crimea overwhelmingly voted to join Russia. They were jubilant, the Russian people were prideful, and Europe and the United States acted like it was the start of a World War. President Obama levied sanctions on President Vladimir P ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 19 2014 - 11:06am

Forget The 47 Percent On Each Side, Swing Voters Hold More Sway Over Candidates

In the 2012 election campaign, Mitt Romney was vilified for saying something everyone knew to be true and extrapolating motivation from it- that each party was going to get 47 percent of the vote no matter what and that dictated economic policy. Only 3 pe ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 20 2014 - 1:49pm

Teenage Girls: Obesity And Depression Linked

A new psychology paper research finds that adolescent females who are either obese or depressed are more likely to develop the other. By assessing a statewide sample of more than 1,500 males and females in Minnesota over a period of more than 10 years, th ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 21 2014 - 10:46am

Being A Fair Boss May Be A No-Win Situation

Bosses who are most conscientious about the fairness of workplace decisions make their workers happier and their companies more productive, but they may be burning themselves out. A new paper found the act of carefully monitoring the fairness of workplace ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2014 - 9:41am

Why Calvin's Dad Rocks At Explaining Science To Children

Gary Larson tapped into the universal absurd. Charles Schulz helped us identify with the underdog in us all. And Bill Watterson accurately represented a father’s profound and boundless knowledge of the universe, as in Calvin’s dad’s explanation that ice f ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Mar 26 2014 - 1:43pm

The Psychology Of Why You Want To Know The Plot Of Star Wars VII

You want to know what movies are about- and that is why spoilers related to the upcoming "Star Wars" movie and "Avengers 2" and whatever else are so popular. Hey, you knew how the RMS Titanic met its demise, and you still watched a movi ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Mar 26 2014 - 12:35pm

Lawyers Know This: Emotional Testimony By Kids Is Perceived As More Credible

In a psychology experiment, two young actors (one girl and one boy) portrayed victims in a mock-police investigation. They were questioned by the police about how they had been harassed by older schoolmates. The police interviews were videotaped in two ve ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 31 2014 - 1:31pm

Unsurprisingly, Kids Are Not Interested In Healthy Kid Meals

Fast food giants are happy to promote healthy menus- they are in the revenue generation business, they will sell what people want to buy. Yet food activists and government officials seem to lack basic insight into what kids want, whereas marketing will ma ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 31 2014 - 9:08pm