Oxford study says just shake hands, don't kiss strangers / Boing Boing. It is often observed that I do not like strangers to hug me!
A recent study by Oxford University shows I'm not even close to alone. Groucho Marx on comics and depression. What's Up With That: Stress Could Be Turning Your Hair Gray. Getty Images What's Up With That?
Each week, we'll explain the science behind a strange phenomenon that you may be wondering about, or may be hearing about for the first time right here. If you've seen or heard of something you'd like us to explain, send us an email. View the entire collection. Stories of stress turning hair gray abound in popular culture, from Marie Antoinette’s hair turning white the night before her beheading, to Barack Obama’s rapid first-term graying. Scientists have looked into it, but despite several promising results they haven’t yet nailed down a solid link. Hair color comes from two naturally occurring pigments, called melanins. Genetics Suggest Autism Isn't Just One Disorder—It's Hundreds. Geoffrey Ondrich and Waylon Cude are both 16 years old.
Both boys have autism, and both would rather use their computers than do almost anything else in the world. But that’s just about all they have in common. Waylon is serious and intense, and so is the way he uses his computer: He spends hours immersed in online role-playing games, and he interned last summer at IBM, programming Linux for websites. The season you were born in can affect your mood. The season you were born in can affect your mood Neha Karl Tuesday, 21 October 2014 Researchers have found that your mood and personality may be influenced by something out of your control - your birthday.
Image: DeepGreen/Shutterstock A team of scientists from Semmelweis University in Hungary have found that when someone is born can play a role in their chance of developing a particular temperament or mood disorder. Previous research has shown that an individual’s dopamine and serotonin levels - neurotransmitters that influence mood - can be affected by their season of birth. A Review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, by Noam Chomsky. Preface.
Illustrated guide to insanity, 1883. Why Do We Smother Cute Things? Psychologists Find that Nice People Are More Likely to Hurt You. The thing about following orders is, what are your other options?
Stop Telling People To 'Cheer Up' 5 Ridiculous Cold War Myths You Learned in History Class. The second half of the 20th century was dominated by the world's two remaining superpowers facing each other down.
The rest of the world rallied behind one or the other as Soviet and American forces started in on spying and covert warring. There were good guys and bad guys, and it was all bullshit. For instance ... #5. 10 Psychological States You've Never Heard Of... and When You Experienced Them.
The Inspiration Paradox: Your Best Creative Time Is Not When You Think. A bus company in China has launched a new “safe driving” campaign by suspending bowls of water over their drivers.
To avoid getting wet, drivers must drive gently. Susan Cain: The power of introverts. Helping Our Brains Forget Pain. An Illusion that Explains Why Typos Are So Hard to Catch. Rubber hand shows brain can be fooled on skin colour - life - 02 July 2012. Taking pointers from rubber hands, psychologists have shown that racial differences really are only skin deep.
When someone sees a rubber hand being stroked while their actual hand is hidden from view and stroked simultaneously, they can begin to "embody" it – to feel that the rubber hand is their own – and lose feeling in their real hand. But can you embody a rubber hand of a different skin colour from your own?
Manos Tsakiris and colleagues at Royal Holloway, University of London, induced the illusion in 22 white participants, using both white and black rubber hands. Later, the subjects claimed, on average, to have identified more strongly with the white hand. Objective measures suggested otherwise, though. Surface features The team also tested changes in skin conductance – a measure of stress – when the subjects saw a needle being stuck into the embodied rubber hand. Journal reference: Consciousness and Cognition, DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2012.04.011.
Introduction to Psychology now available in MIT OpenCourseWare’s innovative OCW Scholar format. MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) has released a new version of 9.00 Introduction to Psychology in the innovative OCW Scholar format designed for independent learners.
This course presents a scientific overview of how the mind works, and applies that knowledge to contemporary debates around topics such as nature versus nurture, free will, consciousness, human differences, the self and society. “I hope site visitors come away with an appreciation of just how amazing people are,” says John Gabrieli, the Grover M. Hermann Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, who developed the course. Eyes Reveal Sexual Orientation. Whether you're gay, straight or somewhere else on the spectrum, the truth of who attracts you could be in your eyes.
Pupil dilation is an accurate indicator of sexual orientation, a new study finds. When people look at erotic images and become aroused, their pupils open up in an unconscious reaction that could be used to study orientation and arousal without invasive genital measurements. The new study is first large-scale experiment to show that pupil dilation matches what people report feeling turned on by, said study researcher Ritch Savin-Williams, a developmental psychologist at Cornell University. "So if a man says he's straight, his eyes are dilating towards women," Savin-Williams told LiveScience.
"And the opposite with gay men, their eyes are dilating to men. " How Reading Novels Can Make You A Better Person. Bedroom Eyes Make Guys Look Sketchy. Beware the bedroom eyes, guys — new research suggests that a heavy-lidded, seductive gaze makes you seem less trustworthy to both men and women. The study finds that guys with an open, normal gaze are preferred for a long-term relationship by women and as a business partner or neighbor by men. Women and men alike perceived the eyes-half-closed look as an attempt to secure a fling rather than a long-term relationship. "A lot is conveyed in a glance," study researcher Daniel Kruger, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, told LiveScience.
The Beeblebrox Illusion: scientists convince people they have three arms. “He relaxed and spread his two arms lazily across the seat back. He steered with an extra arm he’d recently fitted just beneath his right one to help improve his ski-boxing.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox is just one of several characters from science-fiction and mythology to have extra arms. Prejudice Is A Basic Human Need. Advantages of Gay Parenting & Gay Adoption. Gay marriage, and especially gay parenting, has been in the cross hairs in recent days. Do girls naturally prefer dolls to trucks? Evidence from 2 primate studies. Thinking About Mortality Changes How We Act. Human Nature and the Neurobiology of Conflict. Each image depicts the arousal response of conservatives (triangle dots) and liberals (square dots) to images that are disgusting or appealing. Image: Dodd et al. Prejudice Reveals the Caveman in Us. Like their cavemen ancestors who fought outsiders for land and potential mates, the modern guy still holds such prejudices against "outgroups," new research shows.
Whereas men's prejudicial views towards outgroup males are often motivated by aggression, women's biases stem from fear, and these different psychologies evolved from our history of group conflict, the researchers said. Why we have moral rules but don't follow them - science-in-society - 16 February 2012.