Mindfulness instructions appeared to interact with people's independence/interdependence in this set of factorial studies. Photo: Rob Wilkinson/Alamy Stock Photo A new set of studies on mindfulness and selfishness provides an opportunity to practice skills related to factorial designs (Chapter 12). Let's get started. Here's the theoretical background of the study, as described by a …
Continue reading Does mindfulness make people selfish? It depends….
Breakfast of (concentration) champions? Maybe not....Photo credit: Kyndall Ramirez/Unsplash A headline at Psych Central reads, "High fat meal may impair concentration." Does the study behind the headline support that causal claim? At first, you might assume that this came from a correlational study on diet and concentration. However, it turns out the research summarized in …
The College of William and Mary has phased out its Indian-themed mascot over the years. In 2010, the College replaced its former mascot with "Griffin", above. Photo: Mitchell Layton/Getty Images Since 2005, the NCAA has required colleges and universities to reflect upon, and if necessary, change sports team mascots that feature depictions of Native-Americans. Now …
Which of these two text messages seems the most sincere? Photo: Travis Carr If you're an American young adult, you probably already follow certain unwritten rules about about punctuating text messages. FOR EXAMPLE, EMAILS AND TEXTS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS ARE CONSIDERED A FORM OF SHOUTING. Text messages follow their own set of norms, and …
Continue reading Does this punctuation make me sound angry, or what.
According to the study, Captain Marvel's eyebrows have something to do with her dominant pose. Credit: Collection Christophel/Alamy Stock Photo Captain Marvel looks tough. Perhaps one reason is the tilt of her head, which enhances the appearance of dominance, according to a series of studies that appears in Psychological Science. The studies were summarized by …
Continue reading Tilt your head down to appear more intimidating
The study used a quasi-experimental design. Credit: Beth Dubber/Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock Update 7/19/2019: Netflix has decided to remove the scene depicting the main character's actual suicide, perhaps in response to data from this and other studies. Here's one story on the change. The Netflix series "Thirteen reasons why" tells the story of a teenage girl who commits …
Continue reading Did the show “Thirteen Reasons Why” cause an increase in suicides?
Which one of these people will benefit most from sharing good ideas with the group? Credit: Dean Drobot/Shutterstock Imagine you're working at a company and you'd like people to view you as a potential leader. How might you go about it? Perhaps you'd share your good ideas at meetings, hoping they'll notice your talent. Perhaps …
Continue reading How we spot leadership potential in men and women
Collecting accurate data in a poll is difficult business. Many of us focus on the sampling strategies of polling organizations, and rightly so: External validity depends on whether we include "cell phone only" numbers in our samples, how we account for different rates of responding across certain groups, and so on. However, this post reminds …
It's the cutest thing--when kids think about themselves as Batman, according to headlines, they can persist longer at difficult tasks and show more self-control. Many writers--even the original researchers--refer to this as "The Batman Effect". Journalists have written headlines like "Pretending to be Batman helps kids stay on task" or even "Need your child to …
Should she have put her phone away in the next room? That depends. Photo: Suwat Sirivutcharungchit/Shutterstock Students, if you're not familiar with the study tips on The Learning Scientists website, you should be. This page in particular sums up six evidence-based things you should be doing while you study (spoiler alert: The list does not …