Credit: Ground Picture/Shutterstock Imagine sitting alone with your thoughts for 20 minutes. You wouldn't be allowed to distract yourself with a book, phone, or even walking around. How much do you think you would you enjoy it? When this question was asked of participants in a series of studies, most reported that they'd not enjoy …
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What your taste in music says about your personality
According to the study, which personality trait is associated with upbeat, danceable music? Credit: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock This splashy heading from Inc.com reads: Here's what your taste in music says about your personality, according to a huge new study. whether you like Mozart or metal really does reveal something about your personality, new research finds This …
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Life expectancy gap in different U.S. counties
An example of politically polarized health outcomes occurred during the pandemic. Democratic-led areas were more likely to pass masking and lockdown mandates, and these areas later had lower COVID death rates compared to Republican-led areas.Photo credit: MikeEdwards/Depositphotos The American political system is polarized--increasingly so in the last few decades. Such polarization has gridlocked national politics …
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Amazon’s Alexa and baby-naming trends
Amazon's choice to use the wake word "Alexa" seems to have led to a decrease in that name's popularity for babies. Photo: vectorstockcompany/Depositphotos Here's a report from the Washington Post, entitled "Amazon, can we have our name back?". The journalist interviewed several women named Alexa, reporting about their experiences related to having the same name …
Music festivals “make people more generous, socially connected”
Credit: halfpoint/Deposit Photos Summer is the time for music festivals like Burning Man, Burning Nest, Firefly, and Bonnaroo. If you are planning to attend one this year, this post might interest you. The science journalism clearinghouse called Study Finds recently reported on a study conducted at Yale University. The journalists' report included the causal headline …
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Therapy dogs in the emergency room
The study focused on therapy dogs' effect on perceptions of pain in emergency room patients. Photo: monkeybusiness/Deposit Photos Adults and children alike can benefit from petting a therapy dog (a friendly pet who makes rounds with a trainer, perhaps to a clinic, pediatric unit, or even on campus during finals week). In this study, covered …
Does psychopathy predict success?
The study empirically tested the widely-held hypothesis that psychopathy would be associated with more career success. Photo: Mangostar/Shutterstock It's a common belief that to get ahead in business or politics, people have to be driven, callous, and unsympathetic. Is it true? A journalist for Forbes magazine reviewed a study by personality psychologist Hedwig Eisenbarth. The …
Kids with obesity also need acceptance
The successful intervention for obesity combined lessons about eating and exercise, family dynamics, and peer acceptance. Photo credit: Eviart/Shutterstock Here's another example of a research summary from The Conversation, which invites researchers to produce accessibly-written summaries of their own research. This one concerns a study that conducted a randomized controlled trial of interventions for kids …
Really? Can “hot baths protect your heart?”
The data came from Japan, where hot baths (whether at home, in local bathhouses, or in hot springs) are a well-loved practice. Photo credit: nitis.s/Shutterstock Sigh....even the imprimatur of Harvard Medical School doesn't stop writers from tacking causal headlines onto correlational studies. In this example, the journalist writes, "The study is only observational [i.e., correlational] …
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Cat-in-the-box
Pancetta the cat sitting in Kanizsa square. Photo and research by Gabriella Smith, M.A. I've shared several examples of research on pet dogs on this blog, so it's about time I present an example of research on pet cats. If you own a cat yourself, you've probably noticed that they enjoy climbing into 3-dimensional boxes, …