Zombie movies prepared you for the pandemic

Tales of post-apocalyptic landscapes in which few survivors emerge into a new and much different world have long been popular tales woven by screenwriters and authors. While many enjoy these stories, thinking of them as nothing but a guilty pleasure, they may not realize that immersing themselves in fiction has prepared them for the reality of 2020, according to a team of researchers.

Read the complete article from Penn State here: Zombie movies prepared you for the pandemic

Under Time Pressure, People Tell Us What We Want to Hear

When asked to answer questions quickly and impulsively, people tend to respond with a socially desirable answer rather than an honest one, a set of experiments shows.

The findings, published in Psychological Science, raise questions about a time-honored experimental technique, said John Protzko, a University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) cognitive scientist who co-led the study with colleague Claire Zedelius.

“The method of ‘answer quickly and without thinking’, a long staple in psychological research, may be doing many things, but one thing it does is make people lie to you and tell you what they think you want to hear,” Protzko said. “This may mean we have to revisit the interpretation of a lot of research findings that use the ‘answer quickly’ technique.

“The idea has always been that we have a divided mind — an intuitive, animalistic type and a more rational type,” he continued. “And the more rational type is assumed to always be constraining the lower order mind. If you ask people to answer quickly and without thinking, it’s supposed to give you sort of a secret access to that lower order mind.”

Read the complete article from Association for Psychological Science here: Under Time Pressure, People Tell Us What We Want to Hear

Study explores how to make conservation initiatives more contagious

New research shows conservation initiatives often spread like diseases, helping scientists and policymakers design programs more likely to be taken up.

The study, led by researchers at Imperial College London, modelled how conservation initiatives are adopted across regions and countries until they reach 'scale' -- at a level where they can have real impact on conserving or improving biodiversity.

By understanding how initiatives have reached scale, the team identified some ways new or existing initiatives could boost their uptake, helping the efforts go further.

Read the complete article from Imperial College London here: Study explores how to make conservation initiatives more contagious

Anticipating performance can hinder memory

Anticipating your own performance at work or school may hinder your ability to remember what happened before your presentation, a study from the University of Waterloo has found.

The study’s findings also suggest that the presence of an audience may be an important factor that contributes to this pre-performance memory deficit.

“Performance anticipation could weaken memory because people tend to focus on the details of their upcoming presentation instead of paying attention to information that occurs before their performance,” says lead author Noah Forrin, a postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at Waterloo. “People who experience performance anxiety may be particularly likely to experience this phenomenon.”

Read the complete article from University of Waterloo here: Anticipating performance can hinder memory

The full text journal article from the Journal of Memory and Language can be found here: Wait for it… performance anticipation reduces recognition memory

Nonverbal signals can create bias against larger groups

If children are exposed to bias against one person, will they develop a bias against that person’s entire group? The answer is yes, according to new research from University of Georgia social psychologist Allison Skinner. The study’s results are the first to demonstrate that nonverbal signals can produce new biases that generalize to entire groups and classes of people.

This study follows on the heels of her previously published work on the role of nonverbal signals in spreading attitudes and biases among adults. In a study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Skinner found that adults formed conscious attitudes toward an individual based on witnessing positive or negative nonverbal signals displayed toward that person. They also formed unconscious attitudes, but they were likely to misattribute the cause, according to Skinner.

Read the complete article from University of Georgia here: Nonverbal signals can create bias against larger groups

Distractions distort what’s real, study suggests

We live in a world of distractions. We multitask our way through our days. We wear watches that alert us to text messages. We carry phones that buzz with breaking news.

A new study suggests that distractions -- those pesky interruptions that pull us away from our goals -- might change our perception of what's real, making us believe we saw something different from what we actually saw.

Even more troubling, the study suggests people might not realize their perception has changed -- to the contrary, they might feel great confidence in what they think they saw.

Read the complete article from Ohio State News here: Distractions distort what’s real, study suggests

The unpopular truth about biases toward people with disabilities

Needing to ride in a wheelchair can put the brakes on myriad opportunities – some less obvious than one might think. New research from Michigan State University sheds light on the bias people have toward people with disabilities, known as “ableism,” and how it shifts over time.

Contrary to popular belief, the findings suggest that biases toward people with disabilities increase with age and over time, but that people are less likely to show how they really feel publicly.

“Disabilities are a sensitive, uncomfortable topic for many people to talk about. Few are willing to acknowledge a bias toward people with disabilities,” said William Chopik, MSU assistant professor of psychology and senior author. “Because this is so understudied, the goal of our research was to characterize why – and which types of – people hold higher biases against those with disabilities.”

Read the complete article from Michigan State University here: The unpopular truth about biases toward people with disabilities

Sans Forgetica: new typeface designed to help students study

A new font can help lodge information deeper in your brain, researchers say, but it’s not magic — just the science of effort.

Psychology and design researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne created a font called Sans Forgetica, which was designed to boost information retention for readers. It’s based on a theory called “desirable difficulty,” which suggests that people remember things better when their brains have to overcome minor obstacles while processing information. Sans Forgetica is sleek and back-slanted with intermittent gaps in each letter, which serve as a “simple puzzle” for the reader, according to Stephen Banham, a designer and RMIT lecturer who helped create the font.

“It should be difficult to read but not too difficult,” Banham said. “In demanding this additional act, memory is more likely to be triggered.”

Read the complete article from RMIT University here: Sans Forgetica: new typeface designed to help students study

You can view an RMIT's interactive website about the font here: Sans Forgetica

People show confirmation bias even about which way dots are moving

People have a tendency to interpret new information in a way that supports their pre-existing beliefs, a phenomenon known as confirmation bias. Now, researchers have shown that people will do the same thing even when the decision they've made pertains to a choice that is rather less consequential: which direction a series of dots is moving and whether the average of a series of numbers is greater or less than 50.

Read the complete article from Science Daily here: People show confirmation bias even about which way dots are moving

The full text journal article from Current Biology can be found here: Confirmation Bias through Selective Overweighting of Choice-Consistent Evidence

Friend or Foe? How the Unconscious Mind Picks Out Faces in a Crowd

Imagine you’re walking through Times Square. There are tons of people around. As you make your way through the crowd, your brain notices several faces but ignores the rest. Why is that? What are the processes that determine which faces our brain “chooses” to see and those it allows to fade into the background? A new study describes how the unconscious mind processes human faces and the two types of faces it chooses to consciously see, namely: those associated with dominance and threat and, to a lesser degree, with trustworthiness.

Read the complete article from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem here: Friend or Foe? How the Unconscious Mind Picks Out Faces in a Crowd

Can’t Switch Your Focus? Your Brain Might Not Be Wired for It

Though a hallmark of human cognition, flexible switching varies widely from person to person, and is associated with a measurable mental cost: Moving from one task to another extends the time it takes for you to respond to stimuli. Research from scientists at Drexel University shows that the extent to which brain signals "stick" to white matter networks -- or the brain's highway system -- is associated with cognitive flexibility. This suggests that some brains are at a natural advantage to meet switching demands.

Read the complete article from Drexel University here: Can’t Switch Your Focus? Your Brain Might Not Be Wired for It

Generous people give in a heartbeat

Altruistic people are said to be 'kind hearted' -- and new research shows that generous people really are more in touch with their own hearts. The study has found a possible physiological reason why some people are more charitable than others.

Read the complete article from Anglia Ruskin University here: Generous people give in a heartbeat

The full text journal article from Nature: Scientific Reports can be found here: People with higher interoceptive sensitivity are more altruistic, but improving interoception does not increase altruism

Appetizing Imagery Puts Visual Perception on Fast Forward

The idea that things in our environment, or even our own emotional states, can affect how we experience time is a common one. We say that time “drags” when we’re bored and it “flies” when we’re having fun. But how might this happen?

An experiment by Kevin H. Roberts of the University of British Columbia hypothesized that our motivation to approach positive stimuli or experiences would make us less sensitive to temporal details. Change in these stimuli or experiences would, therefore, seem relatively smooth, similar to what happens when you press ‘fast forward’ on a video. Our desire to avoid negative stimuli or experiences, on the other hand, would enhance our sensitivity to temporal details and would make changes seem more discrete and choppy, similar to a slow-motion video. In support of the hypothesis, it was found that people rate images containing positive content as fading more smoothly compared with neutral and negative images, even when they faded at the same rate.

Read the complete article from the Association for Psychological Science here: Appetizing Imagery Puts Visual Perception on Fast Forward

Imagining an Action-consequence Relationship can Improve Memory

The next time you hear about the possibility of rain on the weather forecast, try imagining the umbrella tip being lodged in your home’s door lock, blocking you from locking it. This mental exercise could prevent you from leaving home without an umbrella.

Imagining an action between two objects (the umbrella being lodged in the door lock) and a potential consequence (not being able to lock the door) may help people improve their memory for relationships with other objects, according to a recent Baycrest Health Sciences study published in the Memory & Cognition journal.

Read the complete article from Baycrest Health Sciences here: Baycrest researchers find that imagining an action-consequence relationship can improve memory

Uncovering the Secrets of a Trustworthy Face

Psychologists have long been interested in understanding what leads people to trust others, and the face has long been at the center of this research. Some people just look trustworthy. Yet, just because a face looks trustworthy does not mean that the person with that face has trustworthy intentions.

Many studies had asked whether people can accurately detect trustworthiness from the face, but what does the person with the face think about all of this? In this study scientists from Columbia Business School wondered whether people who look trustworthy are aware that other people expect them to be trustworthy from their appearance. In essence, asking: Does the person with a trustworthy or untrustworthy looking face think that they will be trusted or distrusted by others? If this were the case, it could explain how people can sometimes accurately judge another’s trustworthiness from the face.

Read the complete article from Scientific American here: Uncovering the Secrets of a Trustworthy Face

The Mere Presence of Your Smartphone Reduces Brain Power, Study Shows

Your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach — even if it’s off. That’s the takeaway finding from a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. McCombs Assistant Professor Adrian Ward and co-authors conducted experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users in an attempt to measure, for the first time, how well people can complete tasks when they have their smartphones nearby even when they’re not using them.

In one experiment, the researchers asked study participants to sit at a computer and take a series of tests that required full concentration in order to score well. The tests were geared to measure participants’ available cognitive capacity — that is, the brain’s ability to hold and process data at any given time. Before beginning, participants were randomly instructed to place their smartphones either on the desk face down, in their pocket or personal bag, or in another room. All participants were instructed to turn their phones to silent.

The researchers found that participants with their phones in another room significantly outperformed those with their phones on the desk, and they also slightly outperformed those participants who had kept their phones in a pocket or bag. The findings suggest that the mere presence of one’s smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity and impairs cognitive functioning, even though people feel they’re giving their full attention and focus to the task at hand.

Read the complete article from the University of Texas at Austin here: The Mere Presence of Your Smartphone Reduces Brain Power, Study Shows

The full text journal article from the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research can be found here: Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

Practice testing protects memory against stress

Learning by taking practice tests, a strategy known as retrieval practice, can protect memory against the negative effects of stress, report scientists from Tufts University in a new study published in Science on Nov. 25.

In experiments involving 120 student participants, individuals who learned a series of words and images by retrieval practice showed no impairment in memory after experiencing acute stress. Participants who used study practice, the conventional method of re-reading material to memorize it, remembered fewer items overall, particularly after stress.

Read the complete article and see a video from Tufts University here: Practice testing protects memory against stress

Liar, Liar: How the Brain Adapts to Telling Tall Tales

Telling small lies desensitizes our brains to the associated negative emotions and may encourage us to tell bigger lies in future, reveals research from scientists at the University College London and Duke University.

“Whether it’s evading taxes, being unfaithful, doping in sports, making up data or committing financial fraud, deceivers often recall how small acts of dishonesty snowballed over time,” U.C.L. neuroscientist Tali Sharot, the work’s senior author, told members of the press during a teleconference last Friday. The team's findings confirm in a laboratory setting that dishonesty grows with repetition. The researchers also used brain imaging to reveal a neural mechanism that may help explain why. “We suspected there might be a basic biological principle of how our brain works that contributes to this phenomenon, called emotional adaptation,” Sharot said.

Read the complete article from Scientific American here: Liar, Liar: How the Brain Adapts to Telling Tall Tales

The full text journal article from Nature Neuroscience can be found here: The brain adapts to dishonesty

Cold and Bubbly: The Sensory Qualities that Best Quench Thirst

New research from the Monell Center and collaborators finds that oral perceptions of coldness and carbonation help to reduce thirst, the uncomfortable sensation caused by the need to drink fluids. Because thirst and its cessation contribute to how much fluid a person drinks, the current findings could help guide sensory approaches to increase fluid intake in populations at risk for dehydration, including the elderly, soldiers, and athletes.

While it is commonly believed that rehydration alleviates thirst, in actuality thirst is relieved, and the act of drinking ceases, long before a consumed liquid is absorbed by the body. Sensory cues in the mouth appear to play a role in thirst quenching, but the specific signals that the body uses to determine the amount of liquid consumed and when to stop drinking remain largely unknown.

Read the complete article from the Monell Center here: Cold and Bubbly: The Sensory Qualities that Best Quench Thirst

The full text journal article from PLOS ONE can be found here: Oral Cooling and Carbonation Increase the Perception of Drinking and Thirst Quenching in Thirsty Adults

Your brain might be hard-wired for altruism

It’s an age-old quandary: Are we born “noble savages” whose best intentions are corrupted by civilization, as the 18th century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended? Or are we fundamentally selfish brutes who need civilization to rein in our base impulses, as the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued?

After exploring the areas of the brain that fuel our empathetic impulses — and temporarily disabling other regions that oppose those impulses — two UCLA neuroscientists are coming down on the optimistic side of human nature. “Our altruism may be more hard-wired than previously thought,” said Leonardo Christov-Moore, a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior. The findings, reported in two recent studies, also point to a possible way to make people behave in less selfish and more altruistic ways, said senior author Marco Iacoboni, a UCLA psychiatry professor.

Read the complete article from the UCLA Newsroom here: Your brain might be hard-wired for altruism

The full text journal article for the first study can be found here: Self-Other Resonance, Its Control and Prosocial Inclinations: Brain–Behavior Relationships and a proof for the second study can be found here: Increasing generosity by disrupting prefrontal cortex