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
Learning new information is hard, as any student can attest. Repeating new information aloud can improve a person's ability to remember it later, and a new study in the journal Consciousness and Cognition shows that repeating this information aloud to another person boosts this even further.
Scientists at the University of Montreal asked 44 French-speaking students to read a series of words on a screen while wearing headphones emitting white noise to eliminate any exterior sounds. The students were randomized to one of four conditions: repeating in their head, repeating silently while moving their lips, repeating aloud while looking at the screen, and finally, repeating aloud while addressing someone. After a short break, the students were then asked to remember which words they had read. Repeating the words in the presence of someone else showed the highest effect on memory, even though the students couldn't hear what they were saying. The researchers believe that the social context helps improve recall of words.
Read the complete article from the University of Montreal here: Repeating aloud to another person boosts recall
