Most of us don’t have a desire for unlimited wealth
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emily Reynolds Do humans always want more, or are we sometimes just happy with our lot? This debate has long raged in multiple disciplines: economics, politics, and even philosophy. And whether an unlimited desire for more is inherent or a product of capitalism is equally hotly contested. Paul G. Bain from the University of Bath and Renata Bongiorno from Bath Spa University explore this question in a new paper published in Nature Sustainability. They find that the assumption we always want more, no matter how much we have, may not be completely accurate: while some of us do have unlimi ..read more
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Racial biases shape the way people interpret body poses
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emma Young People reliably interpret expansive poses — with the arms and legs spread and the head held high — as a signal of dominance, or power. But work to date on perceptions of body poses has focused on White targets, note the authors of a new paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition. As research shows that Black people are often stereotyped as aggressive, hostile and threatening, might an expansive pose lead others to perceive them as being more aggressive than a White person holding their body in exactly the same way? Francine Karm ..read more
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People with no mind’s eye have less vivid and detailed memories
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Matthew Warren When we’re asked to imagine a scene or object, most of us are able to conjure up an image in our mind’s eye. But about 2-5% of the population can’t do this: they have a condition called aphantasia, and are unable to produce mental imagery at all. Now a study published in Cognition has found that aphantasia can affect memory abilities too. The researchers report that aphantasics have less detailed and rich memories for events in their lives: a finding that not only reveals more about the condition, but also highlights the key role of mental imagery in memory generally. Pa ..read more
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Daily skin-to-skin contact in weeks after birth linked to less crying and better sleep
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emma Young Few things are as stressful as listening to your baby crying — and excessive crying is clearly not good for the baby, either. Skin-to-skin contact is widely used in the first hours after a birth, with benefits for infants and parents. But, according to a new paper in Developmental Psychology, a daily hour of skin-to-skin contact for weeks afterwards is beneficial, too: it reduces crying and improves sleep. Kelly Cooijmans at Radboud University, in the Netherlands, and her colleagues recruited Dutch healthy first-time mothers with full-term infants for their randomized contro ..read more
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Drinking coffee before shopping can lead to impulse buying
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emily Reynolds Those wanting to eat more healthily and save money are often advised not to go food shopping while hungry, the theory being that we make less prudent purchases when we’re more concerned with satisfying our immediate needs than thinking about long term goals. But how do other states of mind affect our purchases? We’d probably not think anything of having a cup of coffee or a can of Coke before going shopping. But a new study, published in the Journal of Marketing, finds that caffeine may have a bigger impact than we think, with participants spending more and buying more t ..read more
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Working memory training won’t make you more intelligent
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emma Young What can you do to make yourself smarter? All kinds of interventions have been designed and tried, mostly with little success. However, some studies have suggested that training working memory is effective. This has led to it becoming the most popular form of intelligence-training intervention, write the authors of new paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. There have been mixed results in this area though, and, the team argues, potential problems with the methodology of some previous studies, making it hard to draw firm conclusions ..read more
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National narcissists are more willing to conspire against their fellow citizens
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emma Young Narcissists feel that they are exceptional, and don’t get the recognition they deserve. But narcissistic beliefs can apply to a group, too. Feeling that your nation, religion, organisation, or political party is superior but under-appreciated is known as “collective narcissism“. And now a team led by Mikey Biddlestone at the University of Cambridge reports that collective narcissists are more willing to conspire against other members of their own group.  The team’s paper, in the British Journal of Psychology, reports studies on people from Poland, the UK, and the US. In ..read more
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Fans of horror movies are just as kind and compassionate as everyone else
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Matthew Warren What kind of person wants to watch a movie where a boatload of people gets gruesomely cut in half by a wire, or where a man saws off his own foot to escape the sadistic games of a serial killer? You’d have to be pretty coldhearted and cruel to enjoy that kind of thing, right? That’s certainly how horror fans have historically been portrayed, at least by some commentators. But a new study finds no evidence for this stereotype. Fans of horror films are just as kind and compassionate as everyone else, according to the preprint published on PsyArXiv — and in some respec ..read more
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We don’t trust extraverts more than introverts
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emily Reynolds When you think of an extravert, what personality traits come to mind? Sociability? Fun? While we often make positive judgments about extraversion, the picture is more complex, with negative traits also projected onto extraverts. Some research suggests that extraverts are seen as poorer listeners, for example. A new study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, looks specifically at how much people trust those who are extraverted. The team finds that agreeableness, not extraversion, is the key to gaining trust in social situations. In the first stud ..read more
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Merely expecting to feel stressed has a negative effect on our mood
Research Digest
by BPS Research Digest
1y ago
By Emily Reynolds Elections can be stressful. Research has looked into the distress of Americans when Trump was elected, and elections have also been linked to an increase in anxiety and stress, and poorer sleep quality. Most of this research, however, has looked at what happens after an election result, not before. A new study takes a different look, asking how the approach of an election result can impact people’s mental health. Writing in the International Journal of Psychology, a team from North Carolina State University finds that simply anticipating election stress has a negative ef ..read more
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