Want To Know Whether A Movie Or Book Will Be A Hit? Look At How Emotional The Reviews Are
By Emma Young
You want to choose a new vacuum cleaner, or book, or hotel, or kids’ toy, or movie to watch — so what do you do? No doubt, you go online and check the star ratings for various options on sites such as Amazon or TripAdvisor, and so benefit from the wisdom of crowds.
However, there are problems with this star-based system, as a new paper in Nature Human Behaviour makes clear. Firstly, most ratings are positive — so how do you choose between two, or potentially many more, products with high ratings, or even the same top rating? Secondly, star ratings aren’t a great predictor of the success (an...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 12, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion Media Source Type: blogs
Self-Reflection Can Make You A Better Leader At Work
By Emily Reynolds
What does being a good leader mean to you? Having tonnes of charisma? Being intelligent? Encouraging fairness and participation in the workplace? Whatever combination of qualities you value, it’s likely that your vision of good leadership is different from your colleague’s or your manager’s, who themselves will have a highly personal vision of who they want to be at work.
A new study from Remy E. Jennings at the University of Florida and colleagues, published in Personnel Psychology, looks closely at this individualised idea of leadership — our “best possible leader self”. If we focus a...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 11, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: leadership Occupational Source Type: blogs
In English, Round And Spiky Objects Tend To Have “Round” And “Spiky” Sounds
By Emma Young
Many of us are familiar with the “bouba/kiki”, or “maluma/takete” effect — that we tend to pair round, blobby shapes with the words “bouba” or “maluma” and spiky shapes with “kiki” or “takete”. These findings hold for speakers of many different languages and ages, and various explanations for the effect have been proposed.
But these studies have almost exclusively used made-up words (like these four), note the authors of a new paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, who have found that the effect is also at play in the En...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 10, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Language Source Type: blogs
Flags And Phrenology: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
“Grumpy” dogs may be better learners than their more agreeable counterparts, reports James Gorman at The New York Times. Researchers found that grumpier canines were better at learning how to reach an object placed behind a fence by observing a stranger. But other scientists suggest that something more specific than “grumpiness” is responsible for the animals’ superior performance, such as increased aggression, reduced inhibition, or hyperactivity.
Adults are more compassionate when children are around. That’s according...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs
Humans Aren ’t The Only Animals To Experience Jealousy — Dogs Do, Too
By Emily Reynolds
Jealousy is a fairly common human emotion — and for a long time, it was presumed it truly was only human. Some have argued that jealousy, with its focus on social threat, requires a concept of “self” and a theory of mind — being jealous of someone flirting with your partner, for example, requires a level of threat (real or imagined) to your relationship. This element of jealousy has been used to argue that animals, without such a sense of self, are therefore unable to experience it.
However a new study, published in Psychological Science, suggests this might not be the case. Ama...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 6, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Comparative Emotion Source Type: blogs
Mindfulness Can Make Independent-Minded People Less Likely To Help Others
By Emily Reynolds
Mindfulness — in basic terms, the practice of being “present” in the moment and paying attention to one’s own thoughts and feelings — has seen something of a boom over the last few years. In the United States, the mindfulness business is set to reach a value of $2 billion by next year, while in the United Kingdom, lockdown saw a spike in downloads for digital meditation offerings such as Headspace and Calm.
But is mindfulness all it’s cracked up to be? While it certainly has its benefits, some argue that it encourages blind acceptance of the status quo, taking us so far in...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 5, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Cognition Social The self Source Type: blogs
Here ’s The Best Way To Forgive And Forget
By Emma Young
If somebody else has treated you badly, what are the best strategies for overcoming this, and moving on?
There has been, of course, an enormous amount of research in this field, in relation to everything from getting over a romantic break-up to coping with the after-effects of civil war. Now a new study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, led by Saima Noreen at De Montfort University, specifically investigates how different types of forgiveness towards an offender can help people who are intentionally trying to forget an unpleasant incident.
As the name ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - May 4, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Memory Social Source Type: blogs
Free Will And Facial Expressions: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
It’s not possible to reliably predict the emotions someone is experiencing based just on their facial expressions. And yet tech companies are trying to do just that. At The Atlantic, Kate Crawford explores some of these attempts — and the contested research on which they are based.
At Science, Kelly Servick takes a look at attempts to understand and treat the “brain fog” experienced by some COVID-19 survivors.
Short sessions of unconscious bias training are unlikely to produce any long-term changes in the workplace. B...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 30, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs
People Hold Negative Views About Those Who Believe Life Is Meaningless
By Emily Reynolds
“The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless,” wrote Leo Tolstoy in A Confession, a succinct summing up of the nihilist worldview. Depressing as it may be, nihilism seems to be on the rise, with the importance of finding a meaningful worldview steadily decreasing over the last decade or so.
But how do other people view nihilists? This is the question posed by Matthew J. Scott and Adam B. Cohen of Arizona State University in a new paper published in The Journal of Social Psychology. They find that stereotypes of nihilists are overwhelmingly negative — and unli...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 29, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Personality Source Type: blogs
Passion Is Linked To Greater Academic Achievement — But In Some Cultures More Than Others
By Emily Reynolds
“Passion” is a word that often crops up on job descriptions and in interviews; articles proliferate online explaining how to adequately express your passion to potential employers. On the whole, passionate people — those who have a strong interest in a particular topic, who are confident in themselves and who dedicate themselves to what they’re doing — are thought of in a positive light, and considered likely to achieve their goals.
But when it comes to predicting achievement, how important is passion really? According to Xingyu Li from Stanford University and colleagues, writ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 28, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Cross-cultural Educational Source Type: blogs
Students With ADHD Aren ’t Always Given The Support They Need To Thrive At University
By Emily Reynolds
Doing well in educational settings can have huge advantages — better job prospects, higher wages, greater life satisfaction and more. Achievement at university isn’t always to do with how hard you work or how intelligent you are, however — first generation university students are more at risk of impostor syndrome, for example, reducing their engagement in class, their attendance, and their overall performance.
And for those with extra needs, university can offer all kinds of extra challenges, as a new study in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology makes clear. It finds tha...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 27, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: ADHD Educational Source Type: blogs
How Much Do You Want To Exercise Right Now? Researchers Are Studying People ’s In-The-Moment Motivation To Be Active
By Emma Young
Think back to the last time that you did some exercise. What exactly prompted you to get up and do it? Was it because it was scheduled? Or because you felt a strong urge to engage in some physical activity (or maybe a bit of both)?
Traditionally, researchers have explored a person’s general disposition to exercise, and looked at strategies to increase their exercise levels over a week, a month, or longer. However, a team led by Matt Stults-Kolehmainen at Yale University, Yale-New Haven Hospital and Columbia University argues in new work in Frontiers in Psychology that it’s also crucial to consider ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 26, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Sport Source Type: blogs
Talking Dogs And Ending Conversations: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
A recent study has found that about two-thirds of conversations don’t end when we want them to. Researchers who monitored over 900 conversations found that most people wanted them to finish sooner, though a minority wanted them to continue for longer. This was true whether participants were talking to someone they had just met or a loved one, Adam Mastroianni tells Sean Illing at Vox.
How is lockdown affecting the way people grieve? Dean Burnett looks at the science, and his own personal experience, at New Scientist.
Yet mo...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 23, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs
Resolving Arguments Can Prevent Bad Feelings From Lingering — And We Get Better At It As We Age
By Emily Reynolds
“Don’t go to bed on an argument” is an adage we’ve all heard and, at some point, probably ignored. Hackneyed as it is, the phrase does have some truth: resolving arguments, rather than letting them simmer away, can make us feel calmer and happier the next day (and also makes it easier to actually get to sleep).
Now a new study from Oregon State University’s Dakota D. Witzel and Robert S. Stawski has looked at the benefits of resolving arguments — and the team finds that not only can resolution almost erase the emotional stress associated with a big argument altogether, but that individu...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 22, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Emotion Social Source Type: blogs
Unmet Sexual Needs Can Leave People Less Satisfied With Their Relationship — But Having A Responsive Partner Mitigates This Effect
This study suggests that people hold ideals about their sexual relationship — and when these ideals are not met, there are negative consequences. However, again, the data suggested that having a sexually communal partner mitigated this. In a final experimental study, the team found that participants who’d been led to believe that their sexual ideals were not being met reported lower levels of both types of satisfaction only if they rated their partner as low for sexual communal strength, but not if this score was high.
People with sexually communal partners may not feel that their sexual ideals are being entirely ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - April 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Sex Social Source Type: blogs
