Psychology

This Test Proves That Language Forces Your Brain To Create Simulations

Ever heard of “fictive motion”? It’s used in sentences like “The road runs along the coast” or “Bad times are approaching.” You may think it’s just a pretty turn of phrase, but it’s really a way to force your brain into a simulation, and this test proves it. Fictive motion, attributing motion to objects that…

Our Sense Of Free Will Diminishes When We Need To Pee Or Desire Sex

Embodied cognition theory states that our thoughts and emotions are profoundly affected by our physical bodies. A new study takes this idea further, claiming that our bodily states — particularly when they’re urgent — can even influence our metaphysical beliefs. Unlike Cartesian mind-body dualism, embodied cognition puts forth the notion that the mind is not…

To See Who Holds The Power In Your Relationships, Check Your Old Emails

Power dynamics are everywhere, from our personal relationships to our professional ones. Do you know where do you stand in yours? Here’s a little psychology experiment you can run at home. Finding out could be as simple as reading through your old e-mails. Photo Credit: TheStocks.im | CC BY 4.0 I’m going to spend the…

When Getting Angry Is the Most Rational Thing to Do

Anger gets a bad rap. Sure, when there’s too much of it or when it’s improperly applied it can cause damage, but you could say that for nearly any other emotion. Learn how anger can make you smarter, more competent, and more realistic. Anger is a Great Substitute for Fear or Despair As nasty as…

Cockatoos Learn To Make Tools By Watching Their Friends

More than fifty years ago, humans were pretty well convinced that they were special, different from the rest of the animal kingdom. That all changed in 1964 when Jane Goodall reported her observations of tool use in chimpanzees. Now we have evidence that Goffin’s cockatoos, parrots that don’t use tools in the wild, have the…

Make People Mute By Forcing Them To Listen to Themselves

You can’t talk and listen at the same time. Scientists proved this conclusively when they came up with speech shadowing experiments that rendered people mute by forcing them to listen to the drivel coming out of their mouths. In the 1950s Ludmilla Andreevna Chistovich, a psychologist in the USSR, had probably had just about enough…

The Personality Test That’s All About Hand Gestures

Here’s a personality test that is based on how we interpret vague hand gestures. Take a look at what people can tell from what is essentially a drawing exercise, and decide if you want to contribute a hand gesture of your own. In the 1960s, psychologists were falling out of love with the Rorschach test.…

This Strange Phenomenon Allows Scientists To Control People’s Daydreams

Ever heard of the Perky Effect? It sounds cutesy-poo, but it’s an effect that has led to a decades-long investigation that reveals a startling truth. Even if you don’t consciously control your dreams, you probably think you control your daydreams. But that might not actually be true. C.W. Perky and the Color Yellow C.W. Perky…

This Personality Test Is Creative Writing In Disguise

The Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank can tell you what you’re like in 40 sentences, most of which will be written by you. The responses to very short prompts are scored according to how positive or negative they are. (I wish they had some scoring guidelines for how sarcastic they are, though.) Complete the following sentences:…

How Much Innuendo Do Kids Understand?

Almost all of us have, as adults, gone back to the stuff we watched as a kid and realized it contained some “dirty” stuff that went over our heads. Innuendo in kids comedies is pretty common. But how much innuendo do kids understand? Above is an infamous scene from Animaniacs, a popular kids show in…

The “Lady Macbeth Effect” Explains Why Bad People Wash Too Much

Can you cleanse yourself of your sins by literally washing your body? It’s debatable. But washing your body can cleanse you of the guilt you feel over those sins. The problem is that might not be a good thing. The need for ritual cleansing is so common that it has a name: The Lady Macbeth…

A new meta-analysis published inPsychological Science throws a bucket of cold water on the “10,000-hour rule” – the idea that “deliberate practice” of any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert at that skill. Fiona Rutherford breaks down the results over at NewStatesman.

What Do Animals Really Dream About?

If animals dream like us, where do they go in their slumber? Some scientists have discovered that we can peer into the minds of sleeping cats, birds and other creatures to find out. Photo Credit: cybermacs via flickr | CC BY 2.0 https://gizmodo.com/what-do-animals-dream-about-1625103575

What Do Animals Dream About?

“Almost all other animals are clearly observed to partake in sleep, whether they are aquatic, aerial, or terrestrial,” wrote Aristotle in his work On Sleep and Sleeplessness. But do other animals dream? On that the Greek philosopher also had an opinion. In The History of Animals, he wrote: “It would appear that not only do…

Disturbing False Memory Experiment Has Long-Lasting Effects

How easy is it to make you hate someone irrationally? All too easy, it turns out — with the help of false memories. A group of criminologists conducted a successful experiment with memory manipulation that’s intensely creepy — and has unsettling implications. Illustration by Color-Arcano Criminologists at the University of California Irvine convinced a group…

Surveys Can Make People Go Extreme

There are all kinds of reasons why people don’t tell the truth when asked questions. Sometimes they suddenly turn into fanatics. They hate, or love, anything. Here’s how you catch people when they go extreme, or when they try to just get along. We already know that people deliberately lie when given surveys on sex…

Don’t Worry, It Will Almost Never Be As Bad As You Think

Apparently the idea that “the art of losing isn’t hard to master,” isn’t just a poetic conceit. Scientists doing studies on how people think they’ll feel after disaster have found that people have no idea how little it will affect them. Turns out we’re all going to be a lot less miserable than we expect.…

Being the Boss Means Getting The (Second To) Last Cookie

Finally, there is an experiment that can fill me with ambition. A group of workers was given an insufficient cookie supply. (I know. Disgusting. It’s like a crummier version of the Stanford Prison Experiment.) And guess who got more than their share. In an experiment about power dynamics, researchers split students into groups of three…

This Is Why You Constantly Diagnose Yourself Over The Internet

How many times have you reviewed symptoms of psychological disorder on the internet and thought, “I have that!” You’re not alone, and there’s a reason for it. It’s also why psychic readings and the DSM can be very much alike. Rainbow Statements and the Forer Effect In 1948, Bertram Forer walked into the room of…

The Cultural Curse of Knowledge and Movie Spoilers

I’ve always demanded spoilers for what I watch, but I understand that most people like to go into films unspoiled. It’s odd then, that the curse of knowledge makes spoilers for the most important films of our time unavoidable. The “curse of knowledge” is pretty well known. People who have some piece of knowledge, whether…