Psychology

Baseball players who smile on their playing cards live longer

Multiple studies have shown that how much a person smiles in childhood photographs can predict their future happiness. And now, thanks to baseball playing cards, we know smiling actually makes you live longer. Of course, it isn’t actually the smiling itself that makes people live longer, but rather the positive emotions and outlook one can…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Great apes might be just as smart as humans after all

Our closest relatives – including chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans – have long been considered fundamentally less intelligent than humans. But that could soon change. Tests of primate intelligence may have been unfairly biased in humanity’s favor. The question of whether one species is more intelligent than another can be incredibly tricky, not least because intelligence…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Electronic Scanner Could Let Psychologists Read and Record Your Dreams

A doctor sits in front of a screen, analyzing and recording the neurons firing as you lay asleep, dreaming, electrodes implanted in your brain. He can tell exactly what you’re dreaming about. Reality? Not quite yet. Dr. Moran Cerf is in the process of collecting a neuron-thought database from his patients (volunteers, who do actually…

Tech News Christina Bonnington

Airplane food tastes bad because your brain can’t handle the noise

For as long as there have been hack comedians, humanity has pondered the question: “What’s the deal with airline food?” Well, science has figured it out: airplanes are just too damn loud for food to taste good. Generally speaking, it’s not just that airplane food tastes bad – most passengers, when asked, report that the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Gateway by Frederik Pohl: The most dreadful of Hugo winners

Long before he was named Best Fan Writer — way back in 1978, in fact — Frederik Pohl won another Hugo (and a Nebula too), for his novel Gateway. And yikes, what a book. https://gizmodo.com/congratulations-to-the-2010-hugo-award-winners-5630533 Gateway is one of the Hugo winners I’d read before starting this project, and when I think about it, it’s…

io9 Josh Wimmer

Animals can have spiritual experiences just like humans

From a neurological perspective, spiritual sensations like out-of-body experiences are fairly easy to understand. They’re the result of changes in the brain’s arousal system. But animals have the same system as humans…meaning animals could have a spirituality all their own. This new theory is put forward by University of Kentucky neuroscientist Kevin Nelson. He freely…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The short-lived glory days of nude psychotherapy

In 1967, psychologist Paul Bindrim introduced the world to the salubrious properties of naked psychotherapy. Despite the treatment’s somewhat lurid connotations and relative obscurity nowadays, nude psychotherapy did garner its share of press attention, professional consideration, and happy, naked adherents. Bindrim’s theories were inspired by the famed psychologist Abraham Maslow (you know, the fellow with…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

How ghosts, superstitions, and vampires have been used for psychological warfare

Military psy ops aren’t limited to leaflets, propaganda broadcasts, and Korean pop music. In the past, the US military has played on their opponent superstitions of vampires, ghosts, and astrology. Here are some strange examples. https://gizmodo.com/south-korea-may-weaponize-girly-k-pop-for-psychological-5562789 In World War II, US forces exploited the Nazi’s predilection to put stock in superstitions and the occult. The…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

We like robots better when they aren’t perfect at their jobs

Wheelchair-bound people who use robotic arms as assistants don’t like it when those arms work perfectly. Researchers found that when a robotic system offers a precise automatic mode, people using it preferred manual mode, even when that caused more mistakes. In the first Iron Man movie, Tony Stark kept working with ‘Butterfingers’, a robotic arm…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Children as young as four can understand irony

Anybody hoping to sneak some withering sarcasm past an unsuspecting little brat is going to be sorely disappointed. Even the littlest of children can understand irony. Turns out children really aren’t so different from us after all. Being able to understand non-literal communication is a crucial phase in a child’s development, and the development of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Children and adults see the world in fundamentally different ways

As we get older, our senses actually “fuse” together, and we lose the ability to focus on isolated pieces of sensory information. This means adults perceive certain events far more accurately than children can… and vice versa. Once people reach about the age of twelve, they start to combine sensory information to make better sense…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Men and women act differently after sex because of evolution

The different behaviors of males and females in the bedroom has been ably investigated by decades of stand-up comics, but only now are scientists entering the fray to examine the deeper motivations of post-coital activities. Evolutionary psychology to the rescue! Via the always great NCBI ROFL comes this new study from psychologists at Albright College.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

How to Catch a Terrorist: Read His Brainwaves

It’s been a dream of scientists, interrogators and law enforcement professionals for years: Strap a terrorist suspect to a couple of electrodes, start asking him questions, and watch his brainwaves rat him out. In a recent paper, a Northwestern University professor uses some of his recent fieldwork to urge the intelligence community to give the…

Privacy & Security Spencer Ackerman

Genetics determine whether you’re willing to take a survey…according to a new survey

It seems like the most blatantly circular reasoning ever, but when researchers wanted to determine whether there’s a genetic component to people’s willingness to respond to a survey, there was only one way to do it. Send out a survey! A lot of work goes into improving surveys to eliminate (or, depending on the ethics…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Booty-calls are their own special form of relationship, according to medical science

Sometimes, a scientific paper’s title tells you everything you need to know. Like this one – “Positioning the booty-call relationship on the spectrum of relationships: sexual but more emotional than one-night stands.” Yes, science has figured out the truth…about booty-calls. The always amazing NCBI ROFL has the lowdown on this study, which argues that not…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Two heads really can be better than one…as long as those heads are similar

Two heads are supposedly better than one, but is this true when it comes to how we see the world? Combining people’s initial estimates really can make for better measurements – but only if both observers know what they’re doing. Although it seems intuitively true that two or more people would come up with a…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Two new scientific studies reveal hallucinogens are good for your mental health

LSD and ketamine, two powerful hallucinogens, are also potential cures for depression, OCD, and anxiety. Two studies published this week, in Science and Nature, confirm that hallucinogenic drugs stimulate healthy brain activity, even promoting the growth of neurons. Ketamine and depression The study in Science, released today, focused entirely on the drug ketamine. Used frequently…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Hannah Montana is the first real 21st century superhero

Pop culture has gone superhero-crazy, but almost all superheroes date from the middle of the last century. Where’s the new, fresh costumed adventurer who speaks to the ringtone generation? How about Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel’s superstar? Hannah Montana travels around, using her pop-star powers to save the world. Her main superpower is popularity, which…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Robots have needs too

Psychologist Abraham Maslow may have influenced generations of self-help gurus with his ideas about the hierarchy of human needs. But he forgot to explain robot needs. Luckily his omission has been corrected with this handy chart. Lunch Breath via Suicide Bots

io9 Annalee Newitz

The psychological secret to humor is making immoral behavior seem harmless

A sense of humor is one of our most fundamentally human behaviors, but psychologists and philosophers alike have never really been able to satisfactorily explain why we find certain things funny. The latest theory suggests it’s all about benign immorality. University of Colorado psychologists A. Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren set out for an all-encompassing…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Baseball players who smile on their playing cards live longer

Great apes might be just as smart as humans after all

Electronic Scanner Could Let Psychologists Read and Record Your Dreams

Airplane food tastes bad because your brain can’t handle the noise

Gateway by Frederik Pohl: The most dreadful of Hugo winners

Animals can have spiritual experiences just like humans

The short-lived glory days of nude psychotherapy

How ghosts, superstitions, and vampires have been used for psychological warfare

We like robots better when they aren’t perfect at their jobs

Children as young as four can understand irony

Children and adults see the world in fundamentally different ways

Men and women act differently after sex because of evolution

How to Catch a Terrorist: Read His Brainwaves

Genetics determine whether you’re willing to take a survey…according to a new survey

Booty-calls are their own special form of relationship, according to medical science

Two heads really can be better than one…as long as those heads are similar

Two new scientific studies reveal hallucinogens are good for your mental health

Hannah Montana is the first real 21st century superhero

Robots have needs too

The psychological secret to humor is making immoral behavior seem harmless

Andy Weir Apologizes After ‘Star Trek’ Comment Backlash

Scientists Discover Hidden Behavior in Water That Helps Explain Why Ice Floats

The ‘Paradise’ Season 2 Finale Paved the Way for a Wildly Sci-Fi Season 3

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