Tag: social psychology
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Nation & World
What’s a little envy between friends?
The feeling can eat you alive — but only if you let it
3 minutes -
Nation & World
Turning a light on our implicit biases
Mahzarin Banaji, Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology, who studies implicit biases, was the featured speaker at an online seminar Tuesday, “Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People.”
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Nation & World
Not a popularity contest
New research from faculty at Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School finds that a majority of college freshmen believe others have more friends than they do, when they often don’t.
4 minutes -
Nation & World
How to be your best in 5 minutes
Harvard Business School social psychologist Amy Cuddy explains how tapping into our inner strength can help us make the most of life’s big challenges.
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Nation & World
Daniel M. Wegner famous for ‘thought suppression’
Daniel M. Wegner, a pioneering social psychologist who helped to reveal the mysteries of human experience through his work on thought suppression, conscious will, and mind perception, died July 5 at age 65.
5 minutes -
Nation & World
Of two minds
We resolve to exercise more and eat healthy, and then reach for a cupcake at the office holiday party. We pledge to put money away for retirement, but end up maxing out credit cards that charge 14 percent interest. According to Professor David Laibson, the reason for these struggles is that human beings are of…
5 minutes -
Nation & World
What are the “Hard Problems” in the social sciences?
Just over a century ago, one of the world’s leading mathematicians posed this question to a number of his colleagues: What are the most important unsolved questions in mathematics? The…
9 minutes -
Nation & World
Face it:
Gay men are most attracted to the most masculine-faced men, while straight men prefer the most feminine-faced women, according to the results of a new study by a Harvard researcher.…
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Nation & World
Neuroimaging suggests truthfulness requires no act of will for honest people
A new study of the cognitive processes involved with honesty suggests that truthfulness depends more on absence of temptation than active resistance to temptation. Using neuroimaging, psychologists looked at the…
4 minutes -
Nation & World
Childhood adversity may affect processing in the brain’s reward pathways
New research shows that childhood adversity is associated with diminished neural activity in certain regions of the brain. Harvard researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity…
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Nation & World
Study: Women more likely than men to reject unattractive babies
Women are more likely than men to reject unattractive-looking babies, according to a study by researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, possibly reflecting an evolutionary-derived need for diverting limited resources towards…
4 minutes -
Nation & World
Invention of cooking drove evolution of the human species, new book argues
“You are what you eat.” Can these pithy words explain the evolution of the human species? Yes, says Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, who argues in a new book that…
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Nation & World
New department reflects the evolution of human evolution
Earlier this month, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) made official what scientists worldwide have known for years: Harvard is a hotbed of research and teaching in the field…
4 minutes -
Nation & World
A mother’s criticism touches nerve in formerly depressed
Formerly depressed women show patterns of brain activity when they are criticized by their mothers that are distinctly different from the patterns shown by never-depressed controls, according to a new…
4 minutes -
Nation & World
Do you know what makes you happy?
Want to know what will make you happy? Then ask a total stranger — or so says a new study from Harvard University, which shows that another person’s experience is…
3 minutes -
Nation & World
“My genome, my self”
One of the perks of being a psychologist is access to tools that allow you to carry out the injunction to know thyself. I have been tested for vocational interest…
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Nation & World
Having happy friends can make you happy
If you’re happy and you know it, thank your friends — and their friends. And while you’re at it, their friends’ friends. But if you’re sad, hold the blame. Researchers…
5 minutes -
Nation & World
New study outlines formula for effective community partnerships with a lens on mental health of students in urban schools
Addressing and improving mental health outcomes for students is a particularly complex issue in urban public schools. Proposed solutions to critical situations are usually prepackaged suggestions from research conducted outside…
3 minutes -
Nation & World
Smoking is addictive but quitting is contagious
Over the last 30 years, the number of smokers in the U.S. has steadily decreased—a tribute to the efforts of public-health workers everywhere. And while this fact is unarguable, less…
5 minutes -
Nation & World
Children are attracted to the fortunate more than the unfortunate
Children as young as 5 prefer lucky individuals over the less fortunate, according to new research by psychologists at Harvard and Stanford University. This phenomenon, the researchers say, could clarify…
2 minutes -
Nation & World
‘Virginity pledges’ by adolescents may bias their reports of premarital sex
Adolescents who sign a “virginity pledge” and then go on to have premarital sex are likely to disavow having signed such a pledge, according to an analysis of survey data…
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Nation & World
Harvard studies Katrina survivors
A new project, funded by a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, will recruit Katrina survivors around the country to serve on the Hurricane Katrina Community…
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Nation & World
Feelings are key to negotiation
In any negotiation, says Roger Fisher, the Samuel Williston Professor Emeritus of Law and the director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, “there are a handful of things you can easily…
1 minute -
Nation & World
Born to add
In experiments, 5-year-olds, who had no real experience using number symbols, “added” two arrays of dots and compared them to a third array. When researchers replaced the third array of…
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Nation & World
Getting to fear you
Researchers showed some 20 young black and white women and men pictures of a snake and a spider, followed by pictures of a bird and a butterfly. Humans, apes, and…
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Nation & World
Intimate partner violence
The study’s lead author, Megan Gerber, a practicing physician at Cambridge Health Alliance and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, notes: “Our study hopes to raise physician awareness of…
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Nation & World
Changing behavior: Easier than we thought?
At a Harvard-convened social science research conference on Nov. 14, 2003, research from the fields of economics, social psychology, and public health showed how psychological changes could affect sexual health,…
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Nation & World
ESL children not at a reading disadvantage
Harvard researcher Nonie Lesaux’s study, published in the journal “Developmental Psychology” in November 2003, tracked 1,000 children speaking native English and English as a second language (ESL) in mainstream English…
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Nation & World
Dictionary collects American regional expressions
Besides shedding light on mind-teasing and sense-pleasing expressions, the Dictionary of Regional English (DARE) is a fun book to browse through – all four volumes. Hundreds of maps show where…
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Nation & World
Brain shows unconscious prejudices
A brain area involved with fear flashes more actively when white college students are exposed to subliminal views of black versus white faces. The students didn’t actually “see” the faces,…
1 minute