Extras
Neuroscience

Extras


Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut:

Just in time for the latest series of X-factor: "A frog in your throat or in your ear? Searching for the causes of poor singing."

Drinking decaffeinated coffee boosts mood, vigour, attention, psychomotor speed and reward responsivity, so long as you think it's got caffeine in it.

A statistical error that's widespread in neuroscience (pdf via author website).

Memory in women is sensitive to male voice pitch.

Nostalgia provides us with existential meaning.

Does sexism motivate some of the advice offered to pregnant women?

When Prisoners Take Over the Prison: A Social Psychology of Resistance.

Obstacles, literal and metaphorical, trigger a global processing "big picture" style of thought.

Understanding workplace boredom among white collar employees.

Bisexual men really are aroused physically and subjectively by both sexes (for years past research has failed to demonstrate this).

Spoiler false alarm! People enjoy stories more when they know what's going to happen.

There's too much emphasis on individual face-to-face therapy.

Hearty, social laughter increases pain tolerance.

Male dance moves that catch a woman's eye.

Health and psychological well-being benefits of pets have yet to be proven.

At what stage do unborn babies start to perceive pain? "The results suggest that specific neural circuits necessary for discrimination between touch and nociception emerge from 35–37 weeks gestation in the human brain."

Bereaved parents more likely to die in ensuing years after loss than are non-bereaved parents.

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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.




- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut: The neural correlates of aesthetic appreciation: "We present here the most comprehensive analysis to date of neuroaesthetic processing ..." Why do we take such a lenient view of white-collar criminals?...

- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut: The science of stepping off a kerb. Women's telephone calls last longer than men's. What's it like to live with parents who have OCD? Appealing to a sense of common humanity among...

- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut: Why pop-up ads on the computer don't work and just annoy. Do people use reverse psychology in everyday life? Brief and rare mental “breaks” keep you focused. Men say they're less likely...

- The Power Of A Light Touch On The Arm
A good-looking man approached 120 women in a night club over a period of three weeks, and asked them to dance. It was in the name of science – the man was an assistant to the psychologist Nicolas Guegen. Remarkably, of the 60 women who he touched lightly...

- You Hunky Smile Magnet
It seems beauty isn’t all in the eye of the beholder after all. Researchers have shown women rate a man as more attractive after they’ve seen another woman smiling at him. By contrast, being a jealous bunch, male observers rate a man as less attractive...



Neuroscience








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