A University of Utah study suggests human hands evolved not only for the manual dexterity needed to use tools or play a violin, but also so we could make fists and punch hard. “The role aggression has played in our evolution has not been adequately appreciated,” says Professor David Carrier, senior author of the study […]
Applying thermography techniques to the field of psychology, Spanish scientists have observed the “Pinocchio effect,” where a person’s nose becomes warmer when they are lying. The researchers, from the University of Granada, also found that our face temperature drops when we are performing challenging mental tasks. Thermography was developed in the USA during World War […]
The first direct evidence that oxytocin promotes relationship fidelity in humans has been provided by a study that measured the distance men keep between themselves and an attractive woman. The work is documented in The Journal of Neuroscience. Oxytocin plays a vital role in triggering childbirth and facilitating mothering. It is known to promote bonds […]
Harvard scientists say that pica (the eating of non-food items) is far more prevalent in Madagascar than previously thought and men are partaking as often as pregnant women. In the new study, Harvard’s Christopher Golden and colleagues from Madagascar Health and Environmental Research surveyed 760 people in the northeastern corner of the island nation and […]
Frenetic activity between the emotional and auditory parts of the brain explains why the sound of a knife on a bottle is so unpleasant, say University of Newcastle (UK) researchers who have been examining fMRI brain scans of subjects listening to different sounds. Their study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, reveals the interaction between […]
Past research has linked physical attractiveness to success in a variety of fields, but a new study from the University of Granada (Spain) shows that beauty can be a handicap when it comes to culpability in domestic violence crimes. The research, published in the European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, looked specifically at […]
“Too soon!” complained the audience when comedian Jeffrey Ross did a skit about the recent shootings in Colorado, but psychologists exploring humor and tragedy say it’s not quite that simple. The new research, from the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, asked the question: when are tragedies okay to joke about – […]
A study examining visual processing in the brain found that men have greater sensitivity to detail and rapidly moving stimuli, while women are better at discriminating between colors. The findings, from researchers at the City University of New York, appear in the latest edition of Biology of Sex Differences. In one experiment, volunteers with normal […]
Research subjects drank beer from a curved glass almost twice as fast as from a straight sided glass, but the shape of the glass made no difference when the drinks were non-alcoholic, say Bristol University booze boffins. The subjects were 160 social drinkers aged 18 to 40 with no history of alcoholism. At one session […]
Male restaurant customers give consistently higher tips – around 20 percent more – to waitresses wearing red, say hospitality researchers. The study, in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, also found that clothing color had no discernible effect on the tipping habits of female customers. Researchers Nicolas Guéguen and Céline Jacob based their findings […]
