dmunger

Political opinion polls are very tricky. Answers to questions depend on the order they're asked in, and on precisely how they are phrased. If you ask people whether they're in favor of killing unborn children, you'll get a much different response than if you ask if there's any situation where women…

Take a look at this face: Does it look more angry or fearful? It may be rather difficult to tell: About fifty percent of adults say faces like this are angry and fifty percent say it's fearful. However, for children, the story is different. Researchers have found that small children aren't as good…

Product placements in movies and TV shows are becoming so commonplace that my kids now cynically take note of them whenever they appear. It wasn't always that way. In 1982 when I first saw E.T. I had no idea that Elliott's use of Reeses' Pieces to lure E.T. into his home was part of a clever…

Over at SEEDMAGAZINE.COM, my column discusses the recent flurry of blog posts and media reporting on the placebo effect. Here's a snippet: This is the primary misconception about placebos: that the placebo itself is somehow "working" to treat a medical condition. You can see it even in the headline…

Political opinion polls are funny things. A recent poll suggests that Americans are much less concerned about global warming than they were a couple years ago. What happened? The science hasn't changed, and the world isn't putting out any fewer greenhouse gases. It seems that respondents must…

When Jim and Nora were in elementary school, both Greta and I worked challenging jobs, so we did whatever we could to save time. Instead of bringing lunches made by their parents, the kids bought hot meals at school. The school was proud of its cafeteria. Kids had credit accounts, which meant they…

In case you missed them, here are my picks from ResearchBlogging.org's Psychology and Neuroscience posts from the past week. Mice navigate a virtual-reality maze. Go for the amazingly cute video. Stay for the science! Brain imaging for lie-detection doesn't live up to the hype. Remember all those…

Recently we took our hybrid car into the shop for its annual emissions test. In our state, the test is conducted while the car is idling. A hybrid doesn't actually idle -- it shuts the engine off completely. So our car's emissions were tested at 0 RPM. It may be time to rethink our state's…

Almost three years ago, we conducted our first-ever Casual Fridays study, where we asked who says "hi" to you while you're outside exercising. The results confirmed my suspicions: Runners report that they say "hi" to walkers 57.1 percent of the time. But looking back at the other graph, walkers…

I've just read an engrossing report about some very promising research in a an exciting field. The researchers combined fMRI research with genetic analysis to see if they could identify a genetic basis for anger. And they actually found something quite interesting. If I was writing for the New York…

In case you missed them, here are my picks this week for psychology/neuroscience posts from ResearchBlogging.org. Viewers of videos synchronize their blinking. It's true. When people watch videos in a group, they tend to blink at the same time. Steve Genco explains why. The goal really does seem…

For the first-ever Casual Fridays study nearly four years ago, we asked readers who said "hi" to them while they were out for a walk or run: Today's entry is a survey designed to test a hypothesis I've been developing during my daily run. I think I've noticed a pattern in the responses of people I…

Classical Indian dancing is a tradition that extends back 2,000 years. Unlike much Western dance, it is intended to express specific emotions and tell detailed stories. The Natyasastra, a text from the first or second century A.D., offers instructions for how to depict nine primary emotions, and…

In case you missed them, here are my picks of the week from psychology and Neuroscience from ResearchBlogging.org: Ever wondered how brain cells manage to form synapses only with other cells, and not with themselves? Neuroskeptic describes a fascinating study demonstrating how neurons avoid…

I think I've mentioned here before that I'm a big fan of chocolate. I get upset when coffee shops in my area only bring out the chocolates in the afternoon. Who says you can't have a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast? Chocolate, combined with a cup of coffee, helps me work all the way through to…

Whenever I create a demo for this site, there's always a balance: Do I make the demo dramatic, so it's most surprising when it works? Or do I make it less dramatic, so it works for more people? (There are other things to balance as well, such as my time and technical proficiency) The Troxler effect…

The other day, our car wouldn't start and Jim had to ask a neighbor over to help him jump-start it. There was much rushing in and out of the house looking for flashlights and other tools to help get the job done. After the neighbor left, Jim wanted to drive somewhere and couldn't find the keys.…

Here are my picks this week for the best psychology/neuroscience posts on ResearchBlogging.org. Who feels pain after surgery...LONG after surgery? As many as 50 percent of patients report pain long after surgery. Healthskills examines a paper exploring some of the reasons why. Speaking of pain,…

Imagine you learned your romantic partner was unfaithful to you. Would you be more upset if he or she had sex with someone else, or if they had fallen in love with someone else? Several studies have found that the answer to that question depends on the your gender. Women say they would be more…

A couple weeks ago I discussed the Troxler Effect in my column on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. Some people said they couldn't see the illusion, so I thought it might be interesting to play around with the effect and see if people can see it under different circumstances. For this week's Casual Fridays study…

As an undergraduate, at my school it was practically a requirement to steal silverware from the campus cafeteria. There were students who'd commandeered full sets of china. The desk clerk at my dorm used to say that the only thing we were learning from our college education was "how to steal."…

My column on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM today addresses the definition of "addiction." Does it make sense to lump all dependence on substances and even all habits under the umbrella of "dependence?" Here's a selection: We often think of true addicts as street junkies who prostitute themselves or steal from…

Imagine your neighbor has a dog that regularly escapes her yard. One day you see the dog escape and return it to her. She thanks you by giving you a piece of delicious home-made apple pie. This happens several days in a row. Then one day when you return the dog, there's no pie, no thanks, and no…

Last week's Casual Fridays study was inspired by my annoyance at a website form which required me to constantly switch between typing in information and selecting it from a menu. I wondered if there was really any significant benefit to requiring the use of menus, when typing (for me, anyways)…

Teens who routinely exercise (especially in organized activities like team sports) are less likely to smoke or abuse drugs or alcohol. This fact alone might make it seem like a no-brainer to include physical activities in substance-abuse prevention and treatment programs, but in fact little…

My column for SEEDMAGAZINE.COM today covers the fascinating research on perceptual illusions. While these illusions are often amazing in their own right, what's more important is what they tell us about the visual system, and how common they really are: Are you sitting in a swivel office chair as…

We've talked a lot on Cognitive Daily about change blindness: the inability to spot visual differences between images and even real people and objects right before our eyes. The most dramatic demonstration might be Daniel Simons' "experiment" that took place before participants even knew they were…

We've all had the experience of a completely infuriating electronic form. My "favorite" example is a calendar application I once had that wouldn't let me delete numbers in certain places: there had to be something in the box, and you couldn't even delete a number temporarily to replace it with a…

In case you missed them, here are the posts I chose as "Editor's Selections" yesterday for ResearchBlogging.org. The amazing malleability of our body image. Volunteers felt real pain watching someone hurt a fake hand. Can we use EEG to predict whether an antidepressant will be effective? Maybe,…

Imagine a critical witness being grilled in preparation for a high-profile murder case. The prosecuting attorney wants to make sure she has every angle covered, so she questions the witness over and over to double- and triple-check that he has his story right. When he finally takes the stand, he…