The chances that a reply to a question is honest depends a lot on how the question is formulated. In a study where salesmen had to sell an electronic device with a serious defect that made it malfunction, 89% of salesmen revealed the existence of the defect if buyer’s asked: “What problems does the device...
Showing someone pictures of people helping or taking care of one another mitigates his/her response to threat, danger or provocation. The amygdala is the area of the brain that decides our response to threats. Studies show that the response this area gives to threatening faces or words is strongly inhibited by the preceding view of...
Just think if you did not have a birth certificate nor anybody who remembered when you were born. What age would you give yourself? Science is interested in this question. Not everyone feels the years in the same way. Some feel older than what they are and some younger and Medicine now speaks of Subjective...
We like to believe that if necessary, we would stand up to what our boss is saying, intervene to help someone being bullied, say No if asked to do something wrong. The truth is that we usually do not stand up against what is happening. It is not a question of lack of courage or...
If we had no basic knowledge of numbers, we would be unable to go shopping, have a bank account, understand a recipe to make a cake or if the wardrobe we are about to buy will pass through the door or how much interest we are paying on a loan. It is not just a...
Many young girls are ‘unhappy with their body’. The dissatisfaction can lead to a variety of problems amongst which anxiety, depression and eating disorders. Of the many therapeutic interventions, one in particular is gaining attention for its successful results. Girls ‘who feel uncomfortable with how they see themselves’ are asked to write two letters to...
To succeed in work or study you must concentrate and keep your mind on what you’re doing. However there appear to be some exceptions. For those tasks where you must be creative, concentration might even be counter- productive, whereas distractions could help find original solutions. A group of students was asked to list all the...
Public opinion on issues such as gay marriage, immigration, free arms sale, driving license for women may remain unchanged for decades and then suddenly change. Sociologists are trying to understand if there are rules as to how masses of people change their mind over certain issues. It was thought that to change people’s opinions a...
According to a study news concerning terrorist attacks, natural disasters or potential threats becomes more negative, imprecise and dramatic as it passes from one person to another. Strangely, the negative amplification continues even if at some point the original news is proposed. For example, if two victims in a terrible ferry disaster become twenty by...
“Should my child be rewarded/punished for getting a good/bad mark at school?” Are reward and punishment the opposite extremes of a response or two independent factors. Psychologists believe that they are independent behaviors and that punishments are two to three times more effective than prizes in modifying behavior. A group of boys and girls were...
