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social behavior

·January 11, 2024·3 min read

The Broccoli Experiment: How Facial Expressions Impact Food Love

Observing others' facial expressions while eating raw broccoli impacts women's liking but not their desire to eat it. A study examined the effects of positive, neutral, and negative facial expressions during broccoli consumption.

This shows a big face and a lot of people.

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·January 5, 2024·4 min read

Revealing Secrets: People’s Fear of Judgment is Overestimated

New research dispels fears of judgment when sharing secrets. Study shows that when individuals confide their secrets, others perceive them as more charitable and trustworthy.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·December 12, 2023·6 min read

Rejecting Invites: Less Impact on Relationships Than Feared

People often overestimate the negative consequences of declining social invitations. The study involved over 2,000 participants across five experiments. It showed that while individuals who declined invitations feared damaging their relationships, the inviters typically felt less upset than expected.

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·November 30, 2023·5 min read

Asch Study Reimagined: Navigating the Labyrinth of Conformity in the Contemporary Mind

A recent study replicates and extends Solomon Asch's famous conformity experiments, revealing intriguing insights about human behavior. The research demonstrates that monetary incentives reduce conformity errors in line-judging tasks, though social influence remains a factor.

This shows a woman sitting alone in a dark room.

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·November 24, 2023·3 min read

Hikikomori: New Tool Sheds Light on Social Isolation Phenomenon

Researchers developed the Hikikomori Diagnostic Evaluation (HiDE), a new assessment tool for identifying pathological social withdrawal or hikikomori. This condition, initially identified in Japan, is characterized by extended physical isolation lasting over six months and is increasingly observed worldwide, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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·November 15, 2023·9 min read

Infant Brain Development and Social Interactions

A new study delves into infant brain development and its impact on social interactions and stress recovery during the first year of life. Through functional MRI scans and interactive tasks with mothers, researchers observe early neural patterns. One study reveals that greater brain network connectivity at 3 months correlates with improved infant-mother dyadic flexibility at 6 months.

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·November 13, 2023·5 min read

The Elusive Link Between Brown Fat and Social Contact

A study exploring the link between brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity and the tendency for physical contact yielded inconclusive results, challenging earlier assumptions. Researchers attempted to replicate a 2012 study using infrared thermography to measure BAT activity, hypothesizing that lower activity might correlate with a greater need for physical contact.

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·November 9, 2023·7 min read

Best Practices Boost Replicability in Social Behavior Studies

A new study yielded a study demonstrating high replicability of findings in the social-behavioral sciences when best practices are applied. The six-year project involved the discovery and replication of 16 novel findings using methods like pre-registration and large sample sizes.

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·November 6, 2023·3 min read

The Cerebellum is Key to Unlocking Social Memory Woes

Researchers made a pivotal discovery about the cerebellum's role in social recognition memory, potentially revolutionizing treatment for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. By modulating cerebellar activity in preclinical models, they found it crucial for retrieving social information, a function often deteriorating in dementia patients.

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·November 2, 2023·6 min read

Lonely or Alone? Revealing the Fine Line

Researchers have discerned the nuanced relationship between feeling lonely and actually being alone. The study revealed that loneliness creeps in when individuals spend over 75% of their time in solitude.

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·October 25, 2023·6 min read

Testosterone-Aggression Link: How Shame Proneness Affects Responses to Social Exclusion

Social exclusion, an experience that can pose threats to an individual's status and dominance, can lead to various behavioral responses potentially mediated by changes in testosterone levels. This study found that those with low levels of shame proneness showed heightened aggression when experiencing a rise in testosterone post-exclusion, whereas those with decreased testosterone demonstrated lower aggression.

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·October 19, 2023·4 min read

Romance and Routine: Nurturing Commitment in Couples

A new study explored how couples maintain and nurture their relationships. The study categorized relationship maintenance behaviors into five areas, analyzing data from 192 heterosexual married couples.