Voters make judgments about politicians’ competence based on their facial appearance. The article, “On the Face of It” posted on the ScienceDaily website, showed that research conducted by Christopher Olivola (University College London in the UK) and Alexander Todorov (Princeton University) suggests that these appearance based judgments predict voting decisions and election outcomes. Voter’s choices…
Read MoreIntimacy Fosters an Enhaced Ability to Decode Facial Expressions
“What Your Best Friend Sees That I Don’t” is an article published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin that discusses the relevance of closeness of individuals in enhancing their ability to decode emotional facial expressions. Many people believe that the idea that familiarity will lead to better and more effective emotional communication. However, research…
Read MoreMind What You Do?
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no its Superman! No matter what age, even junior high kids know this phrase and most people revere Superman as a hero. What about modern day heroes? Some people may shout out “Madonna” or “Jackie Chan” but these are celebrities not heroes. Today the meaning of hero has become…
Read MoreEmotions in Gift Giving
In light of this holiday season, the University of Hertfordshire has conducted a study on gift giving. The focus of this study was determining whether or not gift givers could tell whether or not a recipient liked a present just by looking at their facial expressions and nonverbal behavior. Dr. Karen Pine, a Professor of…
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