Distractions from the Standing Desk

The idea of standing desks is certainly in vogue in the workplace, but is it the best choice? Proponents point out that sitting for too long can have serious health problems, and many people even argue that standing at one’s desk can help boost productivity. While there may be some truth in this trendy approach,…

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Emotion in an Artificial Intelligence World

It is an almost omnipresent fear these days that technology is degrading human connections, but could we leverage that same technology to foster closer emotional ties? We already have enough trouble reading each other’s emotions, and this becomes even harder when we communicate over long-distances, whether through email, phone calls, or even video chat. We…

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Why Do We Smile?

You’ve probably heard that when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you. In reality, that’s not exactly the case. According to researchers, Americans smile more than residents of other countries, and those other countries don’t seem eager to follow our grins. For some, persistent American smiling can be disconcerting. To learn more, we talked…

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Ambiguity in Facial Expressions

How good are you at detecting emotions? Followers of this blog have by now read extensively about basic emotions and the many characteristic features present in each. Perhaps this has made emotional recognition seem pretty simple. All we have to do is look at the lips, eyebrows, and other facial features, and we can conclude…

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