Sometimes it is very important to evaluate age based on someone’s face alone, but this can be quite tricky. This is actually a surprisingly pressing issue as age is relevant in all sorts of commercial, social, or political contexts. While it seems intuitive that we should be able to recognize people’s ages pretty easily, this…
Read MoreThreat in the Golden Years
As we age, we tend to look more fondly on the world and on our memories, but does that mean we can’t detect threat? While a great deal of research indicates that older individuals tend to focus on pleasurable or non-threatening aspects of experience and memories, it is unclear whether this means they are less…
Read MoreHow to Know if an Angry Face is Threatening
While it may be tricky to say if an angry face is threatening, our brain may already be deciding for us. This may sound far-fetched, but as Dr. Harald Schupp and a team of researchers found in 2004, we are hardwired on an evolutionary level to experience a fear response upon detecting perceived threat in…
Read MorePain and the Seven Basic Emotions are Closely Intertwined
Over the past month, we have emphasized the expression and feeling of pain, but it is also apparent that pain and the seven basic emotions are closely intertwined. It is specifically the connections between pain and anger that were explored in a 2008 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. In that study, Dr. Jennifer…
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