While Christmas is often visualized with a heap of neatly wrapped presents under a tree, a growing body of research suggests that true happiness comes from a very different sort of gift giving. A team of psychological researchers, including Dr. Amit Kumar and Dr. Thomas Gilovich, have worked to distinguish between the happiness gained from…
Read MoreMapping Emotions in the Body
Feelings are often associated with physical reactions: terror can send chills down your spine, and love can leave you weak in the knees. A recent study has linked specific emotions to physical sensations. Researchers tested emotional responses in hundreds of subjects and then created maps identifying locations in the body where emotions cause physical changes.…
Read MoreFair or Unfair? Facial Cues Influence How Social Exclusion is Judged
People are often excluded from social groups. As researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, whether uninvolved observers find this acceptable or not may depend on the facial appearances of those excluded. The exclusion of cold and incompetent looking people is more likely to be accepted.…
Read MoreBlind Athletes Provide Clues About the Nature of Emotions
By Melanie Tannenbaum for Scientific American One of the most important ways that we learn how to interact with the world around us is through observational learning. By watching how our friends and family members behave, we learn at a very young age how to do things like turn on a lightbulb, open a door,…
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