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,…
Read MoreSmiling People May be Less Likely to be Judged by Their Gender or Race
By Bahar Gholipour and David Freeman for Huffington Post Could something as simple as a smile put an end to racist and sexist first impressions? Probably not. But a new study published in the August issue of the journal Motivation and Emotion suggests that when people smile, strangers may be less likely to judge them…
Read MoreThe Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat
With the Rio Olympic Games coming to an end and the Paralympic Games starting September 7th, we can learn a lot about human behavior by studying the pinnacle of sporting events. From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat, we’ve seen a wide range of human emotions that connects us all. As the…
Read MoreOlympic Victory and Defeat, Frame by Frame
From NPR’s “Hidden Brain” It may sound trite, but the Olympic Games truly are a chance to witness what unites us all as human beings: Our joy in triumph and our anguish in defeat. David Matsumoto believes this truism, but on an entirely different level. Matsumoto is a professor of psychology at San Francisco State…
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