Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Networks of Conforming Or Nonconforming Individuals Always Reach a Satisfactory...

  Here is an intriguing study from Ramazi et al., who use linear-threshold-based dynamic models to show that whether individuals go with or against the crowd, a... Read more

  Posted on 28 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Online Social Interaction Associated with Reduced Mortality Risk.

  Hobbs et al. apply longitudinal statistical models to two massive databases to show that online social interactions, just like old-fashioned networks in the... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Stock Trading - Gut Feelings Help with Risky Decisions.

  I've done a number of posts describing studies trying to determine what characteristics might distinguish successful stock traders (enter 'traders' in the... Read more

  Posted on 24 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Teenage Brain and the Pleasure of “likes”

  Rabin points to work by Sherman et al. showing that positive feedback given to a teenager's post on social media ('likes') stimulates the same reward center in... Read more

  Posted on 23 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Social Media's Globe-shaking Power.

  Like many of you, I am more than completely overwhelmed by recent political events and the avalanche of thoughtful commentary on them. Read more

  Posted on 22 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Sex Differences in Brain Regulation of Aggression

  Interesting work from Terranova et al., done with hamsters, and almost certainly applicable to us humans. Here is their summary of the significance of the study... Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Are Your Emotions 'Black and White' Or 'Shades of Gray'? - Brain Correlates.

  Satpute et al. show that how we think about emotion shapes our perception and neural representation of emotion. They asked subjects to judge emotional... Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Thoughts About Dying in America.

  Pizzo offers a summary of a recent Institute of Medicine report, with the title "Thoughts about Dying in America: Enhancing the impact of one’s life journey... Read more

  Posted on 17 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Our Working Memory Modulates Our Conscious Access to Suppressed Threatening...

  Our processing of emotional information is susceptible to working memory (WM) modulations - emotional faces trigger much stronger responses in the... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• View a Flickering Stimulus Before You Try to Read Fine Print…

  A nice piece of work from Arnold et al.: Significance Distinct anatomical visual pathways can be traced through the human central nervous system. Read more

  Posted on 15 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why Do People in Big Cities Move Faster?

  

  A number of studies have shown that people in big cities move faster. Why is this? Pontzer describes work by Ahmed et al. suggesting that our brains use... Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Social Class and Attentiveness to Others.

  More on “The rich are different from you and me.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald) “Yes, They have more money.” (Hemingway). Dietze and Knowles use eye movement... Read more

  Posted on 11 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Explaining Gender Differences in Anxiety.

  Li et al. find that a set of oxytocin-responsive neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) look similar in both sexes, but in males they secrete a protein... Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Presidential Election Has Spawned an Effusion of Interesting Essays - a...

  A rich trove of Op-Ed pieces and essays has emerged during the recent presidential campaign. I’ve accumulated a list of links, thinking each article might... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Political Ideology and Pathogen Avoidance Across 30 Nations

  Tyber et al. (a huge number of collaborators) show from a survey across 30 nations that the relatively higher conservatism of people and nations with greater... Read more

  Posted on 08 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How to Get Beyond Our Tribal Politics.

  Haidt and Iyer offer an essay in The Wall Street Journal that tries to see a way past the tribal animosities that have been dominating our political discourse.... Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Facebook Use Associated with a Longer Life?

  From Hobbs et al., with the usual caution that correlations are not causes: Significance People who have stronger social networks live longer. However, can we... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Wikipedia - a Possible Antidote for the Pathologies of the Internet?

  This interesting article by Jeff Guo is worth a read. The early hope that the instant communication offered by the internet would knit society together has... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2016 SCIENCE

• Social Motion, Social Bonds, and Exercise.

  Davis et al. note how bodies moving in synchrony perform beyond the sum of their individual parts. In two experimental studies, we investigated mechanisms... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Paradoxical Thinking Intervention Can Moderate Attitudes in Violent Times

  

  Hameiri et al. show how attitudes of those participating in one of the most intractable conflicts in the world can be moderated. Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2016 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE