neuroscience

Psychology News Roundup: ICYMI January 31, 2020

Patience, allies, and procrastination. Read what you may have missed in the world of personality and social psychology on this week's ICYMI roundup.

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Good Reads: How Marsh’s Fear Factor Will Calm Your Worst Fears - Review of Abigail Marsh‘s The Fear Factor

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What do psychopaths and altruists have in common? According to Abigail Marsh’s eye-opening book, The Fear Factor, one answer is that they both have highly unusual brains – at least in one small but very important area.

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Psychology News Round-Up: ICYMI November 2, 2018

On the eve of Election Day, a look at how to be a better voter and the science behind hate speech. See what else you may have missed online.

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The Power of a Hug Can Help You Cope with Conflict

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Friends, children, romantic partners, family members – many of us exchange hugs with others on a regular basis. New research from the United States, published today in PLOS, now shows hugs can help us to cope with conflict in our daily life.

Hugs are considered a form of affectionate touch. Hugs occur between social partners of all types, and sometimes even strangers.

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The Goodness of Guilt: Problems Measuring the Mind

Researchers are split over guilt. Many of them think that guilt is negative—it feels bad, it’s related to poor functioning, and it’s something we should reduce in our lives. (That may be your assessment, too.)

But another group of researchers suggests that guilt is good. It leads people to take actions to repair relationships and engage in prosocial behavior. Our attempts to get rid of guilt lead to good behavior—and ultimately the guilt experience and response is positive.

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Exploring the Connection Between Empathy, Neurohormones and Aggression

Empathy is typically seen as eliciting warmth and compassion—a generally positive state that makes people do good things to others. However, empathy may also motivate aggression on behalf of the vulnerable other. Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo, examined whether assessed or elicited empathy would lead to situation-specific aggression on behalf of another person, and to explore the potential role of two neurohormones in explaining a connection between empathy and aggression. The study is published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

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