-
Asked by M@ to Andy, Diana, James, Mary Jane, Wil on 6 Mar 2017.
Question: What is an interesting discovery that has recently been made in psychology?
- Keywords:
-
Wilhelmiina Toivo answered on 6 Mar 2017:
There was a Japanese study couple of year back that found out you can concentrate better after looking at pictures of cute animals.
-
James Gudgeon answered on 6 Mar 2017:
There’s interesting studies about how people eat food in restaurants. If your waiter is overweight then you are more likely to choose a dessert with your meal!
-
Andrew Jones answered on 6 Mar 2017:
Playing Spanish music in a supermarket led to people buying more Spanish wine. If Italian music was played then people bought more Italian wine. Similarly, when you get people to listen to rock music they drink more (compared to pop!).
-
Mary Jane Spiller answered on 6 Mar 2017:
There’s a recent study that shows teenagers brains’ process risk differently when their mum is near by, as compared to an unfamiliar adult – in the study they got teenage girls to do a driving game while having their brains’ scanned, and they compared brain activity when they took risks when either their mum was watching or another woman they didn’t know.
Comments
James commented on :
Also, more seriously, lots of studies in psychology look at activity in the brain. We can (more or less) predict someone’s decision just by looking at this activity. Scientists use fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) which uses big powerful magnets to see how much blood flows to different areas of the brain. The idea is that the more active a part of the brain is, the more blood flows there (because it needs more oxygen to work).
BUT – a recent study found that blood flow in the brain is different depending on whether you are sat upright or are lying down. This is interesting because it might change what we think we already know about brain activity…