Tag: study
Princeton University psychologist Uri Hasson has presented some somewhat curious empirical studies at an event recently hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His research concludes that certain films stimulate the same parts of the audience members’ brains, “synchronizing” their neural activity. Clips from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as well as a scary scene from Darren Aronofsky’s Black […]
According to a new working study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, New York City ranks as the least happy city in the US. The study sourced years worth of data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based off a questionnaire that simply asked, “In general, how satisfied are you with your life?” The self-reported data […]
According to the “Culture Track” study of “attitudes and behaviors among U.S. cultural audiences” you are: OVERSTIMULATED PROMISCUOUS HYPER-CONNECTED CYNICAL OVERCOMMITTED SELF-FOCUSED BUT CURIOUS The New York-based firm LaPlaca Cohen released this incredibly amusing […]
A recent scientific study suggests that petting your cat may actually be stressing it out. This research was conducted by a group of animal behavior experts at the University of Lincoln, University of Sao Paulo and the University of Veterinary Medicine. This data focuses specifically on the stress levels of cats who are petted more in comparison […]
In their new paper “Attitudes Without Objects: Evidence for a Dispositional Attitude, its Measurement, and its Consequences,” psychologists Justin Hepler and Dolores Albarracin explain that individuals who usually tend to respond to things negatively will statistically react in a negative way to new things. Translation: “Haters gonna hate.” If individuals differ in the general tendency to […]
Neuroscientists — and anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of attending a frat party — have already proven that drunk men tend to overestimate their own powers of seduction. A recent study suggests that sleep deprivation causes similar effects in men’s brains, resulting in a significant inability to judge whether women want to have sex with them. Researchers […]
As the great scholar Rick James once said, cocaine is a hell of a drug. Alas, it’s also very expensive, is responsible for more annual U.S. emergency room visits than any other drug, and turns users into selfish, paranoid, sexually impotent jerks. Er, so we hear. And yet, according to the National Survey on Drug Use […]
Modern solutions for an existential crisis range from cognitive psychotherapy to the Church of Scientology to leaving your family to join a polyamorous commune that specializes in human poop fertilization. But now there’s a cheaper, less drastic treatment for that crushing awareness of your impending death — and it’s probably sitting in your medicine cabinet. […]
Ask anyone who has groggily awoken in the sweaty arms of someone who looks like this — beer goggles are no joke. Even science says so. That booze inflates our own egos isn’t breaking news either — hence those painfully incoherent rants about your boring-ass job that, in the moment, make you feel like the most fascinating person […]
Here’s the latest booze news from the science world: Alcohol actually fuels the brains of heavy drinkers, a new study shows, literally boosting the brain’s energy levels, something that we once thought only sugar could do. Habitual boozing increases brain levels of acetate, a high-energy chemical released by the liver during alcohol metabolism. Interestingly, the […]
