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Perhaps there’s something in the drinking water at Cornell University. A new study involving hundreds of Cornell undergrads has provided a dramatic demonstration of numerous ‘retroactive’ psi effects – that is, phenomena that are inexplicable according to current scientific knowledge ( pdf ). Rather than having the students read each others’ minds or wear sliced ping-pong balls over their eyes, Daryl Bem has taken the unusual, yet elegantly simple, approach of testing a raft of classic... Read Full Story

Psychologists (and a few stray neuroscientists) on Twitter, listed in order of number of followers. It’s a work in progress – please use comments to alert me to others. Follower counts are subject to change but were correct on 12 Nov, 2010. Richard Wiseman . Parapsychologist, magician, author. Followers: 53,363 George Huba . Psychologist. Followers: 16,468 Aleks Krotoski . Psychologist, tech journalist. Followers: 13,798 Jonah Lehrer . Blogger, author. Followers: 8283 Dan Ariely... Read Full Story

Queen Bee is a term used in business psychology to refer to women in senior positions who boast about their own masculine attributes, whilst derogating their female subordinates and endorsing sexist stereotypes. According to articles in the popular press , the presence of Queen Bees is as much a cause of gender inequality at work as is the sexism shown by men. A new article by Belle Derks and her colleagues challenges this claim, arguing instead that sexist work-places are a breeding ground... Read Full Story

You’re probably familiar with what could be called the ‘to hell with it’ effect. It’s when (as demonstrated by lots of research ) a bad mood causes us to take risky decisions or engage in risky behaviour. Like when you’re feeling down and you drive home dangerously fast or go out and get drunk. Now a team led by Thomas Webb at the University of Sheffield says that we can protect ourselves from this effect by forming ‘if-then’ implementation decisions in advance. These are self-made plans... Read Full Story

We trawl the world’s journals so you don’t have to : Autobiographical Memory: Context and Consequences (Cognitive Development). Developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia (Cortex). ‘ This issue … addresses ethical, legal, clinical and practical aspects of adjudicative competences [the mental fitness to stand trial and complete other judicial procedures]‘. (Behavioral Science and the Law). Novel Perspectives on Drug Addiction and Reward (Neuroscience and BioBehavioural Reviews). Cognitive... Read Full Story

“God is really an artist, like me … I am God, I am God, I am God.” Pablo Picasso Some experts have suggested there’s a link between narcissism and creativity – that the self-obsession and self-belief create the necessary time and space for originality to flourish. On the contrary, Jack Goncalo at Cornell University has just published results from three experiments which show that narcissists on their own aren’t any more creative than usual, even though they think they are. The narcissist’s... Read Full Story

Illness is like the street you’ve driven down your whole life. So familiar you’ve never bothered to look around. We’ve all experienced illness, either first-hand or via someone we know, but rarely do we stop to wonder what it really is. You might say it’s when something mental or physical isn’t working as it should be. But then who is to say how things should be working? This is easier to answer in relation to physical health, but still tricky. Pain, a loss of ability, a shortening of life... Read Full Story

Eye-catching studies that didn’t make the final cut : In a blind taste test, participants were unable to identify which of five blended meat products was actually dog food (Canned Turkey and Chicken Formula for Puppies/Active Dogs, Newman’s Own® Organics, Aptos, CA), although the dog food did tend to be rated as having the least pleasant taste. The other meats were: duck liver mousse (“Mousse de Canard,” Trois Petits Cochons, New York, NY), pork liver pâté (“Pâté de Campagne,” Trois Petits... Read Full Story

The playground sight of a group friends rejecting a lone child betrays an ugly side of human nature. An intriguing new cross-cultural study has examined the development of reasoning about social rejection in young children and teenagers, revealing a surprising level of sophistication. Yoonjung Park and Melanie Killen found that by age ten, children in the USA and South Korea already consider rejecting a peer based on their nationality or gender to be morally worse than peer rejection based... Read Full Story

As the world economy dusts itself down and edges towards recovery, a provocative new paper claims that people with higher intelligence are more likely to think like economists. That is, they’re more likely to be optimistic about the economy; to recognise the economic advantages of markets free from government interference, and the advantages of foreign trade and foreign workers; and to appreciate the economic benefits of achieving greater productivity with less man-power. The lead author is... Read Full Story