Category: Psychology

Think we live in a civilised society? Think again.

Research to be published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence shows that prejudice against minority sexual orientations still fuels violence and crime. The most comprehensive study to date found that in a US sample of 662 gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, almost 4 in 10 gay men and 1 in 8 lesbians and bisexuals have been the targets of violence or property crime because of their sexual orientation.

Continue reading “Anti-Gay Hate Crimes Still Widespread”

New research dispels the well-worn stereotypes that computer gamers having no social skills and girls avoid violent games like Grand Theft Auto.

A new study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, surveyed 1,254 children from the US. It asked how often children played computer games, which games, and what they got out of it (Olson et al., 2007).

The results revealed:

• 94% of young teens had played computer games in the last six months.
• Two-thirds of boys aged 12 to 14 and one in four girls had played an M-rated game (meant for those over 17) in the last six months.
• Children playing violent M-rated games were more likely to play in groups. Friendship groups amongst boys, in particular, were often based around violent computer games.
• One in five girls had played the violent game Grand Theft Auto ‘a lot’ in the last six months. It was their second favourite game, after The Sims – in which players manage a virtual person and their family.
• Children used games to help them manage their emotions. When angry or stressed they liked to use games to get these emotions out.

Continue reading “Myths Dispelled: Gamers Have Friends, Girls Like Grand Theft Auto”

People think sex sells. Advertisers know it, TV and film producers believe it and the internet was built on it. But does sex really help sell products, or is it just one of those expressions ad execs use so they can wile away an afternoon choosing models?

Continue reading “Sex Doesn’t Sell (Neither Does Violence)”

I was catching up with a friend I hadn’t seen for a while the other day when I noticed something unusual about our conversation. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

We were sat outside a pub by the Thames gazing out across the river with one eye on the famously changeable British summer. Each black cloud charging in from the west looked as though it would be the one to send us scurrying inside. But none of them did.

Then it hit me.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Conversations (and Mrs Thatcher)”

Does your email inbox stress you out? Does “You’ve got mail” mean “You’ve got stress”? Or are you more laid back about email? Do you see it simply as a way to make your life easier?

Hair, Renaud and Ramsay (2007) investigated the different ways that people react to email. After administering some questionnaires, they came up with three types of emailers:

Continue reading “Which Type of Emailer Are You?”

Continuing the weird psychology series, here’s a couple of studies you can replicate yourself – if you’ve got the nerve. In the first you could be risking bodily harm from enraged motorists, while the second has a twist in the tail. They both show the power of staring at other people and they’re both fantastically simple social psychology experiments.

Continue reading “Stop Staring at Me!”

Welcome one and all to the 25th edition of the mighty Encephalon blogging carnival! Before saturating you with all the neuroscience and psychology-based goodness from the blogosphere, I need to warn you about a serious condition called to my attention by the Neurocritic: Conditioned Blog Aversion. And once you’ve read my sickening attempts at humour below, you’ll have first-hand experience.

Continue reading “Encephalon #25 – The Neuroscience and Psychology Blog Carnival”

Discover the most accessible and well-written psychology blogs available on the web.

Update: here’s a more recent list of 40 superb psychology blogs.

Best mental health blog

World of Psychology, run by the clinical psychologist Dr John Grohol, is a great blog for mental health generally. But the blog only forms part of the site, that also includes discussion forums, a guide to medications, psychological tests and more. Loads of useful resources on mental health books and research.

Continue reading “Guide to Psychology Blogs – Part 4”

BBC News reports on government plans to introduce a psychometric component to the UK driving test. Under these plans, before passing the driving test in the UK, it will be compulsory to show the right psychological attitudes to road safety. It’s a nice idea that we might be able to eliminate at least some of the dangerous drivers from our roads with one simple paper and pencil test. Unfortunately from a psychological viewpoint it’s a fundamentally flawed plan.

Continue reading “Psychological Testing for New Drivers is Flawed”

During WWII, in the days before cheap computing, guiding a bomb to its target was a more miss than hit affair. While the military were working on their first crude electronic guidance systems, one famous psychologist, B.F. Skinner, had an unusual idea.

Skinner, who had been developing ways of training animals, thought that an expendable animal with excellent eyesight and high manoeuvrability could be trained to guide anti-aircraft missiles to their targets. And so we continue this series on weird psychology with the imaginatively titled: ‘Project Pigeon’ (Skinner, 1960).

Pigeon-guided missiles

First what was needed was proof of concept so Skinner set up a pigeon training area which consisted of a pigeon in a man’s sock looking at a picture of a ‘target’. The pigeon could then peck on one of four levers that moved the ‘target’ up, down, left and right.

This prototype seemed to work with the pigeons keeping the target in the centre. Skinner thought this was proof that a pigeon-guided missile was a real possibility. In fact, he planned on having three pigeons in the nose cone of each missile, thinking this would provide a more failsafe system.

The military got as far as adapting some missiles to accommodate the pigeons before eventually deciding electronics was a better bet for the future and killed Project Pigeon. They were also understandably nervous about a load of heavily-armed pigeons flying around the skies.

Superstitious pigeons

While the pigeon-guided missile died, the idea of using a box with levers for experimenting with animals lived on in the form of a ‘Skinner box’. It was using this that Skinner then made the surprising claim that pigeons could be superstitious (Skinner, 1948).

A hungry pigeon was placed in a Skinner box and fed once every 15 seconds. But soon it began to exhibit unusual behaviours. In one case it began stretching its neck just before the food was delivered. In another the pigeon started walking in circles. Yet another stuck its head in the corner.

Skinner argued the pigeon had come to associate the movement of its neck, or walking in circles around the box, or sticking its head in the corner with the reward of food. So it now believed it had to move its head to get fed. It had become a superstitious pigeon.

Skinner would give lectures in which an apparently passive pigeon was placed into the Skinner box at the start. After an hour or so the box’s cover would be removed to reveal a pigeon now engaged in some bizarre behaviour.

Personally I think the pigeons got wise. After all, would you rather dance for your supper or be strapped to a missile?

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