The tragic shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes (left) raises important questions about eyewitness testimony and face recognition. BBC news have an article concentrating on the incredible disparity between different eyewitness reports of the event. But, more importantly for the police and for all our safety, how easy is it to mis-identify an unfamiliar person?
Continue reading “Jean Charles de Menezes: An Unfamiliar Face”
New research analysing data that may have been with withheld by drug companies suggests that the widely-used anti-depressant known as Seroxat in the UK, increases the likelihood of suicide.
According to this new analysis the chances that the risk of suicide is increased by taking Seroxat is 90%. This is not the sort of probability level that can be ignored.
Continue reading “SSRI Anti-Depressants May Increase Suicide Risk In Adults”
Conformity. It’s everywhere you look in human society. We’re all copying each other like crazy all the time, often without realising it. It’s well established by researchers – like Solomon Asch in his famous experiment in 1955 – that people will disown the evidence of their own eyes in the struggle to conform with other people. (You can try a simple version of it here – damn it I conformed!)
Here’s a thought for you: Ask one hundred men how hard they work and then ask their wives about their orgasms. In this research, reported at the American Psychological Association conference, the high-achievers at work also tended to be the high-achievers in the bedroom.
A group of neuroscientists, computer specialists and statisticians, amongst others, are creating the most detailed simulation ever of brain function. The Blue Brain project aims to simulate 8,000 neurons that make up a neocortical column (left) – a fundamental building block of the most complicated part of mammalian brains: the neocortex.
Continue reading “Blue Brain: Computer Simulation of the Neocortex”
A review of the research on violent computer games published this week claims a link with aggressive behaviour in children. This is convenient for the American Psychological Association (APA) which has been campaigning for some time to regulate the sales of video games in the US. Still, many psychologists are far from convinced that this research is sound.
Continue reading “Do Violent Computer Games Increase Aggressive Behaviour?”
Review of the new biography of Stanley Milgram – architect of one of the most famous experiments in social psychology – by Raj Persaud in the British Medical Journal:
“The late Stanley Milgram fairly lays claim to be one of the greatest behavioural scientists of the 20th century.
Don’t believe everything you read – even if it has been published in a reputable scientific journal:
“Dr John Ioannidis of the University of Ioannina in Greece, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, recently analysed 45 well publicised studies from leading journals appearing between 1990 and 2003.
Continue reading “Healthy Scepticism Towards Research Pays Off”
“Each year in the U.S., 25,000 adults commit suicide. People who have attempted suicide are at high risk for another suicide attempt. Researchers wanted to know how to reduce that risk. They may have found their answer in a particular kind of psychotherapy, which appears to cut that risk by half.”
Continue reading “Cognitive Therapy Reduces Repeat Suicide Attempts by 50 Percent”
Mind Hacks have a good entry on how mental illness is shaped by culture:
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