Category: Psychology

Half a century ago the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey redefined what was considered normal sexual behaviour. A Hollywood film of his life is already garnering rave reviews in the US, and comes out in the UK on 4th March.

In anticipation of the film’s release journalists will be beavering away on feature articles. One of their less-gifted number has already been in contact with Petra Boynton, the sex and relationship psychologist:

“Last week a journalist called me and asked for Kinsey’s email address. Not the address of the Kinsey Institute, but Professor Alfred Kinsey’s personal private account.

‘”I’d have a job doing that”, I replied. “He’s dead!”
“Oh what a shame,” they said. “And he’s only just finished making that film…”
“That’s an actor, Liam Neeson, playing Kinsey,” I explained.
After a pause the journalist asked, “So who was Kinsey anyway?”‘

It’s a wonder some people can hold onto their jobs.
> From BBC News

So, how exactly do you separate your day-job at coporate HQ from your turns at the strip-joint? What types of mental strategies do you employ to avoid getting confused and climbing on the marketing director’s desk and slowly removing your clothes?

I’m especially amused to see that ‘going to church’ might be considered an activity that constitutes having a secret life. How low religion has sunk from the glory days – they need to get some spin doctors on the case.

> From The New York Times

Britain’s culture of long working hours is definitely alive and well – although I wouldn’t call is ‘slave labour’. This perennial article points out how much unpaid overtime we do and how it can seriously damage our well-being. As ever some of the most insightful points are made by readers giving their point of view at the end. Whatever your perspective, leaving the office before your peers takes guts.

> From BBC News

“It is feared the disaster could leave a mental “time bomb” if those caught up in it are not given counselling over the coming months. Mental health charity Sane is calling for funds to provide such counselling.”

> From BBC News

“How does a government gain information from a terrorist? The question is of more than academic interest to the United States- which, in places like Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, and the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, has been trying to ferret out the secrets of suspected terrorists.”

> From The New York Times

“It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then — to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone — “to relax,” I told myself — but I knew it wasn’t true.

Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home.”

> Read the rest at Idiolect.org.uk

“The endurance of left-handedness has puzzled researchers, because it is linked to disadvantages including an increased risk of some diseases. But University of Montpellier experts, writing in Proceedings B, say it could be because they do well in combat.”

Small sample size but some provocative results.

> From BBC News

Recognising other people by decoding the subtle contours of their face is a complicated task that we take for granted. But imagine if all faces looked the same and you couldn’t tell whether someone was a stranger or your mother. Welcome to the world of the face-blind.

Prosopagnosia, the technical term for face-blindness, is an unusual condition the neurologist Oliver Sacks described in his bestselling book: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat.

Those with this condition are often no different from the rest of us in every other way. Because of this it is easy for people to go through life without realising there is an aspect of their perception that is quite unusual.

“The survey found that 42% of the gay men, 43% of lesbians and 49% of bisexual men and women had a clinically recognised mental health problem.”

> From BBC News

In the lead up to the recent US presidential elections, the outspoken film-maker Michael Moore was campaigning against George Bush’s re-election. Moore’s primary weapon in his fight against Bush was his documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 – a film heavily critical of Bush and his presidency.

Back in September before the elections, Dr Kelton Rhoads, expert in the psychology of persuasion, produced a fascinating analysis of Fahrenheit 9/11. In it he showed that Moore had used many of the classic propaganda techniques in his attempt to persuade voters. [Go to my summary of his paper]

Now, after Bush’s victory, the effect of Moore’s film appears much weaker than many people expected. After all, the film grossed $157 million at the US box office so millions of Americans saw it and still voted for Bush – what went wrong?

In a new article on his site Dr Rhoads suggests there has been a backlash against Michael Moore and his ‘propaganda’:

“Why do influence attempts backlash? I can think of three reasons: 1) the message repulses the audience as inappropriate or extreme…2) the message is recognized as an attempt to manipulate, so the messenger loses credibility while the audience raises their cognitive defences…or 3) the message energizes the opposition…”

It appears that Moore’s biggest mistake was in misunderstanding the psychology of influence. He used the right techniques, but he failed to use them subtly.
> From Working Psychology