In-Mind search

More than meets the eye: Physical sensations influence first impressions

... their shoe, and pet rock owners aside, the perception of a rock is often merely the perception of a collection of lines and ... of perception . Thus applying embodied cognition theory to person perception is likely to bring valuable insights to both ... / more

Grasping the grounded nature of mental simulation

... mentally with an object—is an important part of our daily interactions.  We review literature that provides evidence that ... simulation within a grounded cognition framework. The theory of grounded cognition proposes that our thoughts are derived from our ... / more

Word of mouth: How our tongue shapes our preferences, and why you should eat popcorn in the cinema

Are you sick of banner ads, commercials, and brand names depicted everywhere? You might ... research has identified how branding hacks into your mind and how you can prevent this. Think of the last time you interacted ... get immune against it. According to embodiment theory (e.g., Barsalou, 1999; Semin & Smith, 2008), the objects that we ... / more

Free will without metaphysics

... (found here and here ). Yet, despite the resurgence of interest in free will, there remains confusion and disagreement regarding ... terms (e.g., choice, lack of coercion), their implicit theory of free will is still metaphysical, and it is a metaphysical concept – ... / more

Can music create intercultural understanding? According to Madonna (and psychological research), it can!

... In my last blog, I argued that Madonna’s lyric of ‘music makes the people come together’ has a scientific basis. There are ... highly dissimilar individuals together. According to this theory, interpersonal attraction is much more likely to occur between ... / more

Blame. What is it good for?

... in social psychology, it predicts a dysfunctional system of blame that explains only a small portion of why people blame. Instead, I ... Malle, B. F., Guglielmo, S., & Monroe, A. E. (2014). A theory of blame. Psychological Inquiry , 25 , 147–186. Pettit, D., ... / more

Who gives a Tweet? Fandom, social identity, and why people take to Twitter

When we think of the world in terms of categories and different groups of people, we think of ... members in your group? With this group mentality in mind it is no surprise why Cavalier fans were so invested in LeBron’s career ... 16 , 315-339.  Hogg, M. A. (2006). Social Identity Theory . In P. J. Burke (Ed.),  Contemporary social psychological theories ... / more

Children are poor witnesses. Or are they?

... case, a 6-year-old girl claimed immediately upon arrival of the ambulance and police to have witnessed her father stabbing her mother ... pattern has been predicted by an influential memory theory called the Fuzzy-trace Theory (FTT; Brainerd, Reyna, & Ceci, 2008). ... / more

On kissing in elevators and flirting in the office: A cross-cultural perspective on normative behavior.

... the population density in your home country and the amount of wars and natural disasters that your country has been exposed to in its ... Lun, & Gelfand, 2013). The tightness-looseness theory, like many other cross-cultural psychological theories, sees these kinds ... / more

The perverse incentives that stand as a roadblock to scientific reform

The efforts in psychology to improve the believability of our science can be boiled down to simple and easy changes to our standard ... psychology: Insights, challenges, and contributions to theory and application. Handbook of social psychology. Simmons, J.P., ... / more