In-Mind search

Political convictions emerge from the gut

... they engage in higher-order thinking about the stimuli. Social psychologist Bob Zajonc found support for this hypothesis by ... G. L. (2003). Party over policy: The dominating impact of group influence on political beliefs. Journal of personality and social ... / more

Being rational and emotional are not (necessarily) contradictions

... maximizing income), but they may also help further moral, group- (as opposed to self-) related, or long-term agendas. For example, when ... of many other things that concern people, such as their social standing, their moral obligations, and their descendants. Social ... / more

Is banning bossy enough to enact real social change? Celebrity activism and the “Ban Bossy” campaign

... in the classroom and in life. In this blog I highlight the social value of celebrity activism and I highlight important caveats of ... identity research on leadership indicates that when a group is important to a person, they care more that the leader best represents ... / more

Why Madonna was right: Music really does make the people come together

... people come together.”  In this post, I will discuss the social psychological research, which suggests that she was more right then even ... used as a tool to create cooperation and group belonging. As scientists, we however seek to understand why marching to a ... / more

Judging a book by its cover: Prior knowledge determines the effect of embodied cues.

... in important ways from people who do not. Perhaps this group was simply smarter or more observant and realized that the books ... Bargh, J. A. (2010). Incidental haptic sensations influence social judgments and decisions. Science, 328(5986), 1712-1715. ... / more

Inequality: Minority disadvantage or White privilege? - And why it matters

... changes the implications of inequality for one’s group. Brian Lowery and Rosalind Chow use the following an analogy: ... to redistributive policies .  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102 , 323-336. Lowery, B. S., & Wout, D. (2010). When ... / more

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

... asked participants to do one of the following tasks. One group of participants should knead a ball with their left hand during reading ... that the body plays a major role in phenomena as diverse as social relations (e.g., IJzerman, & Semin, 2009; Schubert, Schubert, & ... / more

Sticks and stones and breaking bones: Social psychology and school aggression

... at school aggression from the perspective of contemporary social psychology. Although, as a discipline, social psychology has studied ... to the playground.  Since then it has been shown that group processes may help us to understand children's bullying tendencies. In ... / more

Where are the genes for psychological traits?

... One would simply measure the genotype and phenotype of a group of individuals, and look to see whether those who carry a particular ... D.I. (2013). Why it is hard to find genes associated with social science traits: theoretical and empirical considerations. American ... / more

Manipulating the body, measuring the body, and tinkering in the name of Psychology

... found that when a person is excluded socially from a group, their finger temperature drops somewhat. They used a very precise ... Bargh, J. A. (2010). Incidental haptic sensations influence social judgments and decisions. Science, 328, 1712–1715. Barsalou, L. ... / more