Berkeley researchers have mapped out connections between the music we hear and the colors we see. That is, blues music really is blue, and Mozart’s Flute Concerto #1 is bright orange:
“The results were remarkably strong and consistent across individuals and cultures and clearly pointed to the powerful role that emotions play in how the human brain maps from [...]
Science says so. Pacific Standard reports on two studies that find guys with guitars really are more attractive:
Across cultures, the research would suggest, male musicians are viewed as promising mating material.
The more recent study, in France, was conducted by a team of researchers led by Nicolas Guéguen of the Universite de Bretagne-Sud, and published in the journal Psychology [...]
Harvard researcher Ted Kaptchuk is mastering the medical secrets of sleight-of-mind by figuring out how to use placebos as real medicine:
Last year, he and colleagues from several Harvard-affiliated hospitals created the Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS), headquartered at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—the only multidisciplinary institute dedicated solely to placebo study. It’s a nod [...]
Nature reports that the link between youthful indulgence in marijuana and IQ loss might be overstated:
Ole Røgeberg, a labour economist at the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Oslo and the author of the latest paper, ran simulations which showed that confounding factors associated with socioeconomic status could explain the earlier result. For example, poorer people have [...]
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have mapped out the perceptual problem with racism, in a Psychological Science study looking at the way “essentialism” limits our ability to come up with solutions to problems:
Individuals who believe that racial groups have fixed underlying essences use stereotypes more than do individuals who believe that racial categories are arbitrary and malleable social-political [...]
New York Times reviews the research demonstrating that MDMA, better known as X, can work wonders with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patients:
Government regulators criminalized the drug in 1985, placing it on a list of prohibited substances that includes heroin and LSD. But in recent years, regulators have licensed a small number of labs to produce MDMA for research purposes.
“I [...]
SONG: “Cloudbusting” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: This is a penitential cover. I was late with the last song. This is a song about Wilhelm Reich’s tragic life (through the eyes of his son), written by Kate Bush, although I kinda favor Gemma Hayes’ version.
ABSTRACT: I was never that big [...]
Yep. It’s the beholder. Discover shows how a D&D-playing kid helped solve a longstanding problem with how humans react to eyes:
In 1998, [University of British Columbia psychologist Alan] Kingstone showed that people will automatically look where other people are looking. Other scientists have since found this gaze-copying behaviour among many other animals, from birds to goats to dolphins. [...]
No one can possibly do better than the Archives of Sexual Behavior in describing this study. The article’s headline says all it needs to:
The mere anticipation of an interaction with a woman can impair men’s cognitive performance.
Nauts S, Metzmacher M, Verwijmeren T, Rommeswinkel V, Karremans JC.
…
Abstract
Recent research suggests that heterosexual men’s (but not heterosexual women’s) cognitive performance is impaired [...]
Yes, yes, we RSS!
.