All social psychologists must deal with a conundrum implicit in all human behavior: the problem of self-reporting. Self-reporting is exactly what it sounds like: it’s what people say about themselves – their emotions, motivations, and feelings.
How do we know what others are feeling? How do we gauge our audience in social interactions? Paul Ekman, a prominent psychological researcher, suggests that it’s all in our facial expressions. Even if you’re the type of person who keeps your emotions to yourself, Ekman’s research shows that humans are psychologically disposed to show our emotions on our faces. Analyzing facial expressions in others, thus, is one way in which we empathize with other’s emotions. And it’s not always something you’re conscious of. Consequently, we don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves; we display them right on our faces!
Let’s play a game: There are ten coins on the table. The rules of the game are simple. I propose a way we should split the coins; you can either accept or reject my proposal. If you accept my terms, we get the coins according to my proposed split. If you reject them, we both […]
My mother has always told me that age is a state of mind, and if you wanted to be younger, you can simply “think younger”. Though I’m sure many aging folk would disagree with such maternal wisdom, behavioral researchers John A. Bargh, Mark Chen, and Laura Burrows have evidence that supports my Mom’s thesis! In […]
People like to be given a choice. The desire to exercise one’s own free will and proclivity to act in one’s own interests might just be the last part of our consciousness that’s keeping us away from The Matrix, 1984, Brave New World, or whatever your favorite dystopian story is. But is there such a thing as “too many choices?” Sheena Iyengar, behavioral psychologist and choice expert, studies how people make decisions precisely to answer this question. And her research has revealed some startling implications!
A recent New York Times article highlighted Iyengar’s fascinating research in a review of her new book, The Art of Choosing. Iyengar, a Stanford grad, has been in the field of social psychology and decision theory for almost 15 years. Her most famous project: a jelly tasting.