NASA Satellite imagery of a barren and treeless steppe in northern Kazakhstan has revealed enormous earthworks that can only be seen from the air. Some of the formations date back 8000 years and are thought to have been built by the neolithic groups of the area. Known as the Steppe Geoglyphs, these formations are as […]

University of London study analyzes the upward spirals generated by positive experience, mood, and decision making, compared with the contrary downward ones It’s long been known that mood biases our judgments and perceptions, but this effect has usually been regarded as irrational or disadvantageous. A new theory published Tuesday in Trends in Cognitive Sciences argues that mood draws on […]

Early adolescent males gain friends when they have sex while females lose them, a new study has found. Not only that, males who make out without having sex lose popularity, while females who do the same gain. The findings of the study will be presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association […]

According to new research, selfies are linked to narcissism in men, but not in women. The research, undertaken by Polish psychologist, went further, providing an understanding about which aspects of narcissism were associated with selfie-taking for each gender. Research, though still scant, is emerging about who posts selfies and why. According to the new Polish study, which […]

In the US, 72 people were sentenced to death last year, and according to new research the faces of those tried in court may have had something to do with their sentence. An “alarming bias” in the criminal justice system, U of T researchers found, results from the prejudice attached to people’s appearance. The researchers […]

A recent study by Dutch design aesthetics researchers has discovered that women closely guard their fragrance identity to the point that they will keep it secret from the entire world if they can — so secret that even their friends cannot copy their personal scent, and they certainly won’t buy perfumes they like for their […]

Are your rugrats babysat by the TV? Dr. Linda Pagani of the University of Montreal, who just completed an extensive study of the long-term effects of toddler TV viewing, says they might suffer for it later. “Basically, too much time in front of the telly creates a time-debt for other enriching activities,” Pagani told The Speaker. “In early childhood […]

You can probably guess the most spoken language in any given country around the world; after all, it’s usually the official language of the country. But have you ever given thought to the second-most spoken language in a country? Olivet Nazarene University has put together an interactive map that covers the second most spoken languages […]

Women more likely to avoid harming even a single person, even if it results in thousands of deaths, research finds Although females rationally evaluate the outcomes of actions the same as males, females make different decisions about their actions, according to recent research. Females are more strongly influenced by emotional aversion to causing immediate harm […]

A cognitive bias, the “illusion of causality,” has been explored by a joint team of scientists who found that the bias isn’t limited to false beliefs about whatever was originally learned; later on, the bias can prevent new information from being learned — even when the original information is false and the newer information is […]

A recent study has found that health messages–the kind that are posted on billboards to advise the public or decorate the walls of doctors’ offices–have different effects on two different classes of people. The research found that while experts respond better to negative, loss-framed messages that make sense within the context their strong knowledge of […]

Predispositions to prejudice can be manipulated, according to new research. By making social minorities appear to hold egalitarian beliefs, researchers demonstrated that those minority individuals would bear less prejudice–both implicit and explicit–from American and Chinese nationals. By manipulating the would-be judges so that they made their appraisals of minority individuals while in a collectivist mind-set, […]