Psychology Latest Posts

A Surprising New Way To Avoid Choking Under Pressure – Imagine You Have The Prize And Are Performing To Keep It
The mental technique is called “incentive reappraisal” and it’s reflected in changed activity in a key brain structure By Christian Jarrett Choking is a ubiquitous and extremely frustrating human weakness – as the stakes are

Researchers Explore A “Striking Phenomenon” In Young Children’s Thinking – Their Denial That Improbable Events Are Possible
By Christian Jarrett Sure, it’s unlikely that a girl would ride a hippo or that a boy would drink onion juice, but as adults, we know that it’s not impossible. However, and in contrast to

Are Criminal Profilers “Any Better Than A Bartender”? Not Necessarily, Suggests Review Of 40 Years Of Relevant Research
By guest blogger Tomasz Witkowski The profession of “criminal profiler” is one shrouded in secrecy, even giving off a hint of danger. Yet when the American psychiatrist James A. Brussel began profiling a particular suspect in

Study Compares Trump’s Personality With Other Populist Leaders And Finds He Is An “Outlier Among The Outliers”
Via Nai et al, 2019 By Christian Jarrett Talk of personality in politics is often dismissed as idle gossip, but politicians’ personalities inform their policy choices, shape their campaigning style and predict their chances of

Are Criminal Profilers “Any Better Than A Bartender?” Not Necessarily, Suggests Review Of 40 Years Of Relevant Research
By guest blogger Tomasz Witkowski The profession of “criminal profiler” is one shrouded in secrecy, even giving off a hint of danger. Yet when the American psychiatrist James A. Brussel began profiling a particular suspect in

Rock-A-Bye Adult – Study Shows Grown-ups Enjoy Better Sleep And Memory Consolidation In A Rocking Bed
By Emma Young As every parent knows, gentle rocking helps a baby to fall asleep. Now a new study, published in Current Biology by researchers in Switzerland, shows that a rocking bed also benefits adults,

Participants In This Study Successfully Down-regulated Their Amygdala Activity With The Help Of Neurofeedback
The blue bars show reduced amygdala activity in the group that received real-time neural feedback while looking at negative images; from Herwig et al, 2019 By guest blogger Eleanor Morgan Interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy

“The Self Is Not Entirely Lost In Dementia,” Argues New Review
By Christian Jarrett In the past when scholars have reflected on the psychological impact of dementia they have frequently referred to the loss of the “self” in dramatic and devastating terms, using language such as

There’s Another Area Of Psychology Where Most Of The Results Do Replicate – Personality Research
Of 78 previously published trait-outcome associations, around 87 per cent successfully replicated, from Soto, 2019 By Christian Jarrett While psychology has been mired in a “replication crisis” recently – based on the failure of contemporary