General Psychology

“Phubbing” may be a made-up word, but the phenomenon it describes is very real. The verb to phub was originally coined as part of a marketing campaign for the Macquarie Dictionary, and it describes the behavior of snubbing someone in order to use a smartphone. The word has caught on, to some extent anyway. On…

Are you smarter than a three-year-old? If you don’t “get” abstract art, the answer may be no! A recent study from researchers in Greece investigated whether 78 children between the ages of 3 and 5 were able to infer emotions from the colors used in paintings. The children were asked to view, and to interpret,…

It’s common knowledge that children can be choosy about which foods they eat, but what many people might not realize is that picky eating can last into adulthood. In more serious cases, adult picky eating can be classified as a disorder psychologists call avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Yes, that’s admittedly somewhat of a mouthful –…

Who says you have to be a person to have a personality? A new study from researchers University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program has identified specific personality traits that tend to stay the same in individual cows over time. The point of departure for this research was previous work showing that individual cows often…

An international team of public health researchers has found a promising new method of improving mental health among older adults: handing out free bus passes. In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the researchers investigated differences in mental health and daily life between older adults who were eligible to receive…

Yeah, I get it, you don’t want to brag. But it turns out that sharing good news you get might be the key to happiness. More exactly, it looks like sharing good news might prolong the feelings of happiness you get from that news. You don’t need to take my word – just ask the…

Of all the things that keep you awake at night, no doubt being murdered by Vikings from Iceland is near the top of your list. Not to worry. A new study published in Evolution & Human Behavior has some insights that will be useful in protecting yourself from this fate. The study is titled Family…

Your choice in usernames could impact how people perceive your online persona. In particular, some usernames seem to be inherently more trustworthy than others, even when additional information about the person behind the username is available. That’s according to a study published last month in Frontiers in Psychology, which explored how eBay sellers’ username choices…

Are narcissists born or made? As with most psychological traits, the answer is probably: both, to some extent (although we’re not sure what extent). Under evidence for “made,” though, you can add the results of a recent study published in Journal for Personality and Social Psychology. The study found evidence that certain life changes in…