60-Second Psych

Choosing a username starting with an early alphabet letter is just one scientifically vetted way to increase the odds of turning an online encounter into a first date. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Parkinson’s patients derived more benefits from a salt solution they were told was an expensive drug than from the same solution when it was described as being cheap medication. Karen Hopkin... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Of studies presented at conferences, those that found a cognitive benefit to bilingualism were almost twice as likely to get published in journals as were studies finding no benefit. Karen Hopkin... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Levels of a protein fragment in the blood paralleled how long head injuries benched hockey players. Ingrid Wickelgren reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Subjects who kept pace with a walking colleague estimated a potential enemy to be smaller and lighter than did other walkers who were not marching. Karen Hopkin reports -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Absence from work due to illness increased dramatically for those who slept less than six hours or more than nine hours per night. Christie Nicholson reports -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

The direction of your gaze when looking at someone offers an unconscious, automatic giveaway of whether your initial reaction is romance or sex. Christie Nicholson reports -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

People who had to strike up conversations on a subway later reported feeling happier than those who didn’t. Christie Nicholson reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Survey subjects rated life experiences as making them happier and as a better use of money than buying objects. But they actually spent their cash on material goods, whose value is more easily... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Chidren who experience neglect, abuse and/or poverty can have smaller amygalas and hippocampuses, brain regions involved in emotion and memory, compared with kids raised in nurturing environments.... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Researchers studying anesthetized rats discovered a handful of activity patterns that may mark the path to consciousness after anesthesia. Karen Hopkin reports -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Our ability to pinpoint pain varies across the body, and in a specific pattern. Christie Nicholson reports -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

What's being called "nomophobia," the anxiety of not having your mobile phone with you, may be a real condition among teens, at least according to two recent studies out of South Korea, the... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Children who heard descriptions of animals behaving like humans were less likely to attribute to a real animal a newly learned biological fact than were kids who heard realistic information. Christie... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Moms were better able to sway a child's perception of risk when they explained the reasons an activity was dangerous and its possible consequences rather than just saying no. Christie Nicholson... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Adults who had been members of gangs in their adolescence had poorer outcomes on a variety of measures, including physical and mental health, than those who'd never been in a gang. Christie Nicholson... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Babies learning speech figure out what an object is by listening to others talk about what that object does. Christie Nicholson reports -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

People who played instruments as children responded a bit quicker to complex speech sounds as adults, even if they had not played an instrument in many years. Erika Beras reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

People who played instruments as children responded a bit quicker to complex speech sounds as adults, even if they had not played an instrument in many years. Erika Beras reports

Psychologists found that encouraging newlywed couples to watch romance flicks and then discuss them cut the three-year divorce rate in half. Christie Nicholson reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com