Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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A recreational experience gone wrong will cause much more unhappiness than the purchase of poor quality goods, reports a study in the Journal of Consumer Research

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We are faced with making decisions all the time. Often, we carefully deliberate the pros and cons of our choices, before making a final decision. However, a new study suggests that cognitive stress, such as distraction, can influence this balanced, logical approach to decision making.

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Reading a book by Franz Kafka ––or watching a film by director David Lynch ––could make you smarter. According to research by psychologists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia, exposure to surrealism enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee implicit learning functions.

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Researchers provided a nationally-represented sample of adults with an online survey about the US Supreme Court's ruling on physician-assisted suicide.

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Our preferences for specific popular movies, music, and classic art may predict personality traits and the lives we will lead, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.

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C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health finds few parents would grade schools with an "A" for school bullying and violence prevention programs.

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The belief that healthy older brains are substantially smaller than younger brains may stem from studies that did not screen out people whose undetected, slowly developing brain disease was killing off cells in key areas, according to new research. As a result, previous findings may have overestimated atrophy and underestimated normal size for the older brain.

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In a new study in Psychological Science, researchers found that priming infants with subtle cues to affiliation increases their tendency to be helpful.

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Folk wisdom usually has it that “seeing is believing,” but new research suggests that “believing is seeing,” too – at least when it comes to perceiving other people’s emotions.

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Music is one of the surest ways to influence human emotions; most people unconsciously recognize and respond to music that is happy, sad, fearful or mellow. But psychologists who have tried to trace the evolutionary roots of these responses usually hit a dead end. Nonhuman primates scarcely respond to human music, and instead prefer silence.

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A new book by researchers from across the world explores the contexts within which individuals, families, and communities develop and change – and strategies for improving life.

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Every March, most Americans welcome the switch to daylight saving time because of the longer days, but also dread losing an hour of sleep after they move their clocks forward. Now a new study shows that losing just an hour of sleep could pose some dangerous consequences for those in hazardous work environments.

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More than 12,000 children under the age of 20 are diagnosed with cancer each year. Although these children and their parents undergo a tremendous amount of stress during this time, researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that most children are able to cope with their diagnosis without experiencing high levels of depression or anxiety. In a study published this year in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, researchers found a group of 75 kids with cancer adjusted surprisingly well within the first year of diagnosis.

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Weighty. Heavy. What do these words have to do with seriousness and importance? Why do we weigh our options, and why does your opinion carry more weight than mine? New research suggests that we can blame this on gravity.

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The advantage that children get from living in two-parent families may actually be due to family stability more than the fact that their parents are married, a new study suggests.

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A new study shows just what it takes to convince a person that he isn’t qualified to achieve the career of his dreams. Researchers found that it’s not enough to tell people they don’t have the skills or the grades to make their goal a reality.

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According to a recent study, it appears humans are not actually capable of "turning off" another language entirely--knowledge of a second language actually has a continuous impact on native-language reading.

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Although Asian-Americans as a group have lower rates of thinking about and attempting suicide than the national average, U.S.-born Asian-American women seem to be particularly at risk for suicidal behavior.

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Being a victim of sexual assault and seeking help is difficult for anyone, but when the victim is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) the thought of reporting a crime may well be laced with added layers of uncertainty and mistrust, according to a study in Oregon.

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About one-third of children with a parent deployed in the Global War on Terror are at high risk for psychosocial problems, suggests a study in the August issue of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.