Ulterior Motives

How goals, both seen and unseen, drive behavior

Art Markman Ph.D.

Kids’ Self-Control Is Influenced by Their Peer Group

Much of your behavior is affected by what other people are doing. Why is that so?

Can Your Name Match Your Face?

There is a well-known set of studies in cognitive psychology on what is called the Kiki-Bouba effect. How does it affect face perception?

People’s Intentions Affect Your Judgments of Wrongness

A common defense people give when they do something wrong is “I didn’t mean to do it.” Does intention really matter in judging wrongdoing?

Rituals Have Self-Control Value

A ritual is a behavior that people engage in routinely where the behavior itself is not crucial for some goal, but is performed anyhow. What benefit do these behaviors have?

Narcissism Is Not Just High Self-Esteem

At one level, narcissism shares a lot with self-esteem. Both narcissists and people with high self-esteem feel good about themselves and their accomplishments.

Giving Advice Creates a Sense of Power

There are many ways that someone can feel powerful in the world. Some of them are actions you can take to feel a greater sense of power.

Does Confidence Reflect Accuracy, or Just Consensus?

Some facts that seem perfectly obvious are also incorrect. Confidence may be more a marker of how likely other people are to agree with a statement than its truth.

Confidence and Certainty From Advisors

Confidence sells. What kind of confidence are people most attuned to when they seek confident experts?

People Prefer to Be Evaluated Relative to Themselves

Evaluation plays a central role in school and work. Grades, promotions, raises, and awards are all determined by giving people some sense of their level of performance.

Maybe You Shouldn’t Take the Perspective of Other People

When you want to know what someone else is thinking or feeling, the old adage to “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” typically springs to mind.

How You Explain Other People's Behavior

When you see other people in the world, you make several predictions about them. How do you analyze a situation to explain what they are doing?

No Stereotype Threat for Women Chess Players

Stereotype threat reflects that people who have a negative self-relevant stereotype about performance may underperform on tests of that ability. What about chess?

Too Much Charisma Is Bad for Leadership

The word charisma is a blanket term for a set of behaviors or traits a person has that make them engaging and cause others to want to listen to them and follow them.

What Aspects of Humans Do People Think Can Be Explained?

Psychology aims to explain many dimensions of the human experience. But what do people believe can be explained scientifically?

How Verbal Descriptions Affect Identification of Criminals

Lineups are an important part of police investigations. In what ways do people's descriptions of perpetrators affect accuracy of identification from lineups?

Why Are You Often Disappointed With Choices?

Disappointment with a choice is a common experience. Interesting new research suggests you can get errors without systematic biases in the way choices are made.

Objects Within Reach Grab Attention

Chances are, you spend a lot of time staring at screens. You look at a lot of pictures and watch a lot of videos. Is that just as good as the real thing?

Money, Charity, and Emotions

The amazing thing about money is that every dollar is supposed to be the same as every other dollar. But psychologically, every dollar is not the same.

Dogs and Object Permanence

The work of Jean Piaget shaped our understanding of cognitive development in children, and it also gave us several tasks that we can use to study other animals.

Dogs and Communication

If you have ever been around a dog, you know that dogs and humans are able to communicate to some degree. What do they know when they communicate?

What Do Dogs See When They Look at People?

Dogs are wonderful human companions. What do psychologists know about what dogs see when they look at people?

The Type of Praise You Give Matters

There are many different kinds of praise that you can give a child. Not all of them have the same impact. Some may even be negative.

People Evaluate You Differently Than You Think They Do

There are many situations in which you have to decide how to present information about yourself that other people will evaluate. What information should you provide?

Persistence Is Hard When Answers Are Available

How is the time you put into problem solving affected by being able to get the answers to the problem?

Study: Measuring Aspects of Religious Experience Is Hard

Religion is an important part of many people’s lives all over the world. How can we measure the dimensions of religions experience?

Personality and Volunteering

Many important tasks in the world are done by nonprofit organizations that engage volunteers in activities that would not make for successful businesses.

Getting Rid of Misinformation Is Hard

There is a lot of discussion in the media these days about fake news because false information persists in its impact on people's beliefs.

Mindfulness Is Not Always Positive

It's everywhere these days. Mindfulness reduces stress and helps people clear their minds. Can it also reduce thoughts related to criminal behavior?

Messing With Information in Short-Term Memory

Sometimes the world around you is busy. Other times, it is fairly stable. How does that stability affect what you remember from moment-to-moment?

Consistency of Process Creates Confidence in Choice

Much of the research on how people make decisions has understandably focused on what people select when given an array of options. How does the process of choice affect confidence?

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