Emotion and Cognition

Colorful shades of emotional perception

Have you ever noticed how movies often depict different places using distinct color palettes? Stories happening in Mexico and the Old West, for example, are frequently portrayed with sepia tones, evoking nostalgia or toughness, while movies set in cold places or warzones are often portrayed as being grayish – or technically speaking, with decreased color […]

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: Using inoculation to prevent belief in Islamophobic and radical-Islamist disinformation

Doctor’s visit, shot, Band-Aid, and a lollipop. It’s a familiar scene from many a childhood vaccination. But what if inoculations could prevent more than just disease? Stephan Lewandowsky and Mushin Yesilada (pictured below) investigated just that in a recent experiment published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, a Psychonomic Society journal. In a large online […]

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The magic trick of emotions: Using magic tricks to assess epistemic emotions

I think I am not alone when I say I love a good magic trick! Whether fascinatingly complicated or wonderfully simple, magic tricks can garner the interest of even the greatest skeptic. Famous magicians throughout time include, Harry Houdini (the master of Escapology), David Copperfield (the Great Storyteller and Illusionist), and David Blaine (the Endurance […]

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Sounds good! Acoustic patterns of positive emotional expressions

My friend recently exclaimed with delight, “You will not believe this!” but before she could tell me what I wouldn’t be able to believe, she answered her phone. What was the news? She sounded happy, for sure. Was she awarded major funding? Did her crush just ask her out? Did she solve a difficult problem? Much […]

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From Hamlet to the amygdala: The role of ruminations and their neural substrates

“Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” considered one of Shakespeare’s best tragedies and perhaps one of the most famous English plays ever written, chronicles the quest of Prince Hamlet to avenge his father’s death through ruminating soliloquies and machinations. Hamlet, Act III Scene 1: “To be or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler […]

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The early embrace beats later negativity: The neuroscience of appraising social and emotional relevance

Humans are social beings. This has numerous implications: For example, we know what others know or can know, and so we do not use gestures to communicate when we talk on the phone. We are sensitive to social norms, and we typically conform with those norms—even if they are communicated by a computer. We are […]

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From 42 to HMM: An integrative neuroscience theory of the mind

In his seminal work of science fiction, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams ponders a question, which turns out, unsurprisingly, to be difficult to answer: What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? In the novel, a super-intelligent civilization builds a super-computer to answer the question. That super-computer cannot answer the […]

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Sugar and spice and some things nice: Coordinating on a task increases sharing in 4-year-old Chinese children (especially boys)

What are little boys made of Snips & snails & puppy dogs tails And such are little boys made of. What are little girls made of Sugar & spice & all things nice This very popular rhyme, probably written by English author Robert Southey, has persisted in western culture for nearly two centuries. It embodies […]

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