Top Ten Psychology Studies of 2009January 5, 2010 David Ginter
I came across someone’s list of 2009’s Top 10 psychology studies, and thought I’d make my own list. You really should click on this link and see his list for yourself, but because I don’t trust people to do so, I included his list and a brief summary of each.

1. If you have to choose between buying something or spending the money on a memorable experience, go with the experience. The things you own can’t make you as happy as the things you do.

2. First impressions are all about value. We’re all hardcore value processors even before “Hello” comes out of our mouths. The subjective evaluation we make when meeting someone new includes–to put it bluntly–what’s in it for us.

3. The “money illusion”—the tendency to allow the nominal value of money (amount of currency) to interfere with the real value (value of goods the money can buy)—is all in your head. Think about what you can buy with your bucks, not just how many you have in your wallet. Most of don’t process the effects of inflation.

4. Playing video games could be an unlikely cure for psychological trauma. Researchers at Oxford University hypothesized that playing Tetris after witnessing violence would sap some of the cognitive resources the brain would normally rely on to form memories. Memory research suggests that there’s about a 6-hour window immediately after witnessing trauma during which memory formation can be disrupted.

5. All of us spend time riding the moral self-regulation see saw. Feelings of negative self-worth can predispose us to acting morally in an effort to fill up the self-worth bank account. If the account is already full, we might be predisposed to choosing not to act morally, or just not act at all.

6. If you’re preparing for a specific challenge, make sure you prep for that challenge and not just ones like it. Title says it.

7. If someone is trying to sell you something, be extra careful to keep your psychological distance. People not emotionally engaged, were significantly better at identifying liars and thus were harder to fool with the old flim flam sales routine.

8. Turns out, saying you’re sorry really is important—and not just to you. Receiving an apology makes the recipient feel better by affecting his or her perception of the wrongdoer’s emotions. Knowing that the other person agrees that what he/she did was the wrong thing to do reaffirms our view of the world as just and predictable.

9. We can become bored with just about anything, but there may be a way to reverse the habituation blues. Trying to remember the variety of things you’ve experienced will revive you appreciation for the things you encounter more commonly.

10. If you’re a man and find yourself in an argument with your significant other, choose your words very carefully. In the heat of stressful conflict, your brain is commanding the release of a stress-chemical cocktail comprised of proteins that can deal major harm to your health. This study suggests that how rational or emotional your communication is directly corresponds with the levels of those chemicals in your body and the damage they can do.
And here’s my list:

1. Bigger Rewards Boost Tobacco Quit Rate While about 70 percent of U.S. smokers say they want to quit, only about 2 to 3 percent do so in any given year. This study had volunteers assigned to get additional cash for quitting received $100 for completing a smoking-cessation program; $250 more if they had stopped smoking in the first three months; and $400 more if they were still nonsmokers six months after that. After nine or 12 months, nearly 15 percent of the incentive group had quit, compared with 5 percent of those not receiving the bonuses.

2. Young Children Think Gender-related Behavior is Inborn Researchers surveyed more than 450 Americans from diverse racial-ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds who were 5 years old to college age. They find that young children think about gender in the same way they think about species of animals. They believe, for example, that a boy’s preference for football is innate, as is a girl’s preference for dolls, just as cats’ behavior is innately different from dogs’.
This study also found that it’s not until children are at least 10 that they treat gender and species concepts as distinct from one another, as adults do. At that age, they also understand that environment plays a role in gender-related behaviors. Another similar study, has also found that babies as young as 6 months prefer toys that are stereotypically related to their gender (girls with dolls, boys with trucks), probably based on visual appearance because the babies lacked motor skills to actually “play” with the toy.

3. The Inner World Of Conspiracy Believers I’m not sure how many people will find this either surprising or relevant, but with all the conspiracy theories that have emerged recently (and endless list including swine flu and the birther movement) I found this study interesting. I actually have friends who are conspiracy theorists and I try to keep up with their world…. and that’s all I’ll say about that.
As I read about this study I thought my head was going to fall off from nodding in affirmation.Using 9/11 conspiracies, researchers got a partial glimpse into the world of conspiracy believers. They critically depend on “selective skepticism.” Conspiracy believers are highly doubtful about information from the government or other sources they consider suspect. But, without criticism, believers accept any source that supports their preconceived views. Conspiracy thinkers share an optimistic conviction that they can find “the truth,” spread it to the masses and foster social change.
Often, the proof offered as evidence for a conspiracy is not specific to one incident or issue, but is used to justify a general pattern of conspiracy ideas. Conspiracy believers frequently speak with likeminded individuals giving support to the notion that conspiracy thinkers constitute a community of believers, who take a cynical stance toward politics, mistrust authority, feel generally suspicious toward others and displaying an inquisitive, imaginative outlook. Arguments advanced by conspiracy theorists tell you more about the believer than about the event.

4. Nonverbal Communication of Race Bias on TV Influences Viewers’ Own Bias The election of President Obama should mean we’re well on our way to overcoming racism right? Not so fast. Today’s racial biases are much more subtle though. Even though viewers may be unable to consciously report observing them, patterns of nonverbal behavior that appear on popular television programs influence racial bias among viewers. According to the study, “Nonverbal behavior that communicates favoritism of one race over another can be so subtle that even across a large number of exposures, perceivers are unable to consciously identify the nonverbal pattern. Nevertheless, exposure to nonverbal race bias can influence perceivers’ race associations and self-reported racial attitudes.”

5. Why Powerful People, Many of Whom Take a Moral High Ground, Don’t Practice What They Preach Mark Sanford, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer – and those are just recent sex scandals. How many political, financial, other boondoggles can we name? Researchers find that power and influence can cause a severe disconnect between public judgment and private behavior, making people in power stricter in moral judgment of others – while being less strict of their own behavior. (umm, Stanford prison experiment anyone?)
In contrast, a fifth experiment demonstrated that people who don’t feel personally entitled to their power are actually harder on themselves than they are on others, which is a phenomenon the researchers dubbed “hypercrisy.” The tendency to be harder on the self than on others also characterized the powerless in multiple studies.
Authors concluded that “Ultimately, patterns of hypocrisy and hypercrisy perpetuate social inequality. The powerful impose rules and restraints on others while disregarding these restraints for themselves, whereas the powerless collaborate in reproducing social inequality because they don’t feel the same entitlement”. Power really does corrupt.

6. How We Support Our False Beliefs A study giving substantial support for a cognitive theory called ‘motivated reasoning,’ suggests that rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe. In fact, for the most part people completely ignore contrary information notes the study’s author.
Interviewing folks who believed that the Iraq war was justified by events of 9/11, researchers found that no evidence could dissuade subjects from their belief in the Saddam – Twin Towers links. The sheer fact that we were engaged in war led to a post-hoc search for a justification for that war.
Going against the notion of propaganda-driven misinformation, it seems that people have emotional attachments that get wrapped up in our personal identity and sense of morality, irrespective of the facts of the matter. This might also help explain things like reasons some people form false beliefs about the pros and cons of health-care reform, among many other things. So be mindful of how you form your views on the world, as this proves a challenge to having a successful democracy.

7. Achieving Fame, Wealth, and Beauty are Psychological Dead Ends Think having loads of money, fetching looks, or the admiration of many will improve your life — think again. Sometimes these things can actually make you less happy. Pursuing goals is important and attainment can have positive consequences, but that’s not true for all goals. Despite cultural emphasis on wealth and fame, pursuing these does not contribute to having a satisfying life and can even be unhealthy.
The paradox is that reaching materialistic and image-related milestones does little to satisfy deep human requirements and actually contributes to ill-being; despite their accomplishments, individuals experience more negative emotions like shame and anger and more physical symptoms of anxiety such as headaches, stomachaches, and loss of energy.
The things that make your life happy are growing as an individual, having loving relationships, and contributing to your community. Individuals who value personal growth, close relationships, community involvement, and physical health are more satisfied as they meet success in those areas. They experience a deeper sense of well-being, more positive feelings toward themselves, richer connections with others, and fewer physical signs of stress.
Craving material gains can lead to preoccupations with “keeping up with the Joneses”—upward social comparisons that breed feelings of inadequacy and jealousy. Unlike the lasting benefits of caring relationships and hard-earned skills, the thrill of extrinsic accomplishments fade quickly; all too soon, the salary raise is a distant memory and the rave review forgotten.

8. How To Create Less Selfish Societies – Let People Behave as They Wish Wanna know how to create a more unselfish society? It turns out the secret ingredient is to let people behave as they wish. (Note that it is a more unselfish society – not totally altruistic)
Researchers studied human behavior in light of the famous Prisoners Dilemma (if you screw someone over you reap major rewards and the other person gets none, but if you cooperate the shared rewards are likely to be greater – but uncertainty about who’s trying to screw who over makes cooperation difficult).
When situations are pre-arranged for people to be cooperative through restrictive behavior (like in a Communist society or with governance of central planning), unselfishness and individuality seems to be suffocated because relationships might be unwanted.
Conversely, when individuals carried more control over their social contracts and contacts cooperation and appreciation for individuality is fostered. Even if individuals do not actively pursue higher diversity in social contacts and behave according to their own narrow-minded preferences cooperation still blooms.

9. Emergencies Inspire Crowd Cooperation Forget those “every man for themselves” scenarios from big budget Hollywood movies, research shows that in a crisis crowds often behave in remarkably cooperative and selfless ways. With the temperature rising and information lacking, you and your fellow passengers stop feeling like strangers and start to feel united in your predicament.
An aggregate of individuals becomes and acts as a psychological crowd when there is a cognitive redefinition of the self from a personal to a social identity. This suggest that in liberating us from the restrictions of individuality the psychological crowd is a crucial adaptive resource for survival in mass emergencies and disasters.
Even though the study was published in August, it obviously carries renewed implications. Our political scene however, seems to panic violently after even a near-crisis.

10. Creating God In One’s Own Image For many religious people, the popular question “What would Jesus do?” is essentially the same as “What would I do?” Through a combination of surveys, psychological manipulation and brain-scanning, researchers found that when religious Americans try to infer the will of God they mainly draw on their own personal beliefs. They use their own beliefs as a starting point, which colors their final conclusions about what God wants.
Researchers even manipulated people to change their views on God by getting them to read a speech that either supported or went against their (and God’s) stated position. The task shifted people’s attitudes towards the position in their speech, either strengthening or moderating their original views, and altering their estimation about what God’s attitude was.
People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want. The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing. If the first link is too academic, here’s another link to an article about the research.