Sensing
“I feel your fear”: Superior fear recognition in organised crime members
Gerardo Salvato et al.
Cognition and Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Individuals who deviate from social norms by committing crimes may have reduced facial emotion recognition abilities. Nevertheless, a specific category of offenders -- i.e. organised crime (OC) members -- is characterised by hierarchically organised social networks and a tendency to manipulate others to reach their illicit goals. Since recognising emotions is crucial to building social networks, OC members may be more skilled in recognising the facial emotion expressions of others to use this information for their criminal purposes. Evidence of a difference between OC and non-organised crime (NOC) offenders in terms of facial emotion recognition is still lacking. To fill this gap in the literature, we tested 50 OC, 50 NOC offenders, and 50 non-offender controls for their ability to identify six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise). All participants underwent a cognitive and psychological evaluation to avoid alternative explanations. Results show that OC members were more able to detect the expression of fear in others as compared to NOC. We interpreted this finding in light of the social context and the behavioural criminal attitude of OC members.
Hooked on weight control: An economic theory of anorexia nervosa and its impact on health and longevity
Holger Strulik
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, I integrate a theory of body image, weight control, and addiction in a life cycle model with health deficit accumulation in order to explain the phenomenon of anorexia nervosa and its impact on health and longevity. Individuals consume normal goods and foods and can work off excess calories with physical exercise. There exists a healthy body mass index and deviations from it increasingly cause health deficits due to obesity or underweight. There exists also a subjective target weight and being heavier than target weight causes a loss of utility from body image. Anorexia is initiated in individuals who are particularly successful in weight control and prone to addiction. Addiction to weight control motivates anorexic individuals to perpetually adjust their target weight downwards and to eat less and exercise more. With declining weight, health deficits accumulate faster and mortality risk rises. I calibrate the model to an average American woman with bmi 28. Due to weight loss addiction, the bmi declines to a level of 15 and causes an expected loss of 15 years of life. I also discuss potential therapies and recovery from the disease.
Contactless Real-Time Heart Rate Predicts the Performance of Elite Athletes: Evidence From Tokyo 2020 Olympic Archery Competition
Yunfeng Lu & Songfa Zhong
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is widely recognized that psychological stress impairs performance for elite athletes, yet direct evidence is scarce when it comes to high-stakes competition because measuring real-time psychological stress without interference is often challenging. Contactless real-time heart rate—a technology-enabled biomarker of stress—was measured and broadcast on TV during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics archery competition for the first time in sports. Here we examined whether the real-time heart rate of 122 adult archers predicted their performance in this unique setting. We found that higher heart rate—which indicates an increase in psychological stress—is associated with lower scores, correlation coefficient r(2096) = −.076, p < .001, and the observation is robust after we controlled for fixed effects at the individual and match level. Our results provide the first direct evidence in support of the detrimental effect of psychological stress measured by a real-time biomarker in a high-stakes competitive setting.
“It doesn’t affect me!” -- Do immunity beliefs prevent subsequent aggression after playing a violent video game?
Robert Ridge et al.
Journal of Media Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We identified participants in the United States (N = 302) who believed that they were vulnerable to becoming more aggressive after playing a violent video game (a vulnerability belief) and those who believed that playing violent video games would not make them more aggressive (an immunity belief). Participants played either a violent or a nonviolent video game and then competed with a fictional opponent in a competitive reaction time task. Results revealed that those with an immunity belief did not behave more aggressively after playing a violent video game. Unexpectedly, those with a vulnerability belief behaved less aggressively after playing a violent video game. We discuss implications for future research and media literacy education.
Board games enhance creativity: Evidence from two studies
Maxence Mercier & Todd Lubart
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, forthcoming
Abstract:
Creativity is a crucial skill in the 21st century. Finding ways to develop and improve it is therefore an important issue. Games are powerful educational tools, and several early studies have shown the potential of video games and role-playing games to improve creativity. However, the question of the potential of board games is still open. The aim of this article was therefore to explore this topic, through two studies. Using a self-report questionnaire (N = 284), the first study showed that the frequency of playing board games was positively correlated with several components of creative potential: divergent thinking, openness to experiences, creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity. Using an experimental approach (N = 239), the second study demonstrated that playing creative games -- requiring the generation of creative ideas -- had a beneficial effect on participants' originality, compared to playing noncreative games and a control condition. This result was observed independently of the participants' baseline creative potential, derived using latent profile analysis. This beneficial effect, obtained after 30 minutes of play, could be used to temporarily improve creative performance, in education or in business.