How is aggression induced and measured in psychology research? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss 5 ways psychologists have measured aggression and 3 ways they’ve induced aggression. From pouring hot sauce on a victim’s meal to sticking pins in a voodoo doll of your significant other, researchers have gotten creative in measuring how much somebody wants to harm another person.

Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XAJNcZO60IE

Are judicial rulings based solely on laws and facts? While judges are supposed to be rational, mechanical, and deliberative, they are also humans and are prone to being “hangry”. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the “The Hungry Judge Effect” where researchers Danziger, Levav, and Avnaim-Pesso tested this idea in the context of parole decisions made by experienced judges. They wanted to see how extraneous factors, such as lunch or a snack break, can sway a judge’s decision on whether a prisoner receives parole or not.

Follow-Up Research: We surveyed over 300 people to learn what types of foods people crave toward when they’re experiencing different emotions. What foods do you crave when you’re sad? When you’re bored?

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How reliable are our memories of past events? Are there situations in which we can’t trust our own memories? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the Car Crash Memory Experiment (Loftus & Primer, 1974) which tested whether a leading question can influence a person’s memory of an event. Can you implant memories based on how you ask somebody about a past event? Participants watched a video of a car crash and then answered questions about their memory of the car crash. Depending on how questions were worded (e.g., “How fast was the car going when it [bumped, smashed] the other car?”) influenced participants’ estimates of car speeds. Showing that memories can be influenced by wording of questions! Think about implications for legal trials and police interrogations.

Follow-Up Research: Psych Papers’ first replication study! Our follow-up research attempted to replicate the original study using a new car crash video. Turns out, replication research can be really tricky!

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How do children learn aggressive behaviors? How much do we imitate the behaviors of others? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment (1961) which tested whether children will imitate an adult physically abusing a “Bobo Doll.”

Follow-Up Research: How much does physical resemblance matter when it comes to positive role models? Our follow-up research explored people’s favorite fictional characters and their physical resemblance to them. Turns out, people look up to positive role models that look like them!

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In what situations do humans conform to the group? When will we change our attitudes and behaviors merely to fit in? We go over the "Asch Conformity Test." Conducted in 1951, it explored whether people will conform to an obviously incorrect response when the group is an agreement of the obviously incorrect response.

Follow-Up Research: We facilitated follow-up research that explored how conformity differs between personality types (e.g., dog vs cat people; coffee vs tea lovers; early birds vs night owls).

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How do people know when they're full? It might be more complicated than simply listening to your body. Visual cues, such as seeing the number of bowls of soup you've eaten, may contribute to this phenomenon. We review the "Bottomless Soup Bowl" study (Wansink et al., 2005).

Follow-Up Research: What does the sound of a flute taste like? We surveyed people on what they thought the sounds of different instruments would taste like and present the results of our research.

It should be noted that much of the research conducted by Brian Wansink has either been retracted or called into question. This specific study has not been retracted but the results have been questioned. This doesn’t necessarily mean the effect isn’t real, rather we need more research to draw firmer conclusions. For a similar study with similar results, check out Episodic Memory and Appetite Regulation in Humans (Brunstrom et al., 2012).

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How do we develop fears? Are they innate or do we learn them? We talk about Watson's dubious Little Albert study (1920). Watson and his team tested if they could condition fear into an infant named Albert using classical conditioning (e.g., Pavlov's dog). Homeboy basically bangs on loud sounds to make a baby cry. Messed up stuff.

Follow-Up Research: Are liberals more scared of zombies than conservatives? Are women more scared of drowning than men? We discuss our own follow-up research about how common are different fears and how they differ between groups (gender, political affiliation, temperament, age).
 
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Would the average person commit a heinous act if they were ordered by an authority figure? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the infamous "Milgram obedience to authority experiment (1963)." In this study, psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to learn about whether the average person would commit an immoral act if an authority figure ordered them to.

Follow-Up Research: Does "following orders" mitigate any blame for an immoral act? Does it matter if we're evaluating ourselves versus a coworker? How does age influence perceptions of responsibility? We discuss our own follow-up research on whether people accept the "following orders" excuse from others. 

Interested in seeing our faces and the visuals referenced in this episode? Check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.