Psych Papers

Harlow created the Pit of Despair to produce an animal model of human clinical depression. Monkeys were isolated in the chambers for up to a year, having zero interaction with the outside world. Expectedly, these social animals came out quite disturbed… Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss Harry Harlow’s early life, the multiple versions of the pit of despair he created, and we l...

How important is your name to your identity? In this episode, we review the history of names and our follow-up research on how much people like their names; whether name length influences name liking; and which boys’ names and girls’ names would win in a fight. We found that people tend to like their names more when they are longer (more characters); and that names like Anthony and Brianna would b...

How does a study on facial expressions turn into a study on obedience to authority? It started as research to examine whether people have common facial expressions when experiencing different emotions—but then it turned into something much darker, making it one of the most unethical psychology studies. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the Carney Landis experiment and the dist...

If an out-of-control trolley was heading straight for a dog tied to the tracks, but you could pull a lever to divert the trolley onto a track with a person tied to the tracks, would you do it? What if it was a hundred dogs? How about all the dogs in the world? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the follow-up research we conducted where we surveyed over 300 people to examine the...

If you witness an emergency, would you intervene? What if other people were present? Research shows most people wouldn’t help if others are around. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the bystander effect, Kitty Genovese, and the research surrounding these topics conducted by Darley and Latané in 1968. Researchers were interested in why people are less likely to intervene in an...

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....

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...

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 wat...

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 explo...

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...

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 th...

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 th...

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...