Psych Papers

We surveyed a thousand people on how hot and how crazy the top 20 Millennial names are (20 boy names, 20 girl names). We show where the names line up on the hot/crazy scale. Hottest Millennial Boy Names: Ryan James Nicholas Christopher Michael Hottest Millennial Girl Names: Samantha Nicole Amber Ashley Brittany Craziest Millennial Boy Names: Joshua James Ryan Andrew Tyler Craziest Millennial Girl...

We surveyed over 500 people on first date norms. Here are the questions we’ll answer: Who should pay for the first date? What’s the preferred activity for a first date? What level of physical contact is appropriate on a first date? How late is acceptable for someone to arrive on a first date? Is it appropriate to discuss ex-partners on a first date? When should you follow up after a first date? Do...

We surveyed over 600 people on their dating deal breakers. We provided a list of 29 potential deal breakers and asked participants to select all that would end a relationship for them Question’s we’ll answer: What are the most common deal breakers in dating? How does it differ by:  Gender Relationship Status Sexuality Some key highlights: Heavy drinking, smoking cigarettes, and drug use were the m...

The Kiki-Bouba effect is a phenomenon where people tend to associate certain sounds with specific shapes. When shown a sharp, angular shape and a soft, rounded shape, and asked which is named "Kiki" and which is "Bouba," most people will label the sharp shape as "Kiki" and the rounded shape as "Bouba." This effect suggests that there is a universal, possibly...

We surveyed over 500 people on the masculinity and femininity of different table lamps. Yup… Questions we’ll answer: What’s the most masculine lamp? What’s the most feminine lamp? What makes a lamp either masculine or feminine? Some key takeaways: Lamps do have gendered associations Masculine lamps tend to have: Straight lines / hard edges, Darker colors,  Industrial or modern design elements, Mat...

The decoy effect is a trick used in marketing to make you choose a more expensive option by adding a third, less attractive choice. For example, if you're deciding between a small and a large popcorn, and a medium popcorn is added at a price just below the large, you'll likely go for the large because it seems like a better deal compared to the medium. The less attractive option (the med...

What do people think about anime fans? Do people prefer subbed or dubbed? We surveyed people on their impressions of anime and whether they think being an anime fan makes you cooler or lamer. Questions We Answer: How popular is anime? Do people prefer subbed or dubbed? How’s being an anime fan affect impressions? What age groups do people think anime is intended for? Key Findings: Anime is very po...

We conducted a survey to learn whether your phone’s background image can act as a “window to the soul.” In other words, whatever is most important to your wellbeing will most likely be your phone background. So if you want to get to know someone, take a look at their phone background. Questions we answer: What are the most common phone backgrounds? What do people value most to their well-being? Do...

Beauty = Order and Complexity. Think of the architecture of your favorite museum versus the architecture of a mundane apartment building. Why is one beautiful and the other isn’t? For something to be beautiful, it must have the right balance of order and complexity. Order refers to the structured, organized, and predictable aspects of an object or environment. In architecture, order can be seen in...

Is your preference for lights on/off during sex correlated with whether you keep your eyes open or closed at the dentist? How does this differ by gender? We surveyed 500 people on these topics. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the results in this episode of Psych Papers. Key Findings: People are generally split on whether they keep their eyes open (52%) or closed (48%) at the...

In the 1930’s, a baby chimpanzee was raised as a sibling to a 10-month old infant. Winthrop Kellogg treated the the ape, Gua, as similarly as possible to his own son, Donald. They were dressed, bathed, fed, and taught in the same manner; they both wore diapers and shoes, had similar play toys, and both received a kiss goodnight. Kellogg examined the effects of nature versus nurture on development....

We analyzed Rotten Tomatoes Movie Ratings and discuss our findings. The scraped dataset has data on 1.1 million reviews from 17.7k movies from 1914–2020. Here’s a sample of our findings: Documentaries were the highest rated movie genres, followed by “Art House & International, Drama”. Horror genres were ranked lowest. “Action & Adventure, Drama” and “Comedy” movies were the only genres tha...

The Shopping Cart Study investigates how toddlers develop awareness of their own bodies. Developed by Chris Moore and colleagues in 2007, the task examine when a sense of self develops in babies. At what age do children begin to understand how their bodies interact with the world? The shopping cart task involves tying a small rug onto the back of a toy shopping cart, right by the back wheels. If y...

In developmental psychology, the Rouge Test is used to test self-recognition in children. We discuss the origins and significance of this classic test which assesses a child’s ability to identify themselves in a mirror. Developed by Gordon Gallup Jr in 1970, using rouge makeup, an experimenter discreetly puts a red dot on the child’s face. Then the child is placed in front of a mirror to see how t...

The Barnum Effect is the tendency for people to accept vague and general personality descriptions as highly accurate and personally meaningful. “Barnum statements” are general characterizations that people believe to be true about themselves, even though these statements could apply to just about anyone. It’s commonly exploited in astrology / horoscopes, fortune telling, psychics, mediums, tarot c...

How do sports and income relate? Specifically, how do the sports you played in high school relate with your household income. Which sports do more educated parents have their kids play? We surveyed 500 US high school graduates about what sports they played in high school, their parents’ household income, and their parents’ highest education achieved. Key Findings: The rich kids played hockey. Hock...

Scale errors refer to a hilarious phenomenon in developmental psychology where young children make errors in judging the relationship between the size of an object and the size of their own body. What this looks like is a child seriously trying to sit in a doll house chair, trying to get inside of like a hot wheels car, and trying to put doll shoes on their own feet. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohos...

Joseph Tajaran (Designer & Chris’s friend) and Chris Cole (Psych PhD) go over how aesthetics impact functionality in design. More specifically, they go over the aesthetic-usability effect and specific examples of how this happens in design: Contour Bias: people are biased towards curved over sharp forms Ockham’s Razor: the philosophy of leveraging the smallest amount of elements Signal-to-Nois...

Why do men prefer black coffee? We ran a survey of over 500 people to see how their food preferences and gender interact. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran review the results in this episode of Psych Papers. The food takes we surveyed are: How do you like your coffee? Pancakes vs waffles? For buffalo wings: blue cheese vs ranch? For buffalo wings: boneless vs bone-in? Favorite type of...

Is being a Joe Rogan fan a red flag in dating? Do Democrats or Republicans like Joe Rogan more? Why do Joe Rogan haters dislike him so much? We conducted a quantitative survey of 1000 people and analyzed how people think about Joe Rogan. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the results in this episode of Psych Papers. Here are some highlights: 1. Most people, that have heard of h...

Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran go over 3 popular myths in psychology that have been debunked. Power posing: The idea that body language can influence confidence and behavior. 10% brain myth: The misconception that we only use 10% of our brains. Opposites attract: The idea that people with contrasting personalities are drawn to each other. Check out the video version of this episode...

The Good Samaritan Study shows most people forget about ethics/virtues when they’re preoccupied. Seminary students were less likely to help someone in need if they were in a rush. And it didn’t even matter if they were actively thinking about ethics and virtues. Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss the Good Samaritan Study conducted by Batson and Darley (1973). This was a landmar...

How do infants develop the cognitive super powers that enable them to navigate the world? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss our 3 favorite developmental psychology concepts. Object permanence: The understanding that objects continue to exist even when no longer visible. Develops between 7-12 months of age. Tested with the A-Not-B Task. Theory of Mind: The ability to understand...

How do psychologists induce social exclusion in participants? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran discuss 5 ways psychologists have induced feelings of social exclusion in participants. Methods broadly fall into 3 categories: 1) having participants interact other individuals; 2) having participants interact with computer-controlled avatars (who participants believe are real people); 3)...

We surveyed over 600 people on their loneliness and compare their scores across personality traits and demographic groups. How does loneliness differ between men and women? Dog vs cat people? Social media users vs non-social media suers? Psych PhD Chris Cole and cohost Joseph Tajaran learn that most people are generally equally and moderately lonely. Check out the video version of this episode on...