When you nod your head to signal approval or shake your head to show disapproval, it's not just sending a message to others - you may also be influencing yourself.
A new study showed that these simple movements influenced people's agreement with an editorial they heard while nodding or shaking their head. Researchers found that other body movements - such as writing with a non-dominant hand - can also influence attitudes, even about important issues such as self-esteem.
And these body movements exert their influence without people being aware of what is happening.
"We think of nodding or shaking our head as something that communicates to other people, but it turns out that it is also communicating to ourselves," said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
In a sense, Petty said, nodding or shaking your head, as well as other body movements, serve as a kind of "self-validation" that confirms to us how we feel about our own thoughts.
"If we are nodding our heads up and down, we gain confidence in what we are thinking. But when we shake our heads from side to side, we lose confidence in our own thoughts."
What goes through the mind of a gun-toting teenager when he pulls the trigger? Does he make a conscious decision to kill? Or is he acting on instinct? The debate over why teens turn violent usually focuses on family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, unemployment, even diet.
New research on the origins of antisocial behaviour, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests that early-onset antisocial behaviour in children with psychopathic tendencies is largely inherited.
The findings are the result of extensive research funded by the Medical Research Council, the Department of Health and the Home Office, and carried out by Dr. Essi Viding of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, within the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.
Scientists have reversed the effects of ageing on the skin of mice by blocking the action of a specific protein.
London - An outbreak in Europe of an obscure disease from Africa is raising concerns that globalization and climate change are combining to pose a health threat to the West.
Nearly 300 cases of chikungunya fever, a virus that previously has been common only in Africa and Asia, were reported in Italy - where only isolated cases of the disease had been seen in the past.
Something most remarkable and unexpected has occurred in the field of psychiatry. Lead by a lifelong defender and promoter of shock treatment, Harold Sackeim, a team of investigators has recently published a follow up study of 347 patients given the currently available methods of electroshock, including the supposedly most benign forms--and confirmed that electroshock causes permanent brain damage and dysfunction.
Mice carrying a gene which appears to make them invulnerable to cancer may hold the key to safer and more effective treatments for humans.
Drinking alcohol boosts the growth of new nerve cells in the brain, research suggests.
Millions of Americans, especially children, are needlessly getting dangerous radiation from "super X-rays" that raise the risk of cancer and are increasingly used to diagnose medical problems, a new report warns.
MARIA CHENG
APFri, 30 Nov 2007 04:26 UTC
Graveyard Shift Soon to Be Listed As 'Probable' Cause of Cancer, a Link Once Seen As Wacky
Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer. It is a surprising step validating a concept once considered wacky. And it is based on research that finds higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.