Social Psychology – Page 3 – Psychology in Action

Does it pay to be kind?

Being kind to others can have positive consequences for our health and recent research suggests it triggers the same regions in our brain that are active when we receive rewards. Scientists are trying to understand how to encourage people to engage in more kind behaviors.

March 28, 2018

Consequences of Low Status: Balancing Sociality and Self-Preservation

People are naturally social—every day we interact with other people. However, these interactions do not occur in isolation; rather, they are couched within a larger social hierarchy that can actually influence how we treat each other. These hierarchies are very visible in animals, as animals fight for mates or leadership (your dog will even…

March 9, 2018

What is empathy?

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February 22, 2018

Social Cognition and Language

Humans and non-human animals alike have to process and respond to specific information about their social environments in order to navigate the social world. But language seems to shape how we process and respond to such information. So are certain forms of social cognition uniquely human?

November 13, 2017

Why Sharing Good News Matters For Your Relationships

Sharing positive news with others is associated with benefits such as feeling more positive and more satisfied with life, greater self-esteem, and decreases in feeling lonely.

June 1, 2016

Ideal Affect: How What You Want to Feel Can Impact Your Choices

For the most part, people want to feel good things, such as feeling excited, enthusiastic, calm, or relaxed. But according to affect valuation theory, the type of good feelings people strive for—or their ideal affect—impacts the kind of behavior they engage in.

March 27, 2016

Category: Social Psychology