Social:
Category: Research
Greta and I did our undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, or as a commonly-sold T-shirt on campus put it, "where fun goes to die." To say that Chicago didn't emphasize academics over a social life is to deny...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:20 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Research
One of my favorite cartoons as a child was "Speed Racer." It featured an all-American boy (first name, "Speed," last name, "Racer") engaging in that most American of pastimes: driving fast cars. Except that "Speed Racer" wasn't really American; it...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:34 PM • 33 Comments •
Category: Research
Product placements in movies and TV shows are becoming so commonplace that my kids now cynically take note of them whenever they appear. It wasn't always that way. In 1982 when I first saw E.T. I had no idea that...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 5:18 PM • 15 Comments •
Category: Research
Imagine you learned your romantic partner was unfaithful to you. Would you be more upset if he or she had sex with someone else, or if they had fallen in love with someone else? Several studies have found that the...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:05 PM • 19 Comments •
Category: Research
As an undergraduate, at my school it was practically a requirement to steal silverware from the campus cafeteria. There were students who'd commandeered full sets of china. The desk clerk at my dorm used to say that the only thing...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:55 PM • 10 Comments •
Category: Research
Imagine your neighbor has a dog that regularly escapes her yard. One day you see the dog escape and return it to her. She thanks you by giving you a piece of delicious home-made apple pie. This happens several days...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:01 PM • 18 Comments •
Category: Research
Jim and Nora each attended summer camps that they enjoyed tremendously this past summer. When we picked up Nora from her camp, she was completely exhausted. Why? She and her new friends had only gotten 30 minutes of pretend sleep...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:20 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Research
Implicit attitudes and associations can tell us a lot about a person. It's a way to find out if they might have a racial or gender bias, and recently there has even been some work suggesting that an implicit association...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:36 PM • 18 Comments •
Category: Research
[Originally posted in November 2006] The recent controversial shooting of an unarmed black man in New York has generated terrible grief and perhaps justifiable anger. But if officers honestly believed the man was armed and intended to harm them, weren't...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 11:40 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Research
[Originally posted in December, 2007] Do smells have an impact on how we judge people? Certainly if someone smells bad, we may have a negative impression of the person. But what if the smell is so subtle we don't consciously...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 1:55 PM • 9 Comments •