Broadway musicals are often thought of as lightweight entertainment. In fact, from South Pacific to The Book of Mormon, many of the greatest shows incorporate serious themes and challenge audience members’ assumptions. But can minds really be opened through story and song? Newly published research provides evidence that will warm the hearts of cockeyed optimists. “Musical theater may be a promising method for promoting attitudinal change,” write Frederick Heide, Natalie Porter and Paul Saito of Alliant International University in San Francisco. Their study, published in the journal ... Read More
The Brain-Focusing Power of the Lab Coat
February 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Schoolchildren grappling with a tough assignment are encouraged to “put your thinking cap on.” But parents and teachers offering this advice may be focusing on the wrong garment. Perhaps students should instead slip into their thinking jackets. That’s the implication of a newly published study, which found wearing a white lab coat — a piece of clothing associated with care and attentiveness — improved performance on tests requiring close and sustained attention. Importantly, the effect was not found when the garment in question was identified as a visual artist’s ... Read More
Thinking Creatively: Just Add Milk
February 23, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Want to boost your creativity? Tomorrow morning, pour some milk into an empty bowl, and then add the cereal. That may sound, well, flaky. But according to a newly published study, preparing a common meal in reverse order may stimulate innovative thinking. Avoiding conventional behavior at the breakfast table “can help people break their cognitive patterns, and thus lead them to think more flexibly and creatively,” according to a research team led by psychologist Simone Ritter of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She and her colleagues, including Rodica Ioana Damian ... Read More
Help Black Children? Sure! Teens? Not So Much.
February 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Many a mailbox is clogged with fervent appeals for charitable donations. Often, these imploring letters and brochures feature heart-tugging images of black children in need. Newly published research suggests this strategy may be quite effective at getting people to open their wallets — so long as those deprived youngsters have yet to reach adolescence. “Charitable behavior toward African American children decreases — and negative stereotypical inferences increase — with the age of those children,” reports a research team led by Deborah Small of the University of ... Read More
Fear Heightens Appreciation of Abstract Art
February 14, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Are you puzzled by Picasso? Perplexed by Pollock? Do you feel you’re missing out on something profound when friends discuss their intense reaction to abstract art? You could do some research to better understand what you’re looking at. Or you could turn off the lights and watch a DVD of Psycho. A newly published study finds people are more likely to be moved and intrigued by abstract paintings if they have just experienced a good scare. This suggests the allure of art may be “a byproduct of one’s tendency to be alarmed by such environmental features as novelty, ambiguity, and the ... Read More