Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Why You Can’t Stop Perusing Your Facebook Profile

(PHOTO: ALXYAGO/SHUTTERSTOCK)

How often do you check out your Facebook profile? If considering that question makes you blush—or raises the uncomfortable notion that you’re a narcissist—relax: You’re acting on an impulse that is as basic as it is benign. New research suggests that all that rereading, revising, and updating satisfies the fundamental human need to feel good about yourself, and your place in society. This reassurance and sense of security is a vital psychological resource, and Facebook may be the easiest, most convenient way to provide it yet been devised. No wonder the social network has ... Read More

The Benefits of Bonding with Batman

Batman at Comic-Con

As anyone who has attended a Comic Con—or even seen news footage of one of those colorful conventions—can attest, plenty of people have bonded with superheroes. The more extroverted among them proudly affirm their identification with the character by wearing his or her cape, tights and/or mask. Arrested adolescents? Not so fast, you dastardly deprecator. For men, it turns out, close identification with a superhero can have psychological benefits—and perhaps even physical ones. “Muscular superheroes change men’s body image,” a research team led by University of Buffalo ... Read More

‘Power Gloat’ Ready to Take the Field

Back in 2010 we told you about how “power poses”—open, expansive positions of the body—actually made test subjects feel more powerful, leading them to be more self-confident and presumably more successful. At the time we pointed to even earlier research that the process of raising our arms upward resulted in more positive thoughts, which again presumably is a milepost on the track to success. Now, thanks to CNN’s Rose Hoare, we've been reminded of an excellent example of such “embodied cognition”: Usain Bolt. His so-called lightning pose, with one arm pointing to the ... Read More

Generic Products Lower Users’ Self-Worth

Consumers purchase generic products for a simple reason: They cost less than their brand-name equivalents. But newly published research from Taiwan suggests shoppers who opt for store-brand items may pay a hidden price. Their credit card bills may be lower, but so is their self-esteem. "Even incidentally used cheaper, generic products have the ironic consequence of harming one's self-image via a sense of worthlessness," Yin-Hsien Chao and Wen-Bin Chiou report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. They found this dampening of self-esteem has potentially negative consequences ... Read More

Power Poses Really Work

Power Poses Really Work

How strong is the power of suggestion? For researchers in the field of embodied cognition—the study of the mind as it relates to and influences the body—suggestion is a force to be reckoned with. Rooted in psychology, linguistics and neurobiology, embodied cognition has established links between movement and the mental state. A 2008 study published in Discover magazine, for example, found a tie between facial expressions and emotive perceptions. Our Tom Jacobs recently reported on a study from the Netherlands that found that upward motions elevated mood. New research ... Read More

In Disney Films, Beauty Is Far From Beastly

Highly attractive people are smarter, more socially adept and generally superior to the rest of us, and they tend to live happier lives. At least, that’s a widely shared stereotype that psychologists first identified in the early 1970s and recent research suggests is somewhat self-perpetuating. (Having been fawned over from an early age, good-looking people tend to have higher levels of self-esteem, which is an important ingredient in positive life outcomes.) But how exactly does the good-is-beautiful belief get passed down from one generation to the next? Newly published research ... Read More

Academics Like to Play With Barbies, Too

Barbara Millicent Roberts, better known as Barbie, turns 50 today and man, does she look good for her age. Even after 50 years and a billion outfits, she’s still flying off toy-store shelves. Two Barbie dolls sell every second, and Mattel’s worldwide sales of Barbie top $1.5 billion every year. The company estimates that 90 percent of U.S. girls between the ages of 3 and 10 own at least one Barbie doll with those between 3 and 6 owning an average of 12 dolls each. But despite her popularity, Barbie continues to be a target of feminist attacks and public campaigns over her unhealthy, ... Read More