Bitesizedpsych is now on a (hopefully) short hiatus. I can’t say when regular posts will resume, but I’ll still be checking the account regularly for messages and submissions.
Redheads require more anesthetic
due to a higher sensitivity to thermal (cold and heat) pain. This is caused by a genetic mutation of the melanocortin 1 receptor. However, red haired females are less sensitive than blonde and brunette females to stinging sensations
(Source: io9.com)
The Uncanny Valley
refers to a dip in the graph of positive human emotion towards robots which occurs when the robot looks and acts almost perfectly human, but is still imperceptibly robotic. The resulting revulsion may be caused by imperfect facial expressions which fail to communicate the intended emotion of the robot’s programmer.
Types of psychiatric medications
Paranoia
can be fuelled by socio-political climate and lead to distorted, paranoid perceptions of normal situations. 40% of participants in a virtual tunnel ride reported paranoid feelings and thoughts regarding virtual neutral characters. The study was conducted in London in 2008, three years after the London bombings.
(Source: bjp.rcpsych.org)
Hallucinations
were experienced by 38.7% of participants in a sample from Britain, Germany and Italy, not including institutionalised peoples.
(Source: psy-journal.com)
The Corrupted Blood incident
was an virtual epidemic which spread through the World of Warcraft world after the addition of a new enemy which attacked opponents with a health-draining spell which would spread between players and their pets. Players took the “disease” outside of the dungeon, where it was meant to stay, and mimicked biological warfare in spreading it among players across the world. The Corrupted Blood incident is studied by epidemiologists as a virtual model for epidemics and terrorism, noting similarities with the avian flu. The incident models mass panic and fear, contributing to the study of social psychology.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The just-world hypothesis
is an attributional bias in which people believe that bad things only happen to bad people. This bias leads to victims being blamed for their experiences, regularly encountered in cases of rape. By attributing negative events to the victim’s character rather than events beyond control, the spectator with the hypothesis can assume that such an event won’t happen to them, ensuring comfort.
(Source: scu.edu)
There are related optical illusions where flashes across the image prevent the viewer from noticing an object which fades or changes with each flash, known as change blindness. In change blindness, the viewer is not given enough time to encode the detail of the scene. The peculiarity of this auditory illusion is that the listener isn’t deaf to the change, but imagines change when there is none. Any explanations?
Genain Quadruplets
The Genain quadruplets (born in 1930) are a set of identical quadruplet sisters notable for all having schizophrenia, suggesting a large genetic component to the cause of the disease.
Memory and environment
Walking between rooms makes remembering ideas more difficult, proposed to be caused by either the changed context of the environment removing the triggers for the initial idea or by the doorway acting as an “event boundary” which divides where new memories are created in the mind.
Thanks to vengefulgiblets.
(Source: Lifehacker)
