Psychobabble
A Podcast of Experimental Psychology
Ep33 – Cognitive Errors and Illusions
May 10th
Why is reality not as we perceive? Why aren’t we any good at attributing motives and explaining behaviour in others and how can we tell when we’ve got it all backwards?
And why do always overestimate the prevalence of our own opinions, sometimes in extreme and grossly unrealistic ways.
Finally, how can we totally miss the world around? We do it all the time. Check out psycho-babble.net for videos, shownotes and references.
Here’s a change-blindness Vid – It doesn’t embed, but click away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG_OBgTWg
Here’s another change-blindness vid – we didn’t speak about this element of the error, but it’s fun to watch anyhow:
Dunning-Krugar Estimates/Results graph
False Consensus graphs:
(original and informal research research)
Estimates and Actual rates of Colour Preference
Estimates and Actual rates of Aversions
Estimates and Actual Preference for Alcohol
References:
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77 (6), 1121-1134 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121
Dunning, D., Johnson, K., Ehrlinger, J., & Kruger, J. (2003). Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12 (3), 83-87 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8721.01235
Mullen, B., Atkins, J., Champion, D., Edwards, C., Hardy, D., Story, J., & Vanderklok, M. (1985). The false consensus effect: A meta-analysis of 115 hypothesis tests Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21 (3), 262-283 DOI: 10.1016/0022-1031(85)90020-4
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Help out Jess
Apr 26th
Jess needs your help! She is currently undertaking a survey as part of her honours thesis. If you can spare a few minutes please fill it out. Here’s the brief:
This study is an online survey that assesses a variety of factors (eg. family environment and emotion regulation) that place young adults at risk for deliberate self-harm. It contains questions and statements that require participants to disclose information about personal experiences with deliberate self-harm. PLEASE NOTE that you do not have to have participated in self-harming behaviours to complete this survey. All survey responses are anonymous and cannot be linked to participant identity. At the end of the survey, a debrief sheet will be provided on the last page. This will enable you to read about the study more in depth and what we are expecting to find. Thank you very much for your time!!
Ep32SHORT – Conference Wrap-up (EPC and SASP)
Apr 25th
Nerisa and Kate talk about their recent experience at the Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) and Society for Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP).
Related Episodes:
Live From EPC (Episode 9) (2011)
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Ep31 – April Fool’s
Apr 12th
From marriage to the price of cabbages, flying penguins to duel-wielding mice.
What is that makes a hoax successful and who is likely to get suckered? Why do we mis-remember some facts and rarely seek to disprove our own beliefs? How easily can someone implant false memories
See Also:
Ep16 – Attention and Inattention http://www.psycho-babble.net/archives/212
Ep11 – Humour http://www.psycho-babble.net/archives/154
Media!
Elizabeth Loftus (On the nature of memory and false memories – Good Listen!)
http://skepticallyspeaking.ca/episodes/137-memory-science
Smashed Cars and Bumped Cars
http://www.holah.co.uk/summary/loftus/
Why our brains make us laugh at ourselves
The Evolution of Human Laughter (blog)
http://www.labspaces.net/blog/1380/Laughter__part_____The_Evolution_of_Human_Laughter
Change Blindness (Person Swap)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG_OBgTWg (cannot embed)
Flying Penguins (I said it was Attenborough – I was wrong)
Google Chrome – Dual Wield Mice
Google Quest for NES
Penn and Teller – Magic Show
—
Seilhamer, M. (2011). On doing ‘being a crank caller’: A look into the crank call community of practice Journal of Pragmatics, 43 (2), 677-690 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.005
Hall, M. (1965). The great cabbage hoax: A case study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2 (4), 563-569 DOI: 10.1037/h0022489
Gervais, M., & Wilson, D. (2005). THE EVOLUTION AND FUNCTIONS OF LAUGHTER AND HUMOR: A SYNTHETIC APPROACH The Quarterly Review of Biology, 80 (4), 395-430 DOI: 10.1086/498281
Vohs, K., Baumeister, R., & Chin, J. (2007). Feeling duped: Emotional, motivational, and cognitive aspects of being exploited by others. Review of General Psychology, 11 (2), 127-141 DOI: 10.1037/1089-2680.11.2.127
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Ep30 – Kony2012
Mar 29th
Kony2012 has been the most viral video to date, but what made the 27 minute experiment so successful?
Arguments about the claims made, or the the man, Kony, aside, the video was an all encompassing psychological coup. Why did we share so widely, so quickly, and with such passion? How can we explain it and what happens next?
Join Rohan, Cam, Jess and Nerisa for everything Kony – except anything to do with African Warlords.
Media!
Graphs
Kony2012 – The real thing AND The Musical!
The Bystander Effect
Graphs
Google Trends 'Kony', 'Invisible Children', 'Jason Russel'
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Elboration Likelihood Model
Kony2012 – Actual
Kony2012 – The Musical!
The Bystander Effect
Hirzalla, F., & Zoonen, L. (2010). Beyond the Online/Offline Divide: How Youth’s Online and Offline Civic Activities Converge Social Science Computer Review, 29 (4), 481-498 DOI: 10.1177/0894439310385538
Vitak, J., Zube, P., Smock, A., Carr, C., Ellison, N., & Lampe, C. (2011). It’s Complicated: Facebook Users’ Political Participation in the 2008 Election Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14 (3), 107-114 DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2009.0226
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Ep29 – Studying Psychology (Part 2)
Mar 15th
What does it mean to study psychology? Rohan, Nerisa, Jess, Shelli and Kate discuss their experiences, their misconceptions and a broad range of outcomes that arrive from their choice of study.
This is a two part series. Part 1 covers general experience, Undgergrad and Honours. Part 2 (Ep29) covers PhD, Masters, Post-Doc (and still more undergrad).
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Ep28 – Studying Psychology (Part 1)
Feb 29th
What does it mean to study psychology? Rohan, Nerisa, Jess, Shelli and Kate discuss their experiences, their misconceptions and a broad range of outcomes that arrive from their choice of study.
This is a two part series. Part 1 covers general experience, Undgergrad and Honours. Part 2 (Ep29) covers PhD, Masters, Post-Doc (and still more undergrad).
Links:
The books that changed Kate’s life:
Francis Crick – The Astonishing Hypothesis
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Ep27 – Valentine’s Day (II)
Feb 16th
Our second annual Valentine’s Show – depending on your perspective this is either a ‘how to’ or a ‘what to avoid’ show on attraction and manipulation. Everything from mimicry and gaze, to maximizing misattributions of environmental causes to the individual, and understanding how you may trick yourself into believing things that just aren’t the case.
And it’s true! People do date at their ‘own level’ – we discuss why hotties usually only date hotties.
Links -
http://theconversation.edu.au/ - a news site written by academics on a variety of contemporary newsworthy topics. The facts behind otherwise empty journalistic opinion.
.
The SNL Skit featuring Tom Brady.
Other related content:
Episode 3 – Be My Valentine
Episode 5 – The Pill
Episode 15 – Pheromones and Chemosignals
References:
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Ep26 – Internet Piracy and SOPA
Feb 2nd
Nerisa, Jess, James and Rohan as they discuss the psychological factors related to Internet Piracy and SOPA. Why do we feel a moral disconnect when stealing online, when we would consider the same theft of a CD or DVD as wrong? What role do norms play on the internet – where you cannot see, hear or know with those you’re interacting with. And just what’s so special about this kind of collective action?
Links -
Cyanide & Happiness
Why SOPA should be bocked:
(without permission from The Oatmeal)
References:
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Ep25 – New Year’s Resolutions
Jan 19th
We like to hope that this coming year will be better than the last and we like to make resolutions on the New Year in order for it to be so. But how seriously should we take it? Are all resolutions created equal? How can we make sure that our resolution is most likely to succeed?
Join us for a discussion on drinking, smoking, eating and Jackie Chan.
Links -
Rohan’s NYE Resolution Avengeyourmaster.wordpress.com
References below the fold
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