Is the holiday complete without traditional family celebrations and holiday rituals? This is exactly what a team of Spanish and Chilean researchers attempted to evaluate in a 2011 study. Situating their research into an extensive tradition finding that ritual practices are important for personal happiness and family cohesion, Dr. Paez and his team examined what…
Read MoreWant A Truly Merry Holiday? Focus on Celebrations, Not Stuff
As holiday season approaches, many of us must reflect on what exactly will make the holidays most joyous. In a fascinating study from 2002, a pair of researchers asked over a hundred people about their stress and happiness during the holidays, including questions about consumption behavior. They found that family-based or religious celebrations tended to…
Read MoreFacial Age and Recognition
Sometimes it is very important to evaluate age based on someone’s face alone, but this can be quite tricky. This is actually a surprisingly pressing issue as age is relevant in all sorts of commercial, social, or political contexts. While it seems intuitive that we should be able to recognize people’s ages pretty easily, this…
Read MoreClusters of Nonverbal Behavior Differentiate Truth Tellers from Liars
A great deal of popular discussion of how to detect deception rests on specific, isolated factors like eye contact, but the reality is a bit more complex. New research shows that clusters of nonverbal behavior differentiate truth tellers from liars. This is the case that Humintell’s Drs. David Matsumoto and Hyisung Hwang made in a…
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