Giggling at a funeral. Bawling at a wedding. These are both examples of incongruous emotional displays that are sometimes thought of as a little inappropriate. But are these behaviors just embarrassing slip ups? What psychological purpose could they serve? Dr. Oriana Aragon of Yale University and her colleagues suspected that such displays might actually play an important…
Read MoreEmotions and the Brain
The Sentis Brain Animation Series takes you on a tour of the brain through a series of short and sharp animations. The fifth in the series explains what is happening in our brains as we experience emotions – both the helpful and unhelpful ones! This empowering animation demonstrates that while sometimes our emotions can ‘hijack’ our…
Read MorePast Blog: Online Dating and Lying
A recent news article featured on cnn.com outlined the possible reasons why people lie on internet dating sites. In a study conducted by Jeffrey Hall, assistant professor in communication studies at the University of Kansas, examined 5,020 men and women who belonged to an undisclosed dating site. When asked if they would lie, most of the…
Read MoreEmotion and Movies: Why Films Make us Cry, Flinch and Cheer
The history of film began over a hundred years ago in the 1890s with the invention of the first motion-picture cameras. Since then, film making has become a multi-million dollar industry and most movie watchers can name a few films that have made them laugh or cry. Movies have become a large part of American…
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