Does Music Elicit Universal Emotional Responses?

It’s no mystery that major and minor chords in western music makes us feel good. But could this be because of an evolutionary trait? Recent research led by Eline Adrianne Smit and colleagues from the MARCS Institute for Brain suggests this could be the case. Turn to any major pop radio station in the Western…

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Disgust and Fear Linked To More Acidity In Stomach

We’ve all experienced “gut feelings” but a new study out of Sapienza University supports the idea that these feelings could be tied to physiological changes. Researchers in Rome investigated how emotional states such as disgust and fear could affect acidity levels in the gut. The Methodology Giuseppina Porciello and her team asked 31 men whose…

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Can Humans Judge Animal Emotions? Yes, to an Extent.

Most people can discern how their pet cat or dog is feeling by just listening to them- happy kitties purr and angry dogs growl. But can this insight be extended to wild animals like a cow or a pig? A new study entitled “Age, empathy, familiarity, domestication and call features enhance human perception of animal…

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Do You Suffer From Facial Bias aka Face-ism? The Answer is Likely Yes.

Don’t think you’d judge a book by it’s cover? Think again. Past research has shown that adults and children regularly use faces to make judgments about the character traits of others, even with only a brief glance. Now new research supports the idea of facial bias aka face-ism- an extreme tendency to judge people based…

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