Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 31, 2008

Study: Credit Cards Cause More Spending

If you're trying to save money, leave your credit cards at home and pack cash only. A four-part study found what many financial planners already knew: People spend more money when using credit cards compared to cash purchases. People also spend less when they look at their expenses in detail,...

Aug 31, 2008

Political Views Driven by Biology

Fierce individualists, Americans figure that we choose our own political beliefs, but actually it could come down to biology. Individuals who are more easily startled by threats are more likely than others to support protective policies, such as military spending, the Iraq War and the death penalty, finds a new...

Aug 31, 2008

Scientists Predict the Next President

Two mathematicians have devised what they say is a surprisingly effective means to predict the outcome of the U.S. presidential election using median statistics based on voter polling. In a paper in the journal Mathematical and Computer Modeling, Wes Colley, of the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and J. Richard Gott...

Aug 31, 2008

The Flip Side of Flip-Flopping

The economy has brought the dire state of the American financial markets into the public's consciousness with sharp focus—along with the presidential candidates' positions on the issue. When insurance megacorporation AIG requested $85 million in taxpayer bailouts, John McCain stood firmly against it, saying We cannot have the taxpayers bail...

Aug 31, 2008

Financial Crisis: Can Americans Stay Happy?

This article was reported by Robert Roy Britt, Jeanna Bryner and Clara Moskowitz. Given the nation's dismal financial situation this week, not to mention this year, many people are pondering a present and future with less money in the bank. Does that mean that as a nation we'll be less...

Aug 31, 2008

Why Old Athletes Come Back

Maybe its the fear of turning 40. Maybe its the feeling of unfinished business. Maybe its the fire in the belly that has not quite extinguished. For retired elite athletes, the itch is always there to make a return after experiencing life after sport. For some, it becomes too strong...

Jul 31, 2008

The Reason More of Today's Scientists Hire Armed Guards

When Charles Darwin boarded the H.M.S. Beagle in 1831 as the ship's naturalist, he had only one challenge — to keep himself entertained for the next five years. His scientific assignment was to collect anything that crawled, swam or flew, and to keep track of all sorts of biological measures...

Jul 31, 2008

New Material Could Make Objects Invisible

Scientists have taken another step toward the goal of rendering objects invisible using high-tech cloaks that redirect light. Researchers for the first time demonstrated that a new material can bend visible light the wrong way in three dimensional tests. It builds on research that cloaks objects in the microwave wavelength....

Jul 31, 2008

Proof or Hoax? Bigfoot Said Found in Georgia

Update Friday, 8/15, 8:05 p.m. ET: Bigfoot Turns Out to Be an Opossum (the story below remains as originally written). Two Georgia men claim to have found in the northern woods of that state something that has been often reported but never proven to exist: a Bigfoot. They say they...

Jul 31, 2008

Face Recognition Varies by Culture

The way people recognize faces might say a lot about what culture they come from, scientists now reveal. These new findings may reflect a Western focus on the individual and an Eastern leaning toward the group. The capability to routinely and effortlessly recognize faces is so universal across the globe...

Jul 31, 2008

Mummified Iceman's Ancient Job Determined

Before his body froze and mummified, a now-famous Neolithic guy dubbed the Iceman took his last steps while donned in a coat and leggings made of sheep's fur and moccasins made of cattle leather. That was more than 5,000 years ago. The 45-year-old man apparently trekked up the Schnalstal glacier...

Jun 30, 2008

Expedition to Survey Sunken U-Boats Off North Carolina

Scientists set off this week to study the wrecks of three German submarines sunk by U.S. forces in 1942 off the coast of North Carolina during the Battle of the Atlantic. This expedition is the first part of a larger multi-year project to research and document a number of historically...

Jun 30, 2008

Psychic Nearly Destroys Family

Many people go to psychics for a handful of typical reasons. They want to know if they will get their dream job soon, or make a big move, or end up with the hunky new guy who seems shy but might just be The One. Most of the subjects are...

May 31, 2008

The Strange Role of Sex in Hillary's Failed Run

Hillary Rodham Clinton came close, but failed. Beyond the wrong turns pointed out by strategists, her political path this year was rooted in social biases, some scholars say. Gender stereotypes, for instance, put Clinton in a no-win situation, said Caroline Keating, a psychologist at Colgate University in New York. When...

May 31, 2008

How Early Experimenters Developed the Bow & Arrow

Technology doesn't just advance on its own. Somebody has to try new things, experiment, innovate, and test it all again and again. The same was true 1,500 years ago when the bow and arrow was introduced to North America, a new study suggests. University of Missouri archaeologists have discovered that...