Feast

Our round-up of the latest psychology links from around the web:

How do successful people make good decisions? You can download the audio of Prof Landman's talk at the RSA.

Ten days left to watch Bobby Fischer: Genius and Madman on BBC iPlayer.

Claudia Hammond discussed the Derek Stapel fraud case and mentoring for anxiety sufferers on BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind (now on iPlayer). In related news, Claudia is the deserved winner of the BPS's 2012 Public Engagement Award.

Psychological symptoms among Shakespeare's characters - BBC report.

Cynicism is bad for business, says Alex Fradera on our Occupational Digest blog.

Our round-up of the psychology books of the year. The BPS has also just announced the shortlist for its annual Book Award.

Ed Yong reported on a charming study showing the apparent moral precocity of 8-month-old babies.

Jason Goldman investigates why we humans like torturing ourselves with spicy food.

Vaughan Bell discusses the manifold ways that people respond to bereavement in different cultures.

The December issue of The Psychologist magazine is online and includes an open-access article celebrating 25 years of the BPS Health Psychology Section.

The psychology of nakedness: seeing a person's flesh changes how we think about their mind, says Jonah Lehrer. He also has a new post on the cognitive benefits of chewing gum (check out the footnote in which the Digest gets a namecheck for its pedantry skills).

Jelte M. Wicherts writing in Nature calls for more data sharing in psychology. He says it could help prevent research fraud.

The December issue of the American Psychological Association's Observer magazine is online and includes a cover feature on links between language and music.

The mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik looks set to avoid a prison sentence because experts have diagnosed him with schizophrenia. "Who, What, Why: How do you assess a killer's mental health?" asks the BBC. There's also a new study out on lone-wolf terrorism.

Linda Geddes has a feature on anaesthesia and consciousness for the New Scientist.

The December issue of the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology magazine is online, with a cover feature on the psychological benefits of exercise.

UK final year undergrads can win £5000 for writing about the future of Britain and the right-side of the brain. Deadline 12 Jan, 2012.

Daniel Kahneman took questions from readers of the Freakonomics blog.

Memories of inspirational psychologist and neuroscientist Jon Driver, who died earlier this week.

"Human Nature's Pathologist" - Carl Zimmer profiles Steve Pinker for the New York Times.

Greg Walton and Carol Dweck challenge Roy Baumeister's theory of willpower as a limited resource tied to blood sugar levels.

NPR podcast on the amenesiac who can still learn new music.

What we learn before we're born. TED talk from Annie Murphy Paul.

Feast will return in a fortnight.
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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Feast

Our round-up of the latest psychology links from around the web:

Tips from psychologists on how to maintain focus at work (New York Times). Don't worry, reading the Digest blog definitely counts as work.

Facebook users average just 3.74 degrees of separation from each other, according to new research.

But ... "It's not socially meaningful that a friend of your friends is buddies with an acquaintance of someone else's pal. It's just an innate feature of large, tangled networks," says mathematician Matt Parker for the Guardian.

Going into brain surgery with your eyes open. A shortlisted essay in the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize.

Chief Murdoch-hunter and MP Tom Watson leaps to the defence of violent video games.

"We’re Nowhere Near Artificial Brains," argues neurobiologist Mark Changizi.

Slate magazine reviews A Dangerous Method, the new Cronenberg film about Freud and Jung's relationship.

Vaughan Bell of Mind Hacks and The Psychologist reports on the New York psychoanalytic scene.

The November issue of the American Psychological Association's Monitor magazine is online and includes an article on suicides among psychologists.

This week's Science Weekly podcast from the Guardian reports from the recent Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington.

Former political spin-meister Alistair Campbell on myths about schizophrenia.

Animal intelligence researcher and scientist-in-residence at the Rambert Dance Company Nicky Clayton was on The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4, currently available on iPlayer.

Watch psychology's Nobel winner, Daniel Kahneman, talk about the cognitive biases that affect our decisions.

The history of nude psychotherapy.

Does the language we speak shape how we think? The Economist hosted a debate.

How does Prozac work? Jonah Lehrer with an answer that might surprise you.

Read the opening chapters from this year's Royal Society Winton Prize for Science books, including Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore was on BBC Radio 3 this week talking about teen brains and the need to change society attitudes towards teenagers. It's currently available on iPlayer.

A video introduction from the new editor of the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.

All in the Mind this week tackled riots, bullying and borderline personality disorder. It's currently on iPlayer.

It's locked behind a paywall unfortunately, but the Sunday Times had an intriguing article on the Met's elite team of super-recognisers. "A team of police officers with staggering memories for faces are naming and helping to catch rioters seen on even the blurriest CCTV footage."

Could you be a super-recogniser? There's still time to take part in a public experiment at London's Science Museum.

The December issue of The Psychologist magazine is online and includes an open-access article celebrating 25 years of the Health Psychology section at the British Psychological Society.

The advantages of being altruistic.

Chris Frith, author of "Making up the Mind: How the brain creates our mental world", was on Conscious.TV

Science writer David Dobbs on the need to distinguish between traits and behaviours when discussing behavioural genetics findings.

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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy psychology links from around the web:

Published today - new e-book "Mad mobs and Englishmen?: Myths and realities of the 2011 riots" by the psychologists Steve Reicher and Cliff Stott. The Guardian have a preview.

"I had an orgasm in a brain scanner," boasts Kayt Sukel.

Is a stranger trustworthy? You'll know in 20 seconds.

In Praise of Daniel Kahneman - Guardian editorial on the nobel-winning psychologist.

Debate at the Society for Neuroscience conference on whether girls and boys really do have different brains.

Why Kids With High IQs Are More Likely to Take Drugs

Amnesiac cellist astounds doctors with musical memory

Psychiatry's DSM task force responds to criticisms from psychology (pdf).

Jonah Lehrer looks back on 20 years of brain imaging.

HMP Grendon - Europe's only prison run entirely as a therapeutic community - is suffering from budget cuts and has experienced its first on-site murder.

Highlights from our Psychology to the Rescue series in Italian. Here's the English original.

An essay on the nocebo effect has won this year's Wellcome Trust science writer prize - congrats to the writer Penny Sarchet.

Texas governor Rick Perry experienced brain freeze during a live TV debate, prompting media commentary on the fallibility of human memory. Experts were quoted in an article for the BBC and I wrote a column on forgetting for the Guardian.

Test your morality - a new mass experiment being run by BBC Lab.

The fall-out from the Diederik Stapel (prominent social psychologist) fraud scandal continues. "Psychology Rife with Inaccurate Research Findings" says Karen Franklin for Psychology Today. "Fraud Scandal Fuels Debate Over Practices of Social Psychology," says The Chronicle.

The Brain is Wider Than the Sky author Bryan Appleyard spoke at the RSA (audio).

Scott Lilienfeld letter to the APS Observer magazine about the trend for psychology departments to add "and brain sciences" to their names.

Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will? Thought-provoking essay from Eddy Nahmias in the NYT.

The wonderful A History of the Brain podcast on BBC Radio Four concludes today. Get the podcasts.

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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy psychology links from around the web:

One time that psychology came to their rescue. In case you missed it: leading psychologists help mark 200 issues of the BPS Research Digest email by sharing their stories.

A History of the Brain is a series of 15-minute shorts running everyday this week and next on BBC Radio 4. Hurry, download the podcasts before they're taken off the web.

Amazing photos from new book "Portraits of the Mind".

Man with schizophrenia has out-of-body experience in lab, gains knowledge, controls his psychosis.

Crowds are not dumb.

Video of Loraine Tyler lecture on the positive aspects of brain ageing.

The strange and curious history of lobotomy. (BBC R4 radio show about the same)

Links between dance and the scientific process - according to psychologist Nicky Clayton, scientist in residence for the Rambert Dance Company (ABC National Radio).

Coverage of the Diederik Stapel fraud: New York Times, The Chronicle.

Claudia Hammond debunks myths about the mind on BBC R4 (still available on iPlayer)

Steve Pinker was on the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast.

Can basic human nature be changed? Matt Ridley answers.

Overcoming emotional pain.

'You Are Not So Smart': Why We Can't Tell Good Wine From Bad.

Video of Francesca Happe lecture on what we do and don't understand about autism (find the link under "latest")

Why men have a harder time making friends.

Dogs are friendlier when a woman is holding their leash, plus other intriguing dog-walking findings.

Brains in a jar cupcakes.

NYT interview with Michael Gazzaniga, famous for his split-brain studies.

Eight ways to beat the winter blues.

Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Halloween links round-up

Happy Halloween! Here are a few psychology-related Halloween articles we've found on the web. Please use comments to alert us to any others and we'll add them in to the post.

The Lure of Horror, the Digest editor explores horror's appeal and why it takes the form it does.

Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Essay by Mathias Clasen - the literary scholar interviewed at length in the previous Lure of Horror article (check out his website for further excellent articles on horror).

Why fear is fun: Halloween special from Psychology Today.

Some people urinate when they're frightened. Other people can't urinate when they're nervous. What's going on?

How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse Using Science (Wired)

Why things go bump in the night: a blog post on sleep paralysis.

Horror Director Eli Roth Explores What Makes Good People Do Evil Things in TV Special

Six reasons we're so fascinated by zombies (Psych files podcast).

The Neurocritic discusses the pathological fear of being buried alive.

True Blood: The real vampire slayers (requires free registration)

Pregnant women control birth to avoid Halloween

What spooks the masters of horror? Top horror movie makers say which films scared them the most.

-Compiled by Christian Jarrett, with help from @jonmsutton

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits in the world of psychology:

"All through the night I'll save you from the terror on the screen
I'll make you see
That this is thriller, thriller night" Michael Jackson.

Why do we like scaring ourselves? The latest issue of The Psychologist magazine is online and has a cover feature on the lure of horror (free pdf), by Digest editor Christian Jarrett. Free digital preview of November issue. Full contents.

The Royal Society has made all journal articles in its archive over 70-years-old free-to-access.

Nobel laureate and psychologist Daniel Kahneman has a new book out "Thinking fast and slow" (excerpts). Review by Jonah Lehrer.

Video gives advice on getting published in academic journals.

Do you never forget a face? New mass-experiment at London's Science Museum on the notion of super-recognisers.

Teach yourself charisma - new post over at our off-spring title The BPS Occupational Digest.

Can I borrow Mo's keyboard? Guardian blogger and Digest contributor Mo Costandi with a lovely report on new research showing how golfers' performance improves when they think they're using an expert's equipment (their perception of the size of the hole is affected too!).

Book claims Sybil faked her multiple personalities.

Digest friend and contributor Vaughan Bell with a balanced and illuminating review of Steve Pinker's new book on the decline of violence.

There's still time to hear BBC Radio 4 get inside the mind of Steve Pinker on Life Scientific (on iPlayer). Pinker also says how he'd run the world in Prospect magazine. He was also on the Colbert Report (US viewers only).

The Sound of Fear, on BBC iPlayer, explores scary sounds.

Digest friend and contributor Wray Herbert with an intriguing report on new research showing that some decisions are made more effectively by older people relative to younger folk.

Test Your Brain - TV series - continues on National Geographic Channel UK. Check the website for clips.

Brace yourselves for a feast of Mind and Brain programming next month on BBC Radio Four.

Inaugural podcast from the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Nearly forgot to say: The Memory Network has launched. "The Memory Network brings together researchers, authors and artists, and organisations to provoke and fuel original ways of thinking about memory."

Do you ever miss your phone? Maybe you have Misophonia. Sorry, my mistake, it's a condition that has to do with being troubled by subtle sounds.

The latest episode of the ever-popular Psychfiles podcast.

Cartoon animation of fascinating lecture by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist on our divided brain.

Last, but not least, there's hope for us all: Scott Barry Kaufman debunks overly simplistic media reports that greatness depends more on working memory skill than practice. In fact, as his analysis shows, high working memory isn't necessary for greatness. "So next time you see a study that says some ability is necessary for some form of greatness," Kaufman says, "remember that this isn’t necessarily the case. You can personally get there, regardless of the group trend. After all, working memory is common, but greatness is rare."

PS. Feast is the new name for our new regular round-up of psychology on the web (previously known as Morsels).

--Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits in the world of psychology:

In the New York Times, The Gopnik siblings Alison (a psychologist) and Adam (a writer) discuss a new book on siblings - "The Sibling Effect" by Jeffrey Kluger. It's a wonderful discussion that ends up weighing the value of psychological research versus literature in the search for self-understanding.

Meet the Brain Donors ... a new Welcome Trust exhibition that examines the lives of brain donors and reveals what happens in brain banks.

BBC magazine article on the use of mental health labels as jokey insults.

The LSE has had some great public lectures recently, which you can listen to online, including: Katalin Farkas on how technology is extending our minds; Ben Rogers and Roger Scruton on whether architecture can promote well-being; and Robert Trivers on self-deception.

Two new TED talks worth watching: Alison Gopnik on babies, and Richard Seymour on beauty.

Psychologist and stats whiz Andy Field with an irreverent look at the top-five stats mistakes made by scientists.

It's time to rethink the way we educate people about alcohol, says anthropologist Kate Fox, because at the moment we're just reinforcing the false belief that being drunk necessarily leads to violence and aggression. "The effects of alcohol on behaviour are determined by cultural rules and norms, not by the chemical actions of ethanol," she says.

Brace yourselves for a feast of mind and brain radio shows on BBC Radio 4 next month.

New digital version of the American Psychological Association's Monitor mag.

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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy titbits in the world of psychology:

All week long BBC Radio 3 has been running a series of programmes "The Darkest Hour" on insomnia.

The latest issue of the American Psychological Association's monthly mag, Monitor, is free online and includes a cover feature on "How the web is changing us".

"You love your iPhone, literally," claimed a risible neuro-nonsense op-ed column in the New York Times. Leading psychologists and neuroscientists aired their irritation in a joint letter to the paper. Neurocritic dissects the column's claims.

The mighty Steve Pinker has a new book out "“The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined". Scientific American Mind interviewed him about the book. Positive review from Slate magazine. Negative review in Prospect magazine.

The latest issue of our own Psychologist magazine is out now, and includes an open-access comment special on the recent English riots.

Science writing whiz, Ed Yong, has an excellent feature on neuroaesthetics in this month's Times Eureka science magazine (via free PDF or Times website).

Nature has a news feature on the increase in retractions of science papers.

NPR has an article and podcast about the way psychology helped locate the ship HMS Syndney, lost off Australia during World War II. [Read our own report on this research].

The latest episode of BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind is available on iPlayer and includes a chat with the researcher behind the "how to break a habit" research that we covered recently.

The latest Neuropod podcast is online and includes a feature on how the brain is adapted for reading.

Psychologist Aric Sigman wrote a tendentious article about the health risks of daycare for babies and young children. Developmental psych expert Prof Dorothy Bishop took him to task for scare-mongering and misrepresenting the literature. So too did the Guardian's Ben Goldacre. Read Sigman's response and the response from the editors of The Biologist, where the much-criticised article was published.

This year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 80-year-old Tomas Transtroemer, is a psychologist. Congratulations Tomas!

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Post compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits from the world of psychology:

The Ignobel Awards (psychologists are frequent winners) are coming and will be webcast live on Sept 29th.

"Positive pollyannas more frustrated by unmet expectations": Having too much of a sunny outlook can have its dark side, says Alex Fradera for the BPS Occupational Digest blog.

See what happened when two chatbots had a chat.

"Hey, don't turn me off!" Debate on robot rights - BBC R4 philosophy programme available to listen on iPlayer.

Love House MD? Love psychology? This forthcoming book's for you.

Trainee clinical psychologist Nick Hartley reviews Project Nim for the BPS website. (more info on the film).

Kids in day-care could be at risk of stress, says psychologist Aric Sigman (BBC R4 interview). Not so fast, says psychology professor Dorothy Bishop (more from her here).

Gail Porter on her experience of being sectioned (BBC Vid).

The Wellcome Trust image of the month was inspired by HM - the world's most studied amnesiac.

Bet you can't resist reading this: Steve Pinker reviews Willpower by Baumeister and Tierney (New York Times).

Feast is taking a break and will return in about three weeks. Catch you then! 

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits from the world of psychology:

The problem with twin studies (via @mrianleslie). A tendentious view from Slate magazine. For an alternative view, check out the Digest's own guest post on "Why psychologists study twins".

The latest issue of The Psychologist magazine is out now, is open access, and has a special focus on Milgram's classic obedience studies. There's also a feature on the psychology of better meetings, and much more.

Also, on Milgram - check out this original 1974 Psychology Today interview with Milgram by Carol Tavris.

Free book chapter from The Analysis of Failure: An Investigation of Failed Cases in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Further info.

New Scientist has a special feature on animal senses.

Cognopedia is a free online brain and cognition encyclopedia. Via @mocost

26 days left to watch the latest episode of Horizon on how the first 9 months of our lives (in the womb) have a far reaching influence on our health and personalities.

The excellent series of "Out of Mind" columns for Prospect magazine, by neuropsychologist Paul Broks, are now free to access and come highly recommended. "Alternately whimsical, profound and poetic, [the column] recounted ephemeral scenes from meetings with brain altered individuals and spun them into reflections on the science and philosophy of human nature," says @vaughanbell, also rather poetically.

New book: "Brain Culture: Neuroscience and Popular Media" by Davi Thornton.

Confidence intervals made easy. Ben Goldacre makes stats accessible in a column about the media reporting of unemployment stats. Tim Harford replies (and there's a comment from Ben lower down).

Guardian research suggests Twitter used mainly to react to, rather than orchestrate, the recent English riots.

BBC Radio Four's Material World had a segment on time perception (from 11 minutes in, although it felt longer).

Reports and news from the Association for Psychological Science's recent annual convention.

Get your diaries out: 12 September, Charles Fernyhough, novelist and psychologist, is speaking at the School of Life about memory; 17 Nov Catherine Loveday, neuropsychologist, is giving an open lecture at Uni of Westminster on the brain and music.

Our off-spring title The BPS Occupational Digest has an interesting post on how work technology at home can make it more difficult to unplug psychologically from the office.

Important articles from the 100-year archive of the British Journal of Psychology made free to access.

The latest edition of Head to Head on BBC Radio Four revisited a debate between B F Skinner and Donald Mackay on the question of free will and social control. Contemporary psychologists reflect on the classic debate. via @BPSOfficial

5 "Mindshifting talks on happiness" from TED.

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That's all folks. If you prefer your psychology news on the fly, follow @researchdigest. For links to eye-catching studies that we didn't have time to Digest for you, go to Extras; for links to the latest journal special issues in psychology, try our aptly named Special Issue Spotter. 

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits in psychology:

"What happened in the basement of the psych building 40 years ago shocked the world. How do the guards, prisoners and researchers in the Stanford Prison Experiment feel about it now?" (Stanford Magazine). And catch Zimbardo, one of the guards, and a prisoner speaking to BBC Radio 4.

Why cities are like brains. Jason Goldman explains on his Thoughtful Animal blog. His post is part of a larger special issue of Scientific American, all about the science of cities, including plenty of psychology.

Get your diary out: more psychology at the One Culture festival of literature and arts at the Royal Society in October.

Also, this month, there's a show at the Edinburgh Fringe inspired by the amnesiac HM, plus a chance to meet neuroscientists who worked with HM, and who sliced up his brain (after he died, in 2008).

The proportion of scientific papers being retracted has increased sharply over recent years. Neuro-writer Jonah Lehrer reflects on why.

Even urban pockets of greenery can have a rejuvenating effect on well-being, says Wray Herbert for the Association for Psychological Science.

Some people are affected for longer than others by positive and negative events - what Alex Fradera for the Occupational Digest blog calls "Emotional Hangovers".

False confessions: "People have a strange and worrying tendency to admit to things they have not, in fact, done" says the Economist.

We've updated our round-up of the psych commentary on the English riots.

A new 2-part series on BBC Radio 4 explores human cultural and genetic evolution and how they interact (features Steve Pinker and others).

The contents of visual working memory can affect our perception of incoming sensory stimuli - says an intriguing post from Mo Costandi at his Neurophilosophy blog.

A hair-thin electronic skin that can monitor brain activity and enable remote computer control, plus lots more. Ed Yong on an exciting technological innovation.

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If you prefer your psychology news on the fly, follow @researchdigest. For links to eye-catching studies that we didn't have time to Digest for you, go to Extras; for links to the latest journal special issues in psychology, try our aptly named Special Issue Spotter. 

Extras

Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut:

A longitudinal study of children's text messaging and literacy development.

First ever mapping of women's genitals as represented in the sensory cortex of the female brain. "Vaginal, clitoral, and cervical regions of activation were differentiable, consistent with innervation by different afferent nerves and different behavioral correlates. Activation of the genital sensory cortex by nipple self-stimulation was unexpected, but suggests a neurological basis for women's reports of its erotogenic quality."

Being mistreated in childhood linked with recurring, hard-to-treat depression in adulthood.

Links found between a person's spatial skills and their social acumen.

A meta-analysis of the bystander effect - the dilution of social responsibility when we're in a group. But there are also situations in which helping is increased in groups.

In a random sample of 274 U.S. married individuals, 40% of those married over 10 years reported being “Very intensely in love.”

Human intelligence is highly heritable and polygenic.

The influence of regional accents on job interview outcome.

You probably think this paper's about you: Narcissists' perceptions of their personality and reputation.

Much-needed longitudinal evidence for the contact hypothesis - the idea that intergroup contact reduces prejudice.

How teens with autism spectrum disorder spend their time.

After bad luck, people are more willing to take risks again if they've had a chance to wash their hands.

The dynamic interplay between negative and positive emotions in daily life predicts response to treatment in depression: A momentary assessment study.

Yet another dark side of chivalry: Benevolent sexism undermines and hostile sexism motivates collective action for social change.

"it is suggested that we may observe an increased neuroticism or psychopathology in society if children are hindered from partaking in age adequate risky play." (pdf)

If you like this Extras post, you might also like our new Feast feature (our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits in psychology news), and the Special Issue Spotter (with links to the latest journal special issues in psychology).

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[Compiled by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.]

Feast

Our round-up of the latest juicy tit-bits from the world of psychology:

The Greenfield saga continues. Recall that Baroness Susan Greenfield recently restated to New Scientist her fears that technology is harming children's brains, and that Professor Dorothy Bishop subsequently wrote an open letter objecting to Greenfield's claims, especially to the suggestion that technological changes are responsible for the rise in autism. [update: Bishop has just published an email exchange she's had with an academic who defends Greenfield and is critical of her (Bishop's) open letter].

Something we missed last week was Martin Robbins' spoof blog post "Facebook will destroy your children's brains".

Susan Greenfield has since clarified her position in an interview with the Guardian: "I point to the increase in autism and I point to internet use. That's all."

This style of argument has now been immortalised as a Greenfieldism, as celebrated by this new website.

Unabashed, Greenfield has defended her techno-warnings this very morning, in a new article for The Independent [update: Neuroskeptic has attempted to engage in the debate that Greenfield has called for].

Thankfully a useful article at the Atlantic Wire highlights some actual research studies showing possible benefits and harms associated with Facebook use (written by Rebecca Greenfield: no relation to Susan we assume).

In other news:

The excellent Neurophilosophy blog by Mo Costandi has arrived at its new home on the Guardian, and kicks off with a post on attentional blindness.

Philip Zimbardo has given a TED talk on why boys are struggling.

A new post on the BPS Occupational Digest reports that the social networks of extraverts are bigger, but no more intimate.

Carol Tavris reflects on the psychology of smiling (in a review of a new book "Lip Service" by Marianne LaFrance).

Get your diaries out. Daniel Kahneman and Steve Pinker are visiting these shores in October/November, including talks at the Royal Institution and LSE.

Our own round-up of psych and social commentary on the English riots. Social psychologist Clifford Stott also appeared on the latest episode of Material World on BBC R4 to discuss the psychology of mobs.

The second episode of Channel 4's excellent series "The secret life of buildings" is available on Channel 4 On Demand, focusing on the design of offices, factories and schools.

The latest episode of Horizon on the BBC focused on the psychology of colour perception (available on iPlayer for one month).

A new book tackles the puzzle of left-handedness.

Five myths about memory and why they matter in court (more excellence from Ed Yong's blog).

"...a flurry of recent dream studies in people with disabilities are challenging our understanding of why we dream" - intriguing feature from New Scientist (requires free registration).

It's 50 years since Milgram's classic research on obedience to authority. Social psychologist Alex Haslam spoke to Material World about the research on BBC Radio Four. Look out for September's issue of The Psychologist magazine, which will be a special issue on Milgram.

Can't wait for each week's issue of Morsels, try following: @ResearchDigest @Psych_Writer @PsychMag and @JonMSutton

Feast is a new experimental weekly feature on the Digest blog - if you find it useful please register your approval via comments (many thanks to readers who did so last week).

Riot round-up

The nation's columnists and behavioural experts are attempting to make sense of the recent anarchy in English cities. Here's a handy round-up of some of the best psychological and sociological comment so far (please do use comments to highlight articles you've come across):

Vaughan Bell at Mind Hacks blog explains how the social psychology of crowd control, which has informed policing of protests and sports events, struggles to shed much light on the current violence and looting.

Several psychologists and criminologists are quoted in this BBC featurette "What turns people into looters?"

New Scientist describes the recent events as the UK's "first networked riots".

Ian Leslie, author of Born Liars, explains the riots as a combination of social alienation and technology-assisted mimicry.

Social psychologist Clifford Stott criticises the idea that the acts of violence and rioting are meaningless. [Stott is the psychologist who's work was mentioned in Vaughan's Mind Hacks post].

Zoe Williams for the Guardian offers wide-ranging thoughts and commentary on the whys and wherefores of the riots.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, says large numbers of youths feel disconnected from their local communities.

Michael McCarthy for the Independent blames the riots and immoral behaviour on a loss of a sense of unwritten cultural norms.

UPDATE (16.50 Aug 10)

Grabbed from comments: "These are not hunger or bread riots. These are riots of defective and disqualified consumers" (Social Europe Journal).

The Week has gathered together 5 theories on what caused the riots.

Jonah Lehrer (author of How We Decide) offers his perspective: "We just don’t know how [mobs] matter, or why a group of hooded young men is capable of such awful deeds"

UPDATE (Aug 18)

"Nobody riots on their own": social psychologists Steve Reicher and Clifford Stott are quoted in Scientific American applying social identity theory to rioting.

Tom Stafford on Mind Hacks discusses some fascinating research in moral psychology as he reflects on the moral outrage shown by some commentators, not just towards the looting, but towards any attempt to explain the looting as anything other than simple criminality.

Clifford Stott (again) and media psychologist Pamela Rutledge talk to the New York Times about England's struggle to understand why the rioting occurred.

This is a special edition of the Digest's new Morsels feature.

Feast

Introducing a new Digest feature: "Feast", our occasional round-up of links to recent psychology news, gossip, podcasts, blog-posts and radio/tv shows:

BBC 2's Newsnight had a featurette on memory on Wednesday evening (from 30 minutes, 40 seconds onwards), to coincide with the 5th International Conference on Memory at The University of York.

The Developmental Neuropsychologist Dorothy Bishop has written an open letter to Baroness Susan Greenfield, urging her to stop peddling unfounded claims about the internet and autism.

Deader than dead: people in vegetative states are viewed as deader than corpses, reports Ed Yong over at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

The Centre Forum think tank calls for a national parenting campaign to teach the population basic parenting skills, reports the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. (PDF of the report Parenting Matters: Early Years and Social Mobility).

The August issue of The Psychologist magazine is out now and includes open-access articles on the psychology of holidays and a brief-history of gory brain-injuries.

Higher education is burning out its employees, says new research covered by Alex Fradera at the BPS Occupational Digest.

Psychology Press has launched a new journal: Religion, Brain and Behavior - the first issue is free to access.

The latest Neuropod podcast has hit the wires, including segments on gut neurons and bird grammar.

Ben "bad science" Goldacre presented a show for BBC Radio 4 on longitudinal research and you can listen to it on iPlayer.

The American Psychologist is due to publish a special issue to mark ten years since 9/11. The Indy and other outlets are reporting that the terror attacks exposed how inappropriate psychological debriefing can exacerbate trauma.

Hear Freud, Jung, Skinner, Milgram and other great thinkers in their own words. New BBC Four series is underway with the first episode available on iPlayer.

The 2011 Royal Institution Xmas Lectures, entitled Meet Your Brain, are to be delivered by psychologist Bruce Hood.

Channel 4 has started a new 3-part series looking at how buildings affect our health and behaviour. The first episode is available via 4oD.

Psychological commentary from NPR radio on the US debt-ceiling negotiations.

Scientific American Mind reviews The Rough Guide to Psychology, by Digest editor Christian Jarrett.

A short from RadioLab features Bob Milne, a ragtime pianist whose brain appears to run on a dual-core processor (listen to find out why!)

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PS. Most of these links are taken from the BPS Research Digest Twitter feed: @researchdigest

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