Behavior // Current TV

TEDTalks: Pawan Sinha Talks about How Brains Learn to See [video]

Pawan Sinha details his groundbreaking research into how the brain's visual... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
3 comments

"this is a fact: blue eyed people are better than brown eyed people" a 1968 experiment endures.

It only took 15 min. for third graders to become racists and discriminatory. but... more

courtandspark86
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Fact: Dogs are Crazy for 'Law & Order' [video]

According to this curious video, the theme music from Law & Order is enough to... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Doing It For the Kids: The Evolution of Migration

This study found a striking correlation between latitude and predation risk: For each... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Not Only Is Profiling for Terrorism Racist, It's Tremendously Ineffective | | AlterNet

Instead of succumbing to the right-wing drum beat of calls for profiling Muslims, we... more

WeAreChangeKy
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Winds of Change

Murder rates increase when the temperature goes up. Headaches blow into town with the... more

nikkisaintbautista
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Snowball the Cockatoo Dances to Christmas Carols [video]

This streaming video is a clip from a longer DVD, Snowball's Snowy Christmas DVD,... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Feeling Nervous? 3,000 Behavior Detection Officers Will Be Watching You at the Airport This Thanksgi

I just keep feeling like Anne Franke more and more lately.

Monkey_Films
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user's thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor.

In the first study to use avatars to prime negative responses in a desktop virtual setting, Jorge Peña, assistant professor in the College of Communication, demonstrated that the subtext of an avatar's appearance can simultaneously prime negative (or anti-social) thoughts and inhibit positive (or pro-social) thoughts inconsistent with the avatar's appearance. All of this while study participants remained unaware they had been primed. The study, co-written with Cornell University Professor Jeffrey T. Hancock and University of Texas at Austin graduate student Nicholas A. Merola, appears in the December 2009 issue of Communication Research.

In two separate experiments, research participants were randomly assigned a dark- or white-cloaked avatar, or to avatars wearing physician or Ku Klux Klan-like uniforms or a transparent avatar. The participants were assigned tasks including writing a story about a picture, or playing a video game on a virtual team and then coming to consensus on how to deal with infractions.

Consistently, participants represented by an avatar in a dark cloak or a KKK-like uniform demonstrated negative or anti-social behavior in team situations and in individual writing assignments.

Previous studies have demonstrated these uniform types to have negative effects on people's behaviors in face-to-face interactions. For example, Cornell researchers Mark Frank and Tom Gilovich showed that dark uniforms influence professional sports teams to play more aggressively on the playing field and in the laboratory. Peña's research demonstrates how these effects operate in desktop-based video games, and sheds light on the automatic cognitive processes that explain this effect.

"When you step into a virtual environment, you can potentially become 'Mario' or whatever other character you are portraying," said Peña, who studies how humans think, behave and feel online. "Oftentimes, the connotations of our own virtual character will subtly remind us of common stereotypes, such as 'bad guys wear black or dress up in hooded robes.' This association may surreptitiously steer users to think and behave more antisocially, but also inhibit more pro-social thoughts and responses in a virtual environment."

According to Peña, these findings can be particularly useful to video game and combat simulation developers.

"By manipulating the appearance of the avatar, you can augment the probability of people thinking and behaving in predictable ways without raising suspicion," said Peña. "Thus, you can automatically make a virtual encounter more competitive or cooperative by simply changing the connotations of one's avatar."

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110211037.htmAlthough often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's... more

pjacobs51
added this
3 years ago
|
126 comments

The Piano Stairway: Inspiring People to Change Their Behavior through FUN [video]

This video documents an interesting social experiment in Stockholm, Sweden, where... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Hovering Hummingbird, Slowed Down [video]

A flying hummingbird flaps its wings up to 70 times per second (its heart rate can... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Impressive Courtship Dance of the Black Sickle Bill Bird of Paradise [video]

This streaming video is a clip from 60 Minutes where Bob Simon and Bruce Beehler, a... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Community Programs Help Teens Resist Risky Behaviors

Giving communities a menu of proven programs to choose from is an effective way to help reduce risky behaviors among young teens, new research shows.
(Harding, A., 2009, September 9, par.1)

Communities that Care (CTC) is a "prevention system" consisting of 56 different programs designed to reduce risk factors for problem teen behavior or boost factors that protect against such behavior. Communities first survey adolescents to identify high levels of risk factors-like poor parental supervision or school failure--and low levels of protective factors, such as strong community involvement. They then choose two to five factors to work on, and pick programs that address these concerns.
(Harding, A., 2009, September 9, par.2)

Hawkins and his colleagues compared 24 small towns in seven different states that had been assigned at random to a control group or to implement CTC. To assess the program's effects, the researchers surveyed 4,407 students every year, from fifth grade to eighth grade.
(Harding, A., 2009, September 9, par.4)

In the CTC communities, Hawkins and his team found, students were less likely to start drinking, start smoking cigarettes, or start using smokeless tobacco, and they were also less likely to start engaging in delinquent behavior. For example, kids in the control communities were 60% more likely to start drinking between seventh and eighth grade than those in the CTC communities, while they were about twice as likely to start smoking or using smokeless tobacco. By eighth grade, 21% of students in the control communities had initiated delinquent behavior, compared to 16% of kids in the CTC towns.
(Harding, A., 2009, September 9, par.5-6)

Among eighth graders in the CTC communities, the likelihood of binge drinking in the past two weeks, as well as drinking and smokeless tobacco use over the past 30 days, were significantly lower. These young people also engaged in fewer types of delinquent behavior.
(Harding, A., 2009, September 9, par.7)

[This is a Federal program...]
[http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/features/ctc/resources.aspx]

[IMAGE: fivetownctc.com]Giving communities a menu of proven programs to choose from is an effective way to... more

jmsrmy
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Humpback Whales Hunting Krill in Antarctica [video]

Faint disturbances in the heart of Antarctic waters gives way to breathtaking images... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Anne Sullivan Demonstrates How She Taught Helen Keller to Speak (rare 1930 Newsreel Footage) [video]

Helen Keller, the American author, political activist and lecturer, and her instructor... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Why eMail was Invented [video]

This short video gives you a fly-on-the-wall view of why email was invented: pets!

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Hamster on a Leash [video]

When I was a kid, I had hamsters, too, and I walked them on leashes. But I didn't... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Hamster Speed Demon [video]

It is Saturday morning afterall, so I am just going to have fun sharing silly videos... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Hamster on a Piano Eating Popcorn [video]

I've linked to this video before, but I love dwarf hamsters (kept them as pets... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Hamster Wheel Gone Wrong [video]

I dunno about you, but sometimes, I feel like I am running my life away on a hamster... more

GrrlScientist
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

select your country

Community Spotlight

TAGS

tagged w/ Behavior

top videos

find current on tv

find current online

recent comments

© 2013 Current TV, LLC All Rights Reserved

the basics

follow us online

tools

stay in touch

© 2013 Current TV, LLC
All Rights Reserved