PsychWorld

Forget Post-it® notes. For many people today, email, text messages, and even digitized sticky notes on their computer’s desktop are just as important as their daily two cups of coffee in allowing them to remember things they might otherwise forget—things like appointments, meetings, and even what time to wake up. But just how effective are these paperless reminders at getting people to adhere to their daily routines?

You probably have at least one Facebook friend who is constantly posting pictures of themselves at bars and commenting on everybody’s wall and regularly updates their status with “smart” comments and checking in to every place they go and just seem irresistibly cool… Don’t be fooled by the glamorous Facebook life your friend is living. He or she probably has a self-esteem issue according to new research described by ShockMd.

“RT @JimKitzmiller: Happiness is contagious. Start an epidemic” – this tweet really inspired me today. It also brings up the point about how contagious moods are. In fact, according to a study conducted by James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis, happiness is contagious and spreads within social networks.

In March, I wrote about Live Happy iPhone app, which is currently undergoing clinical trials to test its effectiveness in conjunction with therapy in treating depression. This is not the only app on the market designed to improve behavior and act as an addendum to in-person counseling. Developers and psychologists are teaming up to create effective apps to improve the health of everyday people.  This emerging new field in therapy is currently being discussed at Stanford University’s Mobile Health 2010 Conference.

Virtual women have a strong influence on men. Not only are men more likely to make risky decisions when a virtual woman is present, they are also more likely to make unethical ones, while women seem to be unaffected by such avatars. Adding to this body of research, a new study described in LiveScience  shows how men experience a slap by a woman in a virtual environment as if it happened in the real world.

We’ve all been there: calling a customer care center whether at our bank or a computer help center just to receive information we don’t need or talk to a representative who cannot answer our question or keeps trying to charge us more money for products we don’t need or want, making us feel even less satisfied than before. This will all be changing in the near future, as an Israeli company called eXaudios has developed a computer program, known as Magnify, that decodes the human voice to identify a person’s emotional state in less than two minutes into a cell phone conversation according to DiscoveryNews. This software has a lot of promise for saving the customers and the companies a lot of time and money as well as identifying individuals with certain psychological or physical disabilities.

Whether it’s crossing a busy road or drinking a shot too many of fired up liquor, men are more likely to take stupid risks in the presence of women.  Now, new research has shown that this also translates into the virtual reality environment according to LiveScience. As virtual reality becomes more and more common, part of our everyday lives in fact, it is crucial to test its impact on people’s behavior.

Although there is no Facebook application that can tell you who exactly is looking at your Facebook profile, you can just about guarantee your Facebook stalkers are emotionally charged. According to recently published research by University of Missouri Professor Kevin Wise, Facebook users look at profiles of “friends” they either really love or really hate. So yes, all those jealous people you’re showing off your iPad to today will surely facebook stalking you.

In Japanese video game “RapeLay”, you approach a teenage girl who accuses you of molesting her on the train describes CNN News. As revenge, you can choose to grope her or lift her skirt. You then follow her onto the train, assault her sister and mother. As the game progresses, you and your “friends” join in interactive graphic scenes as you corner the women and continuously rape them. If you impregnate a girl, you can urge her to have an abortion. This disturbing game is only one out of numerous games that promote graphic violence, especially against women. Unfortunately, RapeLay spread virally over the Internet after a women’s rights organization, Equality Now, spread awareness about the controversial game to help remove the game off store shelves worldwide. Does playing a virtual game like RapeLay cause violence in real life?

Can you successfully drive while talking on your cell phone while drinking your coffee and talking to your friend in the passenger seat? If so, you have some great multitasking skills that only 2.5% of people called “Supertaskers” have based on new research by University of Utah Professors Jason Watson and David Strayer described in Time Magazine. Watson and Strayer found that while most participants who were driving (in a simulator) and talking on a hands-free cell phone simultaneously took an average of 20% longer to hit the brakes and failed to keep up with the pace of traffic (equivalent to being legally drunk), some participants showed no impairment. The National Safety Council estimates that 28% of all car accidents and fatalities are caused by drivers using cell phones. Are you willing to bet your life that you’re a supertasker?