UPDATE – The recent Virginia Tech killings make us all ask the question once again: Would getting rid of guns prevent these murders? It’s interesting to see the British point of view about this troublesome question. Also, did violent movies and video games influence Cho? Keep reading for a sociologist’s opinion on this.
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Psychologists have a word for it: “reactance.” It could even be unconscious.
In LiveScience.com, Robert Roy Britt reports on a new study, in which participants were asked to name a significant person in their lives whom they perceived as controlling, and another who just wanted them to enjoy themselves. After that, they were asked to decipher jumbled words on a computer, while the names of the two people they had mentioned were flashed at them so quickly that they only registered on a subliminal level. People performed better when the name of the person who wanted them to have fun was flashed at them.
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Researchers have learned that rats are capable of complex, human-like thinking and planning and that when they dream, they “replay” the day’s events in their minds, like a movie?something humans do too.
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Can global warming make you sick? In some ways, it can.
It can encourage the proliferation of insects, like mosquitoes, which carry disease such as West Nile and malaria. It can also affect children, who are more sensitive to weather changes than adults, in the form of more frequent fevers. Because hot weather can cause food to spoil faster, an Australian researcher discovered that more people went to the hospital because of gastric problems when the temperatures were high.
LiveScience.com quotes pediatrician Lawrence Lam as saying, “As global warming is becoming more apparent, there is an urgent need for more in-depth and thorough investigation of climatic factors on human health, especially in early childhood.”
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