From the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology comes a study based around the question “Why are narcissists so charming at first sight?”:

First, narcissism leads to popularity at first sight. Second, the aspects of narcissism that are most maladaptive in the long run (exploitativeness/entitlement) proved to be most attractive at zero acquaintance. Third, an examination of observable verbal and nonverbal behaviors as well as aspects of physical appearance provided an explanation for why narcissists are more popular at first sight

(I should note that the link to the study provided doesn’t work not because I’m a lazy fucker but because the APA fails at life and never provides working hyperlinks.)

And from the same journal came a study about perceived resource depletion. People who perceived themselves as less depleted, regardless of the actual state of their resources, were more successful in self-regulation of those resources. This is kind of problematic. The conclusion drawn is that the less resources you think you have, the more likely you are to decide to say “fuck it” and whittle away what you have left. Hopefully I don’t have to draw a map leading you to what this means about environmental self-regulation (however, it’s important to note that this was an individual-based experiment, and things may work out very different on a group level).

The Journal of Forensic Sciences covered the identification of a human skull seized from an Ebay sale. Mostly about sediment and particulate analysis, but still worth a quick look.

There’s been a lot of chatter about a study showing no validity to the theory of auditory versus visual learning.

And finally, SciAm interview with a noted professor, author, and high-functioning schizophrenic.

Tags: character, psychology, research