http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Does hearing that you are a member of an elite group – of chess players, say, or scholars – enhance your performance on tasks related to your alleged area of expertise? Not necessarily, say researchers who tested how sweeping pronouncements about the skills or likely success of social groups can influence children's performance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-positive-stereotypes-hinder.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:33:28 EST news254481996 Photographs of children with Down syndrome elicit less positive attitudes than photographs of typically developing children do, reports new research published Apr. 4 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. This effect was strongest for photographs of children with features that are "strongly typical" of Down syndrome, and somewhat weaker for images that were more "weakly typical." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-children-syndrome-implicit-stereotyping-based.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:00:04 EST news252775415 Accusations of racism accompanying the death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent actions of Florida police are prevalent in the national media this week. Many are questioning the psychological motivations of everyone involved. Recent research by University of Missouri Professor of Psychological Sciences Bruce D. Bartholow has shown that consuming alcohol can lead to increased expression of racial bias. A new study by Bartholow and his colleague, Elena Stepanova of Florida Gulf Coast University, shows that simply being exposed to alcohol-related images can have similar effects, even when no alcohol is consumed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-racial-stereotyping-exposed-alcohol-related-images.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:56:01 EST news252064528 Contrary to the common perception among physicians that poor people sue doctors more frequently, Ramon L. Jimenez from the Monterey Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute and his team demonstrate that socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, in fact, tend to sue physicians less often. Their work suggests that this myth may exist because of subconscious prejudices or stereotypes that affect thinking and decision making without doctors being aware of it - a phenomenon known as unconscious bias. Dr. Jimenez and his colleagues' work is published online in Springer's journal, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-poor-fact-sue-doctor.html Health Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:26:41 EST news249560791 Girls are not as good at playing football as boys, and they do not have a clue about cars. Instead they know better how to dance and do not get into mischief as often as boys. Prejudices like these are cultivated from early childhood onwards by everyone. "Approximately at the age of three to four years children start to prefer children of the same sex, and later the same ethnic group or nationality," Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) states. This is part of an entirely normal personality development, the director of the Institute for Psychology explains. "It only gets problematic when the more positive evaluation of the own social group, which is adopted automatically in the course of identity formation, at some point reverts into bias and discrimination against others," Beelmann continues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-psychologists-prejudices-children.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:10:01 EST news246880855 For decades, science has suggested that when people make decisions, they tend to ignore logic and go with the gut. But Wim De Neys, a psychological scientist at the University of Toulouse in France, has a new suggestion: Maybe thinking about logic is also intuitive. He writes about this idea in the January issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-people-dont-guts-logic-role.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:08:43 EST news244386514 The brain likes stereotypes - at least for movements. Simple actions are most often performed in the same manner. A mathematical model explains why this is the case and could be used to generate more natural robot movements and to adapt prosthetic movements. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-vision-heavy-choice-simple-movements.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:57:28 EST news240065835 A new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, published online October 26 addresses the influence of age-related stereotypes on memory performance and memory errors in older adults. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-false-memories-memory-older-adults.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:40:05 EST news239616103 GP receptionists play a major and important role in ensuring that patients get the correct treatments when they need them, according to a study* published today (3 November) in the British Medical Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-gp-receptionists-unsung-heroes.html Medications Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:50:23 EST news239593625 It has been well-documented that minorities are subject to discrimination in product pricing and customer service. What is startling is the result of a new study professors at the USC Marshall School of business in conjunction with University of San Diego's School of Business Administration, that shows that sometimes ill-treatment can make African-American consumers voluntarily pay more for goods and services than they would normally, as well as pay more than their Caucasian counterparts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-minority-consumers-voluntarily-goods-assert.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:23:49 EST news238328622 (Medical Xpress) -- In the racy television hit show, Sex and the City, Carrie, one of the main characters tells her best girlfriends that "Men who are too good looking are never good in bed because they never had to be." This is just one of the many gender stereotypes that audiences were exposed to in this show. The show challenged many stereotypes about sex and gender and refrained from the gender caricatures that typify so much television fare. Now, a new review article written by University of Michigan psychology professor Terri Conley and her team of graduate students – Amy Moors, Jes Matsick, Ali Ziegler and Brandon Valentine – examines how such gender stereotypes fueled the sexual revolution started by women in the 60s, now carried on proudly by Carrie and her gang. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-women-men-bedroom.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:54:09 EST news237797552 Can teenagers' relationship with their mother protect them from the negative effects that television has on their sexual attitudes? It depends on their gender, according to a new study by Laura Vandenbosch and Steven Eggermont, from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. For girls, a good relationship with mom is protective. For boys, however, a strong attachment to mom increases the likelihood that they will have stereotypical sexual attitudes, as portrayed on television. The work is published online in Springer's journal Sex Roles. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-tv-relationship-mom-affects-teenagers.html Health Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:10:00 EST news237636593 While there's no crying in baseball, as Tom Hanks' character famously proclaimed in "A League of Their Own," crying in college football might not be a bad thing, at least in the eyes of one's teammates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-college-football-players.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:34:28 EST news236856854 Everyone's a little bit racist, posits the song from the musical Avenue Q. But it may not be your fault, according to research in the latest edition of the British Journal of Social Psychology. In looking for the culprit as to why people tend to display tinges of racism, sexism or ageism, even towards members of their own group, a research team, led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, found that our culture may be partially to blame. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-bit-racist-fault.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:31:15 EST news236521854 Stereotypes suggest women are more cooperative than men, but an analysis of 50 years of research shows that men are equally cooperative, particularly in situations involving a dilemma that pits the interests of an individual against the interests of a group. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-men-women-cooperate-equally-common.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:03:56 EST news235904597 A forthcoming paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, by Bernd Figner, Research Scientist at the Center for Decision Sciencesat Columbia Business School, and Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the University of Amsterdam; and Professor Elke Weber, Co-Director, Center for Decision Sciences and the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business, Management at Columbia Business School, depicts that the reality of who takes risks and when goes beyond stereotypes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-who-takes-risks.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:13:51 EST news232117809 Cultural, ethnic and gender stereotypes can significantly distort clinical judgments about "facially masked" patients with Parkinson's disease, according to a newly published study from researchers at Tufts University, Brandeis University and the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-ethnic-gender-stereotypes-bias-treatment.html Health Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:39:46 EST news229163976 Positive ageing is explored in a series of papers emanating from five different countries in the latest issue of the e-journal of Applied Psychology, released today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-positive-aging.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:50:37 EST news227533822 The results of a national online study show that 45% consider their parents to be their sexuality role model. Shattering stereotypes that parents and society hold about teen sexuality, the survey also revealed that only 32% looked to their friends and just 15% took inspiration from celebrities. Dr. Jean-Yves Frappier, a researcher at the University of Montreal's affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Centre will be presenting the results at the Canadian Paediatric Society's 88th Annual Conference on June 18, 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-teens-parents-friends-sexual-role.html Health Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:21:09 EST news227359233 (Medical Xpress) -- Despite studies that show that whites are more likely than blacks to misuse prescription pain medications, a new study reveals that blacks are significantly more likely than whites to be checked for potential drug abuse. The study appears in Annals of Family Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-black-patients-prescription-drug-abuse.html Health Tue, 10 May 2011 08:11:41 EST news224233747