Who’s more sensible? Humans? Or Monkeys? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet Yale psychologist Laurie Santos. She researches human buying habits by having monkeys barter for treats. She says Capuchin monkeys understand economics. She gives them tokens—monkey money! Her monkeys are trained to exchange
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Think you look bad in selfies? Blame your camera! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Beauty is a big business. All day, pictures of beautiful people claim certain products will make you beautiful, too. But researchers at Iran’s Islamic Azad University wondered: Can cameras play
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Hey, adults of a certain age. Do you like to color? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying, coloring books! They’re not just for kids anymore. Coloring books aren’t just for kids anymore. Adults claim they help reduce stress and improve well-being. But how effective
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“I love you” will never be the same again. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. About to leave a voicemail for your sweetie? Log on to your laptop instead! That’s what Alan Dennis and Taylor Wells suggest. In their study, they asked college students to
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It’s hard to be a millennial—when you’re a millennial? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Overachievers. O-C-D. Helicopter parents. Buzz words, sure, but are these tied to real phenomena? Enter researchers from the U-K, Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill. They compiled over one-hundred-and-fifty studies from
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What! Can we now find tattoos on nice people? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Tattoos used to be associated with rebellious behavior: Sailors on leave, ex-cons, biker gangs looking for trouble. But now it seems every third sorority girl has a unicorn on her
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Got a problem? Ask yourself: What would Sigmund Freud say? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We often listen to our gut when making decisions. Well, according to Spanish researchers, Sigmund Freud’s gut trumps our own. Sort of. The researchers used virtual reality for an
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Can you teach a chimp to cook? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Chimps probably won’t be whipping up souffles anytime soon. But there is evidence they might want to. Meet Alexandra Rosati and Felix Warneken of Harvard University. They’ve been conducting some intriguing
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Can our hormones make us cheaters? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Most discussions about cheating focus on ethics. But psychologist Robert Josephs, of the University of Texas at Austin, wondered: Are hormones involved? Because goodness knows hormones impact other decisions. If you know what
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A rose is a rose is a rose, right? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Except when it’s yellow! Roses aside, University of York researchers have discovered something very strange about that color. People’s perception of it changes from winter to summer! As part
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