# Question
Title: What are the neurological and psychological bases for chromophobia
According to this amusing, yet informative Cracked article, Phobia-source article and Chromophobia: do you have a fear of colours website, **chromophoba** is a fear of bright colours. This condition is also known as **chromatophobia**

There are no Wikipedia references for the alternate name and checking Wikipedia for chromophobia only reveals a movie by the same name, which is in a small part, why I am asking.

What are the neurological and psychological bases for this phobia?

# Answer
*Chromophobia* has at least two distinct meanings in the sciences:

I was unable to locate any reliable source on a psychological fear of colors. I searched the most relevant digital databases: Web of Science, Academic Search Premier, PsychINFO, and Psyndex (the latter listing publications in German). And I went through all the handbooks on mental disorders that we have at our university library and the institute of psychology. There is not even anecdotal evidence. Chromophobia as a mental disorder appears only in lists of phobias on the internet that have been created by laypeople.

Or in a list of 273 phobias compiled by Jack D. Maser as an appendix to the handbook on *Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders* (Tuma & Maser, 1985):

But as you can see from this top part of page 807 of his list, his Latin is not the best. Probably he couldn't decipher his own (or someone else's) handwriting, mistaking "col" for "od". But the basic problem with this list, which might well be the grandmother of all the lists of phobias found on the internet today, is that Maser does not provide any sources for his phobias. And if you look at the fears of time, food, or defecation, listed in it, it seems quite unlikely that anyone might actually be able to suffer from these.

Eminent expert Richard J. McNally, a member of the specific phobia and posttraumatic stress disorder committees of the DSM-IV task force, thinks (1997, p. 183) that in Maser's list "terminological proliferation has been driven more by etymology than by etiology. ... In fact, suffer\[er\]s of *hellenologophobia* (i.e. fear of 'pseudoscientific terms') will surely tremble to contemplate many of \[the\] entities uncovered by Maser in his search through the literature."

In the DSM, phobias, or "specific phobias" as they are classified (to distinguish them from social phobias and other anxiety disorders) are subclassified by their trigger:

* objects, sometimes called: blood-injection-injury (syringes, blood, medical procedures)
* situations (being in an elevator)
* animals (snakes, spiders)
* environments (heights, water)
* other

The category that would interest us here, is the "other" category. The standard examples given in the manual and expansively discussed in McNally's article on "Atypical Phobias" (McNally, 1997), are: "phobic avoidance of situations that may lead to choking, vomiting, or contracting an illness; in children, avoidance of loud sounds like balloons popping or costumed characters like clowns".

I'm not a specialist on phobias, but from my perusal of quite a volume of literature today, I have the impression that in adult phobias **all triggers are either potentially harmful**, or are related to similar objects that are harmful: all animals are either predators or poisonous or look like them (a cat might be essentially harmless to an adult human, but it is an animal that can cause pain; there is no lamb phobia); all "situations" involve technical appliances that might fail (airplanes, elevators) or harm you by their characteristics (getting stuck in a narrow tube); all environments can cause death (drowning, falling from a height, getting struck by lightning). **Phobias are essentially reasonable in their choice of a trigger**, they never choose triggers that are always and totally harmless. From this (non-specialist) result of my search, a fear of color appears impossible.

Of course this is only my personal, non-specialist impression, after a short research, and it will be falsified as soon as someone can come up with a reliable source.

But I admit that I was not truthful in my summary, and have lied to you when I wrote that I found no reference to chromophobia as a psychological disorder. PsycINFO turned up one result, an article published in Italian in a journal that unfortunately is not available online:

* Gebhardt, E., & Giorgini, L. (2007). La ragione non ha colore: ipotesi sulla cromofobia \[Reason has no colour: Hypotheses on cromophobia\]. *Il Sogno Della Farfalla: Rivista Di Psichiatria E Psicoterapia, 16*(4), 35-57.

An English abstract is given:

> Stemming from an analysis of a case study this research proposes to study a symptomatology where the sight of colour provokes anguish, known in literature as chromophobia, in order to allow us to develop the correct nosography and to identify the underlying psychic dynamics. The immediacy with which an unaltered perception in itself can be given an abnormal meaning to the point of becoming a terrible anguish brings us to consider chromophobia as an example of delusional perception and as such falling within the psychotic syndromes. As far as the object perceived is concerned, that is colour, it is worth noting that Western thought views it as negative for a twofold reason. Religious dogma views colour as dangerous given that it is alien to man, belonging to the body of another who is different from oneself and as such it has been given female, infantile, primitive or pathological attributes. Rationalist thought has, on the other hand, underestimated the importance of colour viewing it as superficial, supplementary and not warranting serious study. Colour has always been subordinate to the drawn figure. Both these approaches have proposed a dichotomy between line and colour attributing the former to the world of rationality and the latter to the non-conscious world. This splitting, according to the authors, can be overcome only if we consider that in the theory of birth the ego is not split at its origin and as such neither is perception. Line and colour therefore are connected to birth and the first year of life.

I admit, that I don't consider this source reliable. The journal, Il sogno della farfalla, as described in a Wikipedia article, is focussed on the psychotherapeutic theory and practice of its founder, the famous but controversial Italian psychiatrist, screenwriter and movie director Massimo Fagioli. This is not the place to discuss Fagioli or the authors of the article (who are both members of the journal's editorial board), but we should note that the journal appears not to have a peer review process.

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Sources:

* Maser, J. D. (1985). List of phobias. In A. H. Tuma & J. D. Maser (eds.), *Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders* (pp. 805-813). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
* McNally, R. J. (1997). Atypical phobias. In G. C. I. Davey (ed.), *Phobias: A handbook of Theory, Research and Treatment* (pp. 183-199). Chichester: Wiley.

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With this last edit my research is now complete.
> 3 votes

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Tags: abnormal-psychology, cognitive-neuroscience, phobia
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# Question
Title: Why do "cool" colors, which are actually warmer, look cool, and vice versa?
Why do cool colors look cool that are in fact warmer, and why do warm colors look warm when they are actually cooler?

Blue wavelength has higher energy than red, i.e, blue flame is hotter than red flame, but still blue seems cool. Is it due to it being the color of water or the sky?

# Answer
> 5 votes
> Why is red light seen as "warm", although it is still lower in energy than blue?
>
> Red and blue light differ in energy density, they are located on opposite sides of the rainbow. Blue light oscillates almost twice as fast as red and has a correspondingly shorter wavelength. And because it swings faster, the particles of blue light are also higher in energy. Nevertheless, red light appears warmer.
>
> This is the difference between physics and psychology. How a color affects us depends not just on whether or not the corresponding rays are energetic, but it depends on how the brain processes signals. And especially when it comes to colors, very archaic associations play a role.
>
> Red, yellow and orange - these are the colors of fire, of embers. The sun appears red in the evening sky. And red is also the color of blood. Blood means heat: If we are hot and our fingers are warm, they are red. This already happened to our early ancestors, and that's why this association of red = hot is probably anchored deep in our perceptual apparatus. Conversely, if we consider what is blue: blue is, for example, water - and water is cool.
>
> Now you can take this even further and say: Red light is not only psychologically warm, but also physically warm - if we think for example of infrared lamps, they really warm us. Which is why they are used in medicine, while, conversely, of course, no doctor would think to treat a person with UV lamps. Because UV light is aggressive, it can damage the skin and cause cancer.
>
> This is because UV light is even higher in energy than blue light - the high energy density makes the light so aggressive. Conversely, infrared light, while physically even lower in energy than red light, is seen as heat radiation.
>
> This has the following background: Basically, every body has a natural radiation, and this characteristic radiation depends only on the temperature. Therefore, one can, even if it is pitch dark, distinguish hot and cold items with an infrared camera, because warm objects glow stronger in the infrared spectrum. There is a clear relation between the temperature of a body and the kind of radiation that it emits.
>
> If something has room temperature, then we do not see this radiation, it lies in the infrared and our eyes can not see infrared radiation. But when things get warmer, the radiation changes and shifts into the range of visible light - in other words, it shifts from infrared to red. That is why red-hot objects are red.
>
> At still higher temperatures, the heat color would in fact shift to blue, but when a body glows blue, it would be even hotter than the sun, and in everyday life, we almost never have to do with such extremely hot objects. That is why red is the color of a warm, glowing body.

Translated from http://www.swr.de/blog/1000antworten/antwort/16474/warum-gilt-rotes-licht-als-warm-obwohl-es-doch-energiearmer-ist-als-blaues/

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Tags: perception, vision, color
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# Question
Title: How to design ballot papers with a large number of candidates in a preferential system?
**Background:** In the 2013 Australian Federal election, several parties were elected to the senate seemingly because of usability issues related to the ballot paper (see here for discussion). For example:

> \[The\] Australian Sports Party has no policies other than advocating lots of sport, and won just 0.22 per cent of the vote. But with preferences from other small parties, they are likely to get a Senate quota ahead of the second Labor candidate, who had 12.33 per cent.

For those unfamiliar with the Australian federal electoral system, the Senate is the upper house. Each state has an equal number of senators. Election to the senate requires that you achieve a certain percentage of votes in a given state. It is a preferential block voting system. Thus, you can achieve the required votes after preferences have been allocated.

On the current ballot, you can either vote above the line or below the line. Above the line involves ticking a single box and accepting the allocation of preferences of that particular party. Ticking below the line requires that you number every candidate from one to the number of candidates (which could be over 100). Thus, the according to wikipedia about 98% of people vote above the line.

A strange situation arose in the 2013 election where several micro-parties appear to have won senate seats due to a flaw in the combination of the preferential and the above the line system. This seems to have been brought on by a range of factors including a general across the board increase in the vote for micro-parties and collaboration in micro-parties in allocating preferences to each other. Traditionally, when the likely senator was one of only a few parties, the allocation of preferences was fairly clear. However, many voters if explicitly asked about their preferences, may have put one of the major parties above some of the more obscure parties that seem to have been elected based on preferences.

Thus, there is a problem:

* There are too many candidates to make it easy for people to indicate their preferences for all candidates.
* The preferences implied by putting a 1 in a box "above the line" (i.e., accepting the preferences of a given party) may often not be consistent with what a voter would intend their preferences to be were they asked to think about it.

### Questions

* **What is a good way to design ballot papers with a large number of candidates in a preferential system so that it is easy to use and conveys the important aspects of people's preferences?**
* **What psychological theory or empirical research justifies such a ballot paper?**

# Answer
> 2 votes
*This is a partial answer to your question, there is considerable research touching on specific designs and strategies in ballots that will be outlined below*

This issue has come up in research around the world. A specific concern is:

> Ballot design can be an important factor in determining whether voters are able to cast a ballot accurately, which can influence the legitimacy of elections.

Source: "Ballot design and Unrecorded votes on paper-based ballots" (Krimball and Kropf, 2005).

Krimball and Kropf assert that there is a lot in common between a ballot and a self-administered questionnaire, in that voters must process a myriad of verbal, symbolic and graphical language (which includes the written instructions etc). There has been some research in making ballot papers more 'realistic' so to speak.

Research in Britain has looked into including a photo with the ballot, according to "Candidate appearance and voting in British elections: The potential impact of ballot paper photographs" (Johns, 2008), asides from making an Australian Senate ballot sheet the size of Tasmania:

> Some MPs express worries that voters may be swayed in their choice by the photos. This concern is consistent with psychologists’ findings that we automatically make judgements about people’s characters based on the briefest inspection of facial appearance, and that these judgements influence behaviour towards them. This is especially true when, as with most constituency candidates, we know little else about the people.

Swinburne Politics Professor Brian Costar, in the online article "We need to simplify voting for the Senate" suggests:

> the Senate ballot paper should be redesigned to abolish above- and below-the-line voting. Instead, voting should be optional preferential. At a normal Senate election, a voter would need to number at least six squares, and at a double dissolution election at least twelve. This would keep informal voting low and put a stop to secret wheeling and dealing over preferences and unexpected successes for candidates with extremely modest direct support.

One main problem is, according to the empirical analysis "Influence of ‘Cognitive Sophistication’ on Ballot Layout Effects" (Geys and Hayndels, 2003), is that

> Candidates in ‘critical’ (top and bottom) positions in multi-column ballots obtain a larger percentage of the vote in multi-column ballots than in a single-column ballot.

These positions are, according to the authors, in the top and bottom corners. But, the authors assert that this is actually not a huge issue, given

> The results of our empirical analysis have shown that cognitive sophistication of the electorate does have a strong effect. A larger share of highly educated (or richer) voters significantly reduces the strength of Ballot Layout Effects.

However, a key point from the article is that

> avoiding layout effects by randomizing the order of candidates or using additional layouts such that each politician has an equal probability of being on top (bottom) of a column may be hard to use in practice.

An interesting point the authors found in regards to computerised ballots is that

> preferential votes are more evenly distributed among candidates when voting is done via computerized ballots.

Further information could be sourced from the International Centre for Electoral Psychology

*Anecdotal side note: In my electorate (I am an Australian also), we had the same thing happen - about 30 above the line, and over 100 below the line for the Senate. I have wondered about this also - I am "apolitical" (this is not up for discussion) and could not be bothered doing the 'under the line' thing - this apathy was a topic of conversation when I was in the long queue to get into vote (Reminder to everyone else, voting is compulsory in Australia).*

*The point of this anecdote is that voter enthusiasm (or lack thereof) could also be a factor in the effectiveness of any ballot design.*

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Tags: human-factors, hci, political-psychology
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# Question
Title: Is workaholism similar to any addiction or are there other neurological mechanisms at play?
Some people are seemingly 'addicted' to their work and by doing work itself, almost to the point of precluding all other activities and interactions (usually social). By this question, I mean when people go beyond a 'passion' for the work, into an almost obsessive approach. (I have met a few people like this).

Is this addiction to work similar to other addictions? or is there something else triggering this almost obsessive work-ethic to the preclusion of almost all other activities?

I am after peer-refereed articles about any studies that have been performed on this.

# Answer
This is a great question - one that resonates with me especially when reflecting on my own professional life.

My answer to your question would be both speculative and (hopefully) empirical. From personal experience, I have met people in my professional life that may exhibit 'workaholic' behaviours but it is unclear whether it is driven by fear and anxiety or behaviours aligned to values to achieve almost perfect work performance.

I would start with defining precisely what workaholism is. Spence and Robbins (1992) defines a workaholic exhibiting three specific properties:

> 1. Highly work involved
> 2. Compelled or driven to work because of inner pressures
> 3. Low in enjoyment of work

If we compare those properties against an addictive disorder such as Bulimia Nervosa, some surprising similarities arise. Compensatory self-vomitting behaviours tend to be a product of overevaluation of body weight and shape (Lamparda et al., 2011). Let's assume that "inner pressures" represent an individual's need to achieve their body weight and shape. Analogously, "inner pressures" such as perfectionism and responses to fear can cause this seemingly addictive workholic behaviour. I would dare say that the cognitive processes involved between these two cases would be quite similar.

Examining workaholism from a neurological perspective, in my opinion, would mimic neurological studies on addictive disorders. However, I couldn't find much. Randles et al. (2010) make reference to neurological mechanisms in describing how perfectionism and rumination can contribute to goal-oriented behaviours.

The drive to work harder and harder is likely to be influenced by the level of perfectionism and anxiety experienced by an individual (Shafran & Mansell, 2001). Catastrophising and ruminating about work performance can theoretically compel an individual to work harder to the point of psychopathology (of course, we lack the criteria). On another note, personality traits such as narcissism would probably play a role in triggering workaholic behaviours.

**References**

* Spence, J.T. & Robbins, A.S. (1992). Workaholism: definition, measurement, and preliminary results. *Journal of Personality Assessment*, 58(1), 160-178
* Lamparda, A.M., Byrnea, S.M., McLeana, N. & Furslandb, A. (2011). An evaluation of the enhanced cognitive-behavioural model of bulimia nervosa. *Behaviour Research and Therapy*, 49, 529-535
* Randles, D., Flett, G.L., Nasha, K.A., McGreggor, I.D. & Hewitt, P.L. (2010). Dimensions of perfectionism, behavioral inhibition, and rumination. *Personality and Individual Differences*, 49, 83-87
* Shafran, R. & Mansell, W. (2001). Perfectionism and psychopathology: A review of research and treatment. *Clinical Psychology Review*, 21(6), 879-906.
> 1 votes

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Tags: social-psychology, reference-request, cognitive-neuroscience
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# Question
Title: Why do soldiers seldom "fight to the death" even if they are going to be killed anyway?
At the siege of Masada, a group of heavily outnumbered Jewish soldiers elected to commit suicide en masse, rather than to be captured by the besieging Romans, who would probably have committed them to a tortuous death by crucifixion. Such an action is highly unusual, almost unique in the annals of history.

During the Spartacus slave revolt, some 6,000 rebels were captured and crucified. Why did they choose this over death in battle? (As rebelling slaves, they were outlaws, not foreign prisoners who could expect to be allowed to live.) And why might this be true of others in similar straits (e.g. partisans captured by Nazis in World War II)?

# Answer
Why does prey, when caught in the jaws of an animal whose bite and build is powerful enough to carry them, cease to struggle? I remember an old quote from psychology, recounting first-hand, a lion attack. I cannot find it now. The narrator said that once the lion had him in its mouth, it shook him (physically) and thus disoriented him. He said that he felt no pain, and he said that it must have been because of adrenaline. I forget how, I think a local intervened, but he survived to describe the experience.
Why does a fish, when laid on ground, cease to struggle? Yet waggle when touched and escape when released? Morale?
Why do bucks, when vying for supremacy by engaging in contests of strength, not aim to kill their opponent? This case is slightly different, because the foe is conspecific. While humans understand the concept of mutually-assured destruction, animals seem to understand this too, and that it's evolutionarily folly when fighting one's own species.

Sorry for an incomprehensive answer, but I hope my insight spurs the ultimate answer.
> 2 votes

# Answer
They felt doomed and had no more physical fight left in them. The only way they knew to stick it to the enemy was to commit suicide. They knew if they were to fight they will be slaughtered, giving the enemy a boost in confidence. If they were to be captured they would be publicly executed which also provides the enemy with a boost in confidence. Rolling up on an army that just committed suicide rather than face you would give a morale boost but not as much as actually conquering them. In the end they denied the enemy of the full satisfaction of their victory.
> 1 votes

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Tags: decision-making
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# Question
Title: Quote: Mental illness is questioning the point of living
I'm trying to find a quote essentially relating the sentiment that "a mind which questions the point of continuing to live, is a mind which is mentally ill", as a definition of mental illness. I thought it was Freud, but I read three pages of quotes of him and didn't find what I was looking for. I found two that are close in meaning:

No other technique for the conduct of life attaches the individual so firmly to reality as laying emphasis on work; for his work at least gives him a secure place in a portion of reality, in the human community. The possibility it offers of displacing a large amount of libidinal components, whether narcissistic, aggressive or even erotic, on to professional work and on to the human relations connected with it lends it a value by no means second to what it enjoys as something indispensible to the preservation and justification of existence in society.

SIGMUND FREUD, Civilization and Its Discontents

“About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times.” ― C.G. Jung

# Answer
In a letter to Marie Bonaparte, Freud wrote:

> Im Moment, da man nach Sinn und Wert des Lebens fragt, ist man krank, denn beides gibt es ja in objektiver Weise nicht; man hat nur eingestanden, daß man einen Vorrat von unbefriedigender Libido hat, und irgend etwas anderes muß damit vorgefallen sein, eine Art Gärung, die zur Trauer und Depression führt. Großartig sind diese meine Aufklärungen gewiß nicht. Vielleicht weil ich selbst zu pessimistisch bin. Mir geht ein "advertisement" im Kopf herum, das ich für das kühnste und gelungenste Stück amerikanischer Reklame halte: "Why live, if you can be buried for ten Dollars?"

In English:

> The moment a man questions the meaning and value of life, he is sick, since objectively neither has any existence; by asking this question one is merely admitting to a store of unsatisfied libido to which something else must have happened, a kind of fermentation leading to sadness and depression. I am afraid these explanations of mine are not very wonderful. Perhaps because I am too pessimistic. I have an advertisement floating about in my head which I consider the boldest and most successful piece of American publicity: "Why live, if you can be buried for ten dollars?"

* Freud, S. (1960). Sigmund Freud an Marie Bonaparte, 13. August 1937. In E. L. Freud (ed.), *Briefe 1873-1939* (p. 429). Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer.
* Freud, S. (1961). Sigmund Freud to Marie Bonaparte, 13. August 1937. In E. L. Freud (ed.), *Letters of Sigmund Freud* (p. 432), London: Hogarth.
> 7 votes

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Tags: abnormal-psychology, psychoanalysis
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# Question
Title: How does chronic stress improve memory processes?
There seems to be more information on the detrimental effects of stress on memory.

There is evidence to the contrary.

Stress effects on memory: an update and integration.
Schwabe L, et al doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.07.002

> It is well known that stressful experiences may affect learning and memory processes. Less clear is the exact nature of these stress effects on memory: both enhancing and impairing effects have been reported.

I am interested in the research available on stress positively effecting memory.

What are the biological reasons for stress enhancing memory processes?

There is a related question Can the brain work better in stressful conditions?; I am interested more in chronic stress. An examination of the effects of acute stress on memory, I believe, warrants a separate discussion.

# Answer
Interesting question. Intuitively, I would have thought that chronic stress would uncompromisingly be a detriment to our memory and recall.

An article by Ohira et al (2011) makes note that it is accepted that chronic stress is seen to adversely affect memory, it may not be replicated in other studies:

> "However, results related to the effects of chronic job stress and cognitive functions remain controversial. Although chronic job stress is generally linked to reduced memory and learning (Holman and Wall, 2002; Taris and Feij, 2004), a recent epidemiological study with a larger sample size failed to replicate these effects (Elovainio et al., 2009)."

Other studies may indicate that *predictable* chronic mild stress can improve hippocampal neurogenesis and memory (Parihar et al., 2011). Your question doesn't describe the level of stress experienced as a variable so broadly, this article might be very relevant:

> "Furthermore, enrichments in mood and memory after PCMS were associated with substantially increased hippocampal neurogenesis ... The overall stress reaction in an organism can be advantageous for cognitive functions when it induces moderate increases in corticosterone levels and leads to adaptation and resistance ... The PCMS regimen used in this study likely elicited moderate increases in corticosterone levels, which facilitated adaptive and beneficial responses in the brain."

It's implied that unpredictable chronic stress would have a detrimental effect on memory. Some of the biological reasons for enhancing memory processes are presented in that above study.

**EDIT: Additional Information**

Also see - McFadden, L.M., Paris, J.J., Mitzelfelt, M.S., McDonough, S., Frye, C.A. & Matuszewich, L. (2011). Sex-dependent effects of chronic unpredictable stress in the water maze. Physiology & Behavior, 102(3), 266-275. The research conversely highlights that *unpredictable stress* improves performance on a spatial memory task in female rats.

**References**

* Ohira, H., Matsunga, M., Kumra, K., Murakami, H., Osumi., T., Isowa, T., Fukuyama, S., Shinoda, J. & Yamada, J. (2011). Chronic stress modulates neural and cardiovascular responses during reversal learning. *Neuroscience*, 193, 193-204
* Parihar, VK., Hattiangady, B., Kuruba, R., Shuai, B. & Shetty, AK. (2011). Predictable chronic mild stress improves mood, hippocampal neurogenesis and memory. Molecular Psychiatry, 16, 171-183
> 4 votes

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Tags: neuroscience, memory, cognitive-neuroscience
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# Question
Title: The psychology of patriotism, dying for one's own country
There was an old Latin motto, "**Dulce et decorum est, pro partria morii**," which roughly translates into: "**It is a sweet and beautiful thing to die for one's country**." I used to think that this was a piece of misguided patriotism.

That is, until the other night when a friend of mine said, "I would rather be a dead American than a live Ethiopian." (He was referring to the fact that the American standard of living is 100 times better than the Ethiopian.)

That got me to thinking, could the Roman proverb mean that Rome stood like a Colossus over her (Mediterranean world), so that a person would rationally choose death (or maybe take a 50-50 chance of death) as a Roman, than to be a live, and probably enslaved Carthaginian/Gaul/Greek/"pick your poison").

Examining the notion of patriotism a little deeper.

Can the notion of being willing to die for one's country, be construed as a person's desire to choose death under regime A over a chance to live under regime B, just because the disparity in standards of living was too great to bear?

# Answer
> 6 votes
The quote "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" is from one of Horace's Odes (III.2.13), and it translates as: "it is sweet and honorable to die for one's fatherland".

It is assumed that Horace did not glorify the death of a soldier in this poem but allude to the two predominant philosophical doctrines of his time, epicureism and stoa, and their perspective on the *summum bonum*, the greatest good. For epicureism this is lust ("sweet" in the quote), for the stoa it is virtue ("honorable").

From Horace's point of view, dying for your home country contradicts neither the epicureic nor the stoic ideal, as it implies both. Both philosophical doctrines were sceptical of a service to the state, and Horace says that serving your country is in tune with both doctrines.

Death for your country is glorified in a quote from Horace's Greek source, a verse by Tyrtaios (Fragment 6D) about the service of the Spartans:

"The most beautiful death of all is when a warrior fights for his fatherland and dies for it."

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Source:

Common internet knowledge ;-)

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Tags: social-psychology, decision-making, prosocial-behavior
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# Question
Title: Where to find published results of positive psychology cancer treatment study mentioned in Martin Seligman's book?
In Dr. Martin Seligman's book, "Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life", there was mention of a study involving teaching cancer patients to fight learned helplessness.

I believe this study commenced around 1990, but could not find any information on the study online.

I would like to know if now, more than 20 years later, if the group showed improvements in battling the cancer.

# Answer
I'm not sure what study Seligman is referring to, but I can suggest that you look into Shelley Taylor's work on positive illusions. Her original 1983 work looked into the coping mechanisms of a group of cancer patients undergoing treatment, and followed them into their lives after recovering from their illness. She found that individuals who felt that they were better than their peers at dealing with the cancer, felt that they had some control over the cancer's course, and that their future was brighter than that of others, had a better chance of returning to or exceeding their original quality of life before the illness. These beliefs are called "positive illusions", and are outlined clearly in Taylor & Brown (1994).

Hope this helps!
> 3 votes

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Tags: neuroscience, reference-request, positive-psychology, health-psychology
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# Question
Title: Why do people walk in a circle when they are blindfolded and intend to walk in a straight line?
Why does someone with eyes tied follow a circular path if left to walk in a huge yard(kilometers), that occurs even if he thinks that he is walking in a straight line?

In my opinion once you drawn a well enough curve your balance shift towards inner side of circle and you fullfill to spiralate inwards. But what shifts the balance inward?

# Answer
> 4 votes
It has nothing to do with perception.

It's simply because there are infinitely many ways to go in circles, while only one way to go straight. Even a slightest bias towards one side will produce a circle. When other cues are given to correct the bias, one is able to track straight lines.

Even robots (or toy cars) that are designed to go straight lines will go in circles without sensory feedback!

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Tags: perception, motor, vestibular-system
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# Question
Title: Does sugar change our short-term behaviour?
In physical terms, sugar has a great influence: increases energy in our body. But does it influence our behaviour? Is it possible that we act differently because of high amount of consumed sugar?

# Answer
> 2 votes
You are what you eat right? I guess that would probably apply with how internal physiological responses to food consumption may result in various behaviours.

According to Flora and Polenick (2013), there are some counter-intuitive evidence about sugar and its effects on human behaviour:

> "To this point, what is known about the effects of sugar consumption on human behavior and performance is that sugar consumption, even in high amounts, does not contribute to hyperactivity, inattention, juvenile delinquency, reductions in cognitive performance, or other behavior problems in children or adults. Instead, a high level of glucose, or sugar, consumption actually improves athletic, academic, and cognitive performance, and may enhance self-control. Sugar consumption may reduce aggressive behavior, and sugar consumed during breakfast and in afternoon snacks improves performance during a wide range of activities."

Notably, they indicate that sugar can reduce aggression in both children and adults and implied aggressive behaviour:

> "Just as Bachorowski et al. (1990) observed improved behavior of juvenile delinquents after they consumed a sugar-filled breakfast, research suggests that sugar consumption may reduce aggressive behavior in adults, as well as in children. Benton and Owens (1993) found that, compared to undergraduate participants who consumed a placebo non-sugar beverage, participants who consumed a sugar beverage were less likely to show aggression, use profanity, or bang on the computer while playing a frustrating and intentionally impossible computer game."

# Answer
> 1 votes
Sugar can induce addiction based on mesolimbic dopamine... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2714381/

That is the main effect on behavior...

Also sugar intake will have efects on insulin and vice versa: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02342828

So answer is yes... it is possible that we act differently, especially after long exposure to that food.

In addition the addiction to sugar can induce impulsive behavior by weaknes of prefrontal lobe... http://books.google.hr/books?id=OwKOpU6rjMsC&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=sugar+neuroimaging+impulsive+behavior&source=bl&ots=AIXOZz77uE&sig=Fa9iwmlhgoRMQuKqXQirOw7ZzH8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=di9DUq2SJaeg4gT95YCQCQ&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=sugar%20neuroimaging%20impulsive%20behavior&f=false

and also sugar can cause obesity in long term... http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/40323/InTech-Food\_addiction\_obesity\_and\_neuroimaging.pdf

# Answer
> 0 votes
I feel that this question is vague. Obviously sugar-seeking behaviour abates after significant consumption of sugar due to satiation. Therefore, the answer to the question is categorically 'yes'.

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, addiction
---


title: Does anger increase your body strength?

text:
# Question
Title: Does anger increase your body strength?
Will anger increase your body strength or not? If you get angry, you may think that i can break anything or fight anyone but sometimes you almost lose control on your body completely (or probably always).

So, if you are ordered to break a brick, will you break it easily when you are angry or when your emotions are under control?

# Answer
> 9 votes
There could be a correlation between negative emotions, such as anger and hostility, and muscle strength (Tolea et al., 2012). This, however, is a post-hoc examination around the relationship between personality traits and muscle strength and may not infer that 'body strength' actually increases during anger and hostility.

> "In spite of the evidence for relationships between personality, physical activity, and muscle strength, to our knowledge, only one study reported on the association between personality and muscle strength (Jorm et al., 1993). In that study, Jorm and colleagues investigated correlations between neuroticism and extraversion and muscle strength in a sample of older community-dwelling Australian men and women. Neuroticism but not extraversion was found to negatively correlate to strength in women only."

A study conducted on physical performance and anger could support that there are positive correlations between anger and physical performance (Davis et al., 2010). Note that this only focuses on *physical performance* and does not necessarily indicate that anger directly increases actual body strength (i.e. cardiovascular, resistance level, power).

> "Consistent with previous research (e.g., Woodman et al., 2009), anger facilitated performance of the peak force task. The signiﬁcant inﬂuence of trait anger and anger-out on physical performance provides additional evidence of the role of anger’s action tendency in performance (Smits et al., 2004). This ﬁnding supports Lazarus’s (2000b) proposed inﬂuence of anger on performance; that is, the action tendency of anger appeared to align with the task demands and performance was facilitated by the induction of anger."

This may well tie well in addressing your question:

```
P1. There is evidence to show that anger facilitates performance of a peak force task.
P2. Breaking a brick involves a peak force task.
P3. X is angry and required to break a brick.
C. It is likely that anger would facilitate X's need to break the brick.

```

As for anger regulation, the same article touches upon the significance of anger regulation strategies towards anger and physical performance. My intuition would be to say that a response such as anger is more likely to help one "break a brick" when ordered rather than being in a controlled state. Anger is more likely to increase reactive motor skills which could maximise power exerted. I'm not an expert on physical fitness but emotional states of mind would seem to impact physical behaviours in my view.

**References**

* Toleaa, M.I., Terracciano, A., Simonsick, E.M., Metter, E.J. & Costa Jr., P.T. (2012). Associations between personality traits, physical activity level, and muscle strength. *Journal of Research in Personality*, 46, 264-270
* Davis, P.A., Woodman, T. & Callow, N. (2010). Better out than in: The inﬂuence of anger regulation on physical performance. *Personality and Individual Differences*, 49, 457-460

# Answer
> 1 votes
In many cases, the limit of your strength is not actually the maximal force output of your muscles, but reflex inhibition from pain. Anger and the associated release of adrenaline causes stimulus-induced analgesia, which could potentially relieve some of this reflex inhibition. So yes.

---
Tags: emotion, motor
---


# Question
Title: Why do women feel odd when males stare at them?
I want to know why a woman feels something odd when a male stares at them. I have tried this on many girls. Some feel irritated , some became angry, and some even leave the room.

1. What causes these reactions?
2. What mechanism of the brain causes this?
3. What chemistry of hormones are behind this?

# Answer
> 12 votes
I don't think you need to resort to hormonal or neural explanations. **Staring has social meaning**. The meaning of staring varies across cultures and contexts. In some contexts it is normal (e.g., staring at a presenter, staring at the person you are talking to, staring at a sales assistant). In these contexts, staring has meaning such as indicating interest or indicating an accepted attempt at engaging the person's attention.

In other settings staring can violate social norms and may be interpreted as an aggressive or annoying action by others. In some cases, staring can make people feel self-conscious or objectified. In other cases, a stranger staring at them can be experienced by the person being looked at as an intimidating action.

You can imagine a train of reasoning that might arise when you stare at a women long enough for her to notice and for you to notice that she has noticed. She could be thinking that she doesn't want to be stared at and that social norms say that she should not have to be stared at. Yet, you continue to stare at her. At the very least she might find this disrespectful. In some contexts, it might induce concern that if you are willing to break that social convention, you might be likely to break others, which give rise to fear that you might be violent. In other contexts it might just be interpreted as a sexual advance, which they don't want to reciprocate.

Anyway, the main point is that staring has complex social meaning, and thus should be understood within the social context including prevailing norms about staring in general.

It seems that the academic Rosemarie Garland-Thomson has written quite a bit about the meaning of staring from a humanities perspective.

See for example, her 2006 article

> This article considers how staring informs the ways we know each other and the world around us. Staring, a complex, nuanced, and meaning-laden social interaction, can take many forms: arrested, separated, or engaged. It is an intense encounter which is sometimes a random, idiosyncratic confrontation and at other times a highly structured social ritual driven by the collective impulse to look. This article argues that staring often defines the relationship between disabled and nondisabled individuals. More important, however, it seeks to redefine this relationship by imagining, perhaps counterintuitively, the object of the stare as determining the structure and outcome of the staring engagement. The staree may take charge of the encounter, in other words, using various strategies to both mediate and transform discomforting interaction into an unexpected opportunity for mutual transformation.

Or her 2005 article

> Staring is a vivid form of human communication. Part of our enormous communal vocabulary of the eyes, staring is a particularly emphatic way of expressing our response to others. A more forceful and sustained form of looking than glancing, glimpsing, scanning, contemplating, surveying, gazing, and other forms of casual or normative looking, staring starkly registers intense interest and endows it with meaning. That interest ranges widely in form--from domination, adoration, curiosity, surprise, allegiance, disgust, wonder, befuddlement, openness, hostility, to reverence. The stare is a highly charged interpersonal encounter that we snap up in a variety of contexts to put a sharp point on what we mean, think, or want. Staring is a way of strongly reacting to another; it bespeaks involvement. It is the human response to novelty, to the unexpected.
>
> As such, staring is an embodied and relational visual exchange that carries complex cultural and historical meanings. Like sex and eating, staring is drenched with significances, scrupulously regulated, and intricately ritualized. Civility, for example, has always strictly governed staring and prescribed what we do with our eyes in social encounters. In American culture, the one thing everyone knows about staring is that your mother told you not to do it. Both furtive and compelling, staring is imagined as a formidable interchange and is a source of vivid narrative within in the Western cultural archive.

She even has a book called *Staring: How We Look*. Oxford University Press, 2009. She talks about the book in this short YouTube clip.

### References

* “Ways of Staring.” Journal of Visual Culture 5, 2 (Summer 2006): 165-184. PDF
* “Staring at the Other.” DSQ: Disability Studies Quarterly 25, 4 (Fall 2005). FULL TEXT

---
Tags: social-psychology, emotion, communication, eye-movement
---


# Question
Title: How does the personality of a successful leader influence the development of his children?
Successful leadership appears to depend on the personality of the leader. Judge et al. (2002) found the following correlations with the "big five" personality factors in a meta-analysis:

```
Personality trait       Correlation with leadership success

Neuroticism           -.24
Extraversion           .31
Openness               .24
Agreeableness          .08
Conscientiousness      .28

```

Kock (1965) found the following correlations between the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation, and economic success:

```
                         Achievment   Power   Affiliation   Ach+Pow-Aff

Gross Production Value   .39          .49*    -.61**        .67**
Number of Employees      .41          .42     -.62**        .66**
Turnover                 .46*         .41     -.53*         .60*
Gross Investment         .63*        -.06      .20          .45*
Profit                   .27          .01     -.30          .34

```

These two studies found that leaders must not be neurotic, need not be agreeable, and must not have a need for affiliation.

But personality influences not only a person's workplace behavior and success, but also his choice of a romantic partner and how he shapes his relationships to the members of his family. I wonder therefore:

**Are there studies on the family situations of leaders, how they relate to their spouses and children, and how they influence their children's development?**

---

Sources:

# Answer
This is an extremely interesting question. I'm going to take a different approach to the question by focusing on both *personality traits* and *leadership theories* (e.g. authentic leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership etc) to answer whether those two distinct areas can influence leaders' children's development. I will admit that I didn't come across specific studies on the actual family situations of leaders and the developmental impacts of the leader's personality traits towards their children.

**Experiential learning and development by children**

See Murphy and Johnson (2011) about how early life experiences and parenting styles can shape the development of a children in relation to general development and leadership potential.

> but parents undoubtedly work to inﬂuence their children's thoughts on leadership, through role modeling leadership and through the leader behaviors and experiences they encourage in their children ... “\[Parents…\] contribute to their children's religious beliefs, intellectual and occupational interests, feelings of self-esteem or inadequacy, adherence to traditional or modern notions of masculinity and femininity, helpfulness to others, skills, and values (Beer, Arnold, & Loehlin, 1998; Kruger, Hicks, & McGue, 2001; McCrae et al., 2000)” (Wade & Tavris, 2008, p. 502).

Servant leadership promotes spirituality and servant behaviours in leaders, i.e. serve your employees first before you serve the company. This type of behaviour from a leader would most likely influence the parent's value and style of parenting. For example, leaders who are recognised as servant leaders may be generous and selfless - this may spill over into their parenting style to be compassionate and caring towards their children which in turn, influences their children's development into similar characters.

**ADDED: Destructive leaders, narcissism and potential impact on children**

Behaviours of destructive leaders tend to be correlated to narcissism (Padilla et al., 2007). Assuming that these behaviours manifest in the home/family environment, there is some evidence that *child narcissism* can arise from the parent's control over them (Horton, 2010):

> There is also substantial evidence supporting the object relations viewpoint that child narcissism comes from a parent’s selﬁsh use of the child that is manifest in excessive or inconsistent parental control. For example, both Horton and colleagues (2006) and Miller and Campbell (2008) found that psychological control correlated positively with maladaptive narcissism...

Similarly, destructive leadership involves an element of the urge to control (Padilla et al., 2007):

> ... destructive leadership involves control and coercion rather than persuasion and commitment (Howell & Avolio, 1992; Sankowsky, 1995)

I would dare say that if we compared destructive leaders (core trait: narcissism) and servant leaders (core: selflessness) - both would exhibit different parenting styles that both impact a child's development. Children of the former group may grow up to develop childhood narcissism which may stretch out to adulthood. Children of the latter group may grow to develop selfless behaviours in childhood and adulthood. Yet, I wish there would be a study demonstrating this.

**References**

* Murphy, S.E. & Johnson, S.K. (2011). The beneﬁts of a long-lens approach to leader development: Understanding the seeds of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 22, 459-470
* Horton, R. S. (2010). On environmental sources of child narcissism: Are parents really to blame? (pp. 125-143), In Barry, C, Kerig, P. K, Stellwagen, K. K, & Barry, T. T (Eds.) Narcissism and Machiavellianism in Youth: Implications for the Development of Adaptive and Maladaptive Behavior. Washington, D.C.: APA Press.
* Padilla, A., Hogan, R. & Kaiser, R.B. (2007). The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. The Leadership Quarterly, 18, 176-194
> 7 votes

---
Tags: developmental-psychology, personality, io-psychology, parenting, leadership
---


title: Why do humans enjoy works of fiction?

text:
# Question
Title: Why do humans enjoy works of fiction?
Why humans (most of them, and certainly all those around me) enjoy fictional stories in one form or the other - novels, films, theater performances?

The starting assumption is that there must be an evolutionary advantage to it. Related, might be the question of why humans do and enjoy music.

Why don't we stick to hard facts, true stories and the like?

# Answer
According to the article "A feeling for fiction: becoming what we behold" (Miall and Kuikan, 2002), suggest 4 levels of how reading stories/fiction affect us:

The first is a satisfaction and enjoyment

> are reactions to an already interpreted text

The second level is when the feelings and engagement start kicking in:

> feelings such as empathy or sympathy with an author, narrator, or narrative figure are involved in the interpretive processes by which a representation of the fictional world is developed and engaged

So, in this second stage, we are starting to get 'drawn in' to this fictional world.

The third level involves

> feelings of fascination, interest, or intrigue are an initial moment in readers’ response to the formal components of literary texts (narrative, stylistic, or generic).

Now, these first 3 levels are more or less aesthetic, it is the fourth level (and the focus of the linked paper) that links the aesthetic and narrative feelings together that

> interact to produce metaphors of personal identification that modify self-understanding. We also argue that the concept of catharsis (the conflict of tragic feelings identified by Aristotle) identifies one particular form of a more general pattern in which aesthetic and narrative feelings evoked during reading interact to modify the reader.

This last point is also discussed in the article "Why fiction may be twice as true as fact: Fiction as cognitive and emotional stimulation" (Oatley, 1999) with the statement:

> in the simulations of fiction, personal truths can be explored that allows readers to experience emotions - their own emotions - and understand aspects of them that are obscure, in relation to the contexts in which the emotions arise.

From that, fiction is not just 'escapism' and affects us on psychological and cognitive levels beyond aesthetic levels. This would be true for any form of fiction, and potentially for music and visual art.

A possible evolutionary advantage is that this type of activity takes us away from the 'here and now' to places that we have never known, yet (according to the articles) have a sense of familiarity for us, emotionally and cognitively.
> 3 votes

---
Tags: evolution, aesthetics
---


# Question
Title: Which Machine Learning classifiers do humans use?
**Background:** In many situations, people use to classify objects without knowing Machine Learning theory. For example, if small children see an unknown animal in the wild, (s)he tries to classify it as dangerous or not dangerous (based on previous "data").

**Question:** Obviously, humans use any classifier. My question is: Which?

# Answer
> 5 votes
This is of course a big question and I don't believe that there is a definite answer to it. A very thorough investigation of this matter comes from Rogers and McClelland (2004), who have a developed a *parallel distributed theory of acquisition, representation and use of human semantic knowledge*. As the name implies, this effort comes from the realm of parallel distributed processing, which is also called *connectionism*. The books that @DikranMarsupial cited can be seen as the foundations of the field. As far as I understand, the two volumes and their authors (McClelland is only one of them, at least two other important names are David Rumelhart and Geoffrey Hinton) had an enormous impact on the revival of neural networks within cognitive science and on the development of the parallel distributed approach.

Rogers & McClelland (2004) offer an interesting account of how things are grouped into categories, which is what you are asling about. To give a very brief explanation: according to their theory, all objects have certain attributes. For example, a canary has feet, wings and feathers. A robin also has all these things. A pine, on the other hand, has leaves, roots and roots. The same is true for an oak. In reality, there are much more attributes, but this should be enough to make the point.

Objects that tend to covary with one another in a coherent way (because they have similar attributes) are perceived as similar and are classified as belonging to a category, like the canary and the robin. Other objects, that do not covary with those from this first group, but that do covary coherently with other objects, are classified as belonging to another group, like the pine and the oak. It is these *coherent categories* that are important for classifying objects.

Rogers and McClelland (2004) used a neural network to demonstrate and test their theory. Their findings are consistent with a range of findings from developmental studies. They also have an article, which is basically a short summary of the book (Rogers & McClelland, 2008). If you are interested, you might want to check out this first. The article has peer reviewers commentaries that point out weaknesses of the theory, which is also very interesting.

Since you refered to machine learning in your question: the learning algorithm used in the simulation studies was the *backpropagation of error* \- algorithm. As was also mentioned by @DikranMarsupial, this is not an especially biologically plausible algorithm. Interestingly though, as is also explained in much detail in the book, it is possible to predict the order in which the objects within the training corpus could be classified by an eigenvector decomposition of a special variant of the covariance matrix of the objects. I'm not an expert here, but to me there seems to be a connection to the so called *covariance rule* (unfortunately I don't have a citation here), which to my knowledge is biologically plausible.

References:

<sub> Rogers, T. T, & McClelland, J. L. (2004). Semantic cognition: A parallel distributed processing approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. PDF
Rogers, Timothy T., & McClelland, J. L. (2008). Précis of Semantic Cognition: A Parallel Distributed Processing Approach. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31(06), 689. doi:10.1017/S0140525X0800589X PDF </sub>

# Answer
> 3 votes
The obvious answer would be neural networks, which is the family of machine learning methods initially inspired by the lowest level structure of the human brain.

See the books by Mclelland et al

Parallel Distributed Processing, Vol. 1: Foundations: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition: Foundations v. 1 (Bradford Books)

Parallel Distributed Processing, Vol. 2: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition: Psychological and Biological Models v. 2

which give an account of research into neural networks back in the days where biological plausibility was rather more of a consideration that it generally is now (from a machine learning perspective).

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, learning, cognitive-modeling, categorisation
---


# Question
Title: What is the effect of Social Proof on Conversion Rate?
I'm wondering to what extent Social Proof helps the Conversion Rate of websites and marketing.

Specifically I'm wondering what effect Social Proof would have on Conversion Rate for a sample task in an online context. Lots of marketing material espouses it's effectiveness but I would like *academic research* on the matter.

There's some basic research I've found that shows yes, people do things their friends do (such as some of the studies referenced in the Wikipedia article) but this is not specific to new methods of Social PRoof.

What quantitative research has been done in regards to **social proof effects website conversion** with modern Social Proof techniques like Facebook likes and Amazon customer reviews?

# Answer
> 2 votes
This is a partial answer, but there are a number of academic studies on this topic. The findings of the Berkeley article "Long Tail or Steep Tail? A Field Investigation into How Online Popularity Information Affects the Distribution of Customer Choices" (Tucker and Zhang, 2007) suggest that

> evidence of a complementary effect, where the steep tail indicates new interest in the most popular vendors from outside, with negligible cannibalization of interest for less popular vendors. The ndings suggest that popularity information can serve as a powerful marketing tool that facilitates product category growth. They also explain the prevalence of rm practices to highlight bestsellers.

where **'long tail'** refers to customers buying low-volume products and **'steep tail'** refers to the flocking to popular products.

A couple of key conclusions from that study:

> We find strong evidence for a steep tail effect, where customers are more likely to click on the most popular vendors when the popularity information is publicized and made salient through ranking the vendors on the page by popularity.

and that there was little negative effects to less popular product sales

> If a steep tail effect exists, and if it complements the long tail, websites such as Google.com and Digg.com can increase overall number of clicks at little cost to the less popular listings.

A caveat of sorts is stated in the article "On the Depth and Dynamics of Online Search Behavior" (Johnson et al. 2004) in that their study showed a bit of 'consumer inertia', in that their study

> show that the amount of online search is actually quite limited.

---
Tags: social-psychology, consumer-psychology
---


title: Intelligence and marriage satisfaction

text:
# Question
Title: Intelligence and marriage satisfaction
A recent letter by a Princeton alumni stated:

> Men regularly marry women who are younger, less intelligent, less educated. It’s amazing how forgiving men can be about a woman’s lack of erudition, if she is exceptionally pretty. **Smart women can’t (shouldn’t) marry men who aren’t at least their intellectual equal**.

This letter has generated a lot of controversy. But I thought it would be interesting to clarify what the scientific literature says about a few of the implicit empirical claims made in the letter.

My broad questions is: **What is the relationship between intelligence of marriage partners and marriage satisfaction?**

However, given the dyadic nature of the phenomena, this question can be broken down in various ways:

* Is the degree to which a husband is more intelligent than a wife correlated with marital satisfaction of the wife?
* Is the effect of partner intelligence on marriage satisfaction more about similarity to one's own intelligence or is it the case that the relationship between partner intelligence and marriage satisfaction is linear and positive regardless of one's own intelligence?
* Does any observed effect of partner intelligence on marriage satisfaction vary based on whether you are comparing husbands to wives or wives to husbands?
* To what extent are any effects of intelligence explained in terms of other correlated outcomes (e.g., income, socio-economic status, shared values, similar educational experience, etc.)?
* What are the theorised mechanisms behind any observed effects?

I'd be particularly interested in any review articles or large sample studies that have measured intelligence and marital satisfaction on both husbands and wives.

# Answer
> 14 votes
## Is husband and wife intelligence corelated?

By way of background, Mascie-Taylor (1989) report IQ correlations between husbands and wives in two british samples to be r=.40 and r =.37 respectively. I had a little difficulty discerning the sample size as it's not reported in the 1989 paper. But from another paper I got the sense that each sample might have been in the 100-200 range.

Dufoul et al (2000) measured a range of cognitive measures in 318 couples. The correlation in total cognitive score between husbands and wives was r=0.36.

In reviewing the literature Dufol et al writes

> There is a wide but relatively dated literature on concordance for cognitive abilities among couples, which was reviewed by Vanderberg and Jensen \[in the 70s\]. Studies have shown that spouses were more similar in terms of global intelligence scores than in terms of specific cognitive performances. Indeed, intra-couple correlations were of the order of 0.45 for the global intelligence scores, as compared with 0.10 to 0.20 for the specific cognitive performance scores (Jensen, 1978; Vandenberg, 1972)

Thus, at a basic level it appears that there is a modest correlation between intelligence of husbands and wives. This is thus evidence of assortative matching. The causes of such a correlation are much more complicated. First, there are the many correlates of intelligence which might be an alternative basis for selection (e.g., income, education, values, socio-economic background, etc.). Second, even if intelligence was a directly relevant feature to partner selection, spousal similarity could emerge from multiple mechanisms: (a) economic exchange whereby more (or less) of the trait is sought and those with more to offer are better able to secure more from the partner; (b) explicit valuing of similarity to self. In the case of intelligence, presumably arguments for both mechanisms (and possibly others) could be made to explain the real but modest correlations in spousal intelligence, correlations which would presumably be much lower once other correlates are controlled for.

Nonetheless, this all suggests that intelligence may be relevant to marital satisfaction given that people presumably choose partners who they think will make them happy.

### Correlation between intelligence and marital satisfaction

Lewak et al (1985) report the results from 81 couples. They measured intelligence using the WAIS and marriage satisfaction using the Locke-Walace Marital Adjustment Scale.

This is my attempt to represent the relevant correlations taking full scale IQ and marriage satisfaction (MS).

```
            Male IQ  Female IQ  Male MS  Female MS
Female IQ    0.35
Male MS      0.06    0.14
Female MS    0.05    0.13
Male IQ
 minus
 Female IQ                       0.05    0.10
Quadratic of
 Male minus
 Female IQ                      -0.08   -0.03

```

In summary, none of the correlations between marital satisfaction and spouse IQ were statistically significant. There was a slight trend for females and males to have higher marital satisfaction if the female was more intelligent. All the correlations between discrepancies in intelligence (either signed difference operationalised as the degree to which the male was more intelligent than the female) or unsigned difference (operationalised as the squared difference in IQ between males and females) were close to zero.

Thus, on the face of it, this study suggests at least within already married couples, such variation in partner intelligence is somewhat unrelated to marital satisfaction, although interestingly there was a slight trend in the data suggesting that intelligence in females was related to both male and female marriage satisfaction.

Nonetheless, a few words of caution are in order. First, this is a small sample. I'd really like to see some larger sample studies. Second, it may be the case that factors influence marital choice, but then once choice has been made they may be less relevant to the ongoing satisfaction.

### References

* Dufouil, C., & Alpérovitch, A. (2000). Couple similarities for cognitive functions and psychological health. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 53(6), 589-593.
* Jensen AR. Genetic and behavioral effects of nonrandom mating. In: Osbourne RT, Noble CE, Wey N, editors. Human variation: Biopsychology of Age, Race and Sex. New York: Academic Press, 1978. pp. 51–105.
* Lewak, R. W., Wakefield Jr, J. A., & Briggs, P. F. (1985). Intelligence and personality in mate choice and marital satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 6(4), 471-477.
* Mascie-Taylor, C. G. N. (1989). Spouse similarity for IQ and personality and convergence. Behavior Genetics, 19(2), 223-227.
* Vandenberg SG. Assortative mating, or who marries whom? Behav Gen 1972;2:127–57.

# Answer
> 2 votes
(this was supposed to be a sub-comment in the answer supplied by Jeromy, but I somehow made it an answer. Keeping it here because @what supplied some further info)

@what: the answer to your question is in the table. Female IQ has a small (.1ish) correlation with both male and female-reported satisfaction. At N=81, this wouldn't be considered a significant correlation though. Also, it's possible that ignoring gender in both IQ and satisfaction (and thereby doubling the N) might yield a different result (possibly driving it to "significance", but also possibly changing the nature of the relationship).

# Answer
> 2 votes
In a "traditional" marriage relationship, the man's job is to be a breadwinner and the woman's job is bearing and raising children. Intelligence helps a man do his job as a breadwinner, but is not as critical to a woman in a childbearing role. Beauty is a "signal" of a woman's childbearing abilities (including sexual attractiveness), which is why an intelligent (and high-earning) man might value that in a woman more than reciprocal intelligence.

In this context, "Smart women can’t (shouldn’t) marry men who aren’t at least their intellectual equal." may mean, "high earning women shouldn't marry men who don't earn as much as they do or more."

I know a happily married couple who defies the above stereotypes, while meeting the respective roles. The woman is the more intelligent of the two, and is a high school principal. But the man fulfills the breadwinner role, because he is highly personable and is a real estate salesman. He is also more attractive (better-looking) than the wife. But she is a good mother to their two children (former teacher now school principal).

---
Tags: social-psychology, intelligence, well-being
---


title: Can short-term hunger influence anger?

text:
# Question
Title: Can short-term hunger influence anger?
We know that hunger, whether short-lived or prolonged, causes physiological changes in our bodies. These may have psychological effects too as brain functions are slowed down and can have an impact on psychological processes. In fact, long-term memory formation can be enhanced by mild food-deprivation (Hirano et al, 2013). If hunger influences brain function, then it may have an effect on our emotional states.

**Questions**

1. Therefore, if one is hungry (mild food deprivation), is one more likely to exhibit anger generally more so than if one did not experience the hunger?
2. Are there any studies demonstrating angry responses positive influenced by hunger in people compared to responses by people who were not hungry?

**References**

* Hirano, Y., Masuda, T., Naganos, S., Matsuno, M., Ueno, K., Miyashita, J.H. & Saitoe, M. (2013). Fasting launches CRTC to facilitate long-term memory formation in drosophila. *Science*, 339(6118), 443-446

# Answer
> -1 votes
yes, hunger increase philogeneticaly older brain activity and supress prefrontal cortex... so it could be anger or some other negative affect.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763402000076

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/21/14/5304.short

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/126/6/890/

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, physiology, feeding
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# Question
Title: Could the basis of love be the expectation of a future benefit?
Say you meet an attractive person of the opposite gender (or of the same gender, as the case may be). You are attracted to this person because of one or more salient qualities, intelligence, personality, or good looks. You revel in this discovery and look forward to being able to enjoy this person's desirable qualities. More to the point, you expect that your appreciation of someone will help generate an appreciation of you by that person, with your other qualities doing the rest. Even if this person doesn't fully reciprocate, if s/he agrees to spend time with, and perhaps "date" you, this might be the beginning of love.

But suppose the object of your affection studiously ignores you, or worse, seems to date everyone except you, not noticing, or downplaying your attention and your good qualities. You no longer have any reasonable expectation of benefiting from whatever desirable qualities this person may have. Does your potential love now turn into hate, or at least jealousy?

Some people will poinr to the love of parents and children, and the fact that a parent may seem to blindly love a worthless child (or in a few cases, the opposite). But the fact is that the parent-child relationship is bound by real ties; each person possesses roughly half of the other's genes. That would probably create a strong expectation that whatever benefits the other person produces in life will accrue to you at some point.

Can love exist in a seeming vacuum, that is with the realization that the beloved does not have the power to benefit you in any way, or worse, has no intention of ever benefiting you in any way?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Can love ever be without expectation of benefit? It would seem that the actual experience of love, itself has a reward.

> According to licensed psychologist Dr. Rachel Needle, specific chemical substances such as oxytocin, phenethylamine, and dopamine, have been found to play a role in human experiences and behaviors that are associated with love. They function similar to amphetamine, making us alert, excited, and wanting to bond.

This is less of an answer, and more an expansion on the notion of altruism and human motivation. This question deals with the concept of morality, and embraces many concepts, including the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest. (ie finding a suitable mate)

A superficial glance at this would suggest that any human interaction is based on fulfilling our needs, as a species.

I don't believe there is a definitive answer to this question. This question, crosses into philosophical realms, in defining love and the true nature of mankind, as a creature. The concept that the individual seeks to benefit from a "relationship" when they love another person, also addresses the entire notion, of whether, as a species, we are motivated by any other than self interest.

> Can love exist in a seeming vacuum, ...

* Nothing in the realm of humanity truly occurs within a vacuum. People's feelings, translate into actions, which cause ripples. (See ripple effect, butterfly effect, causality; as an indicator of my reasons for making this statement. It is more of a sociological discussion and so I won't go into it further).

> ... with the realization that the beloved does not have the power to benefit you in any way, or worse, has no intention of ever benefiting you in any way?

* I do believe that many would say this is the definition of unconditional love. Which is where this becomes a philosophical debate over the concept of altruism.

> More to the point, you expect that your appreciation of someone will help generate an appreciation of you by that person, with your other qualities doing the rest. ...//... this might be the beginning of love.

* The motivations behind attraction are complex. Yes, there is the instinct to find a partner and within this, there would be an expectation of benefit.

> You no longer have any reasonable expectation of benefiting from whatever desirable qualities this person may have. Does your potential love now turn into hate, or at least jealousy?

* How people manage perceived rejection is a question on it's own. For some people, yes, unrequited love can turn into a poison, many move on and become indifferent. This reaction, may have less to do with the concept of the loss of potential benefits from this person, than the complex nature of human relationships and the effects of rejection.

> But the fact is that the parent-child relationship is bound by real ties; each person possesses roughly half of the other's genes. That would probably create a strong expectation that whatever benefits the other person produces in life will accrue to you.

* This again brings us back to the notion of our behaviour as a species. To a degree it is self interested to protect one's gene pool.

As to the attraction style of individuals, and whether they form patterns of seeking unavailable or unobtainable prospective partners, is another discussion in itself.

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Tags: social-psychology, emotion, motivation
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title: Why is egocentrism bad?

text:
# Question
Title: Why is egocentrism bad?
Let's say that there is a person. This person has a lot of good thoughts about themselves. Suppose this person never revealed these thoughts to anyone, such as "I'm better than you" in any manner of sort. But this person also happened to contribute to general society in some form.

Would it be a contradiction, then, to say this person is awful and immoral? Generally, narcissism is looked down upon, but here it seems to hold an evolutionary advantage.

# Answer
> 3 votes
It seems like a few distinctions are relevant here. First there is a distinction between morality and evolutionary adaptiveness. Overt displays of arrogance are often considered a character flaw and immoral. Whether being arrogant is beneficial from an evolutionary perspective is a very different question. Thus, it would not be a contradiction to say that something is both immoral and adaptive. At least it would not be a contradiction unless your morality was synonymous with whatever is evolutionarily adaptive. Similarly it is possible for someone to be immoral in some aspects of their life yet be functioning quite well and contributing something useful to society.

Second, there are a range of constructs that you are touching on including, self-esteem, arrogance, narcissism, and ego-cenrtricism. Self-esteem is generally seen as both a morally good thing and as an adaptive thing. Self-esteem is assumed to protect you from life's set backs and is often associated with more positive life behaviours. However, arrogance is different to self-esteem because arrogance is generally predicated on feeling that you are superior than someone else. Furthermore, I think that with arrogance and narcissism the assessment often extends to a deeper level, that not only does the person think they are more competent than someone else, but that they might even be a "better person" on some level. Narcissism is often thought of as an unstable sense of superiority that can be threatened by others which in turn can lead to abusive behaviours by the narcissist. Ego-centricism is also complex in that it relates to a pre-occupation with one's own self with the concept grounded a lot in developmental processes from childhood, to adolescence, and then to adult hood of forming a better appreciation of private and public, and building a better representation of the external world.

In general scientific psychology does not directly concern itself with the morality of behaviour. You could apply moral principles to judge behaviour, but this would largely be a process of philosophical reasoning. By most moralities, treating others as less human than oneself would be considered immoral. But more generally moralities differ in whether beliefs that never manifest in action are subject to moral judgement.

That said, scientific psychology is concerned with adaptiveness. So for example, ample research supports the idea that higher self-esteem is associated with greater adaptiveness. Similarly much evolutionary psychology speaks to the balancing of self-interest with effective social functioning. Thus, it make sense that a degree of self-interest may be adaptive, but when it gets to the narcissistic end of the spectrum, I would assume that this would be more inclined to interfere with effective social and life functioning. If anything, the need to feel superior to others may even imply a sense of inferiority.

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Tags: social-psychology, positive-thinking
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title: Why prefer "99% fat free" to "1% fat"?

text:
# Question
Title: Why prefer "99% fat free" to "1% fat"?
In my experience I tend to find low-fat products labelled as "**99% fat free**" much more often than the equivalent "**1% fat**".\*

Why is this so? To me it seems counter-intuitive, because it reminds me of psychological pricing, where retailers price things slightly less than round numbers, partly so that consumers under-perceive the price. If that same effect is happening with the "99% fat free" labeling, consumers would over-perceive the amount of fat.

Is it because the psychological pricing phenomenon doesn't apply in this case for whatever reason? Perhaps other phenomena are at play? Or perhaps it's something that doesn't have to do with the numbers?

**: I can't find a source for this unfortunately, and I'm aware that in some circumstances the "1% fat" form is the norm, for example with low-fat milk.*

# Answer
> 8 votes
> If that same effect is happening with the "99% fat free" labeling, consumers would over-perceive the amount of fat

I think you are misunderstanding the desired effect here. I don't see how "99% fat free" would lead to the impression that a product contains a lot of fat. My read is, "This is 99% fat free! That's really good!" as opposed to "1% fat" which more emphasizes the fact that fat is still present than the fact that it's not. Said another way, because 99 is a far higher number than 1, the brain is more positive about getting something that is really good (much higher fat-free percentage) than something that is slightly bad (very small fat percentage)

The other thing you may be overlooking is that "fat free" is a marketing term in and of itself. Products claim to be "fat free" in order to attract dieters / those looking to eat healthy. When comparing products people may choose the ones which have actively tried to reduce the amount of fat; this is what the "fat free" term is intended to convey. Compare that with milk, where "1% fat" really means "1% milkfat", a technical description of how rich the milk is (where "whole milk" is 3.25% - 4% milkfat typically), so the terminology is not used as a means to advertise that product as being better than the competition but rather as a means to identify the content of the product itself.

# Answer
> 7 votes
*This is just an elaboration on my comment that Sanford et al (2002) might be relevant to the question. If you don't have access Tony Sanford indicates that "To obtain a copy of any of these papers, please email."*

The study reports three experiments.

In experiment 2 they found experimentally that there was a preference for the "% fat free" format.

> Twenty-four hypothetical products were used to create items of the following type: Sundown Supermarkets are selling a new brand of yogurt that {contains 5%/ 25% fat}/{is 95%/75% fat free}. Is this a healthy product?/Is this an unhealthy product?

They found that

> the percentage-fat-free format led to stronger endorsements of healthiness than the percentage-fat format. This is particularly evident at the higher fat level. The results also suggest that the percentage-fat-free statements may have reduced the impact of world knowledge. Thus, the intuition that the fat-free format is a better way to portray product healthiness is borne out.

They concluded that

> The experiments suggest the fat-free perspective blocks access to as- sumptions about healthy fat levels.

Some of these references might be worth pursuing (i.e., a Google scholar search of articles that cite Sanford et al and use the word "fat").

### References

* Sanford, A. J., Fay, N., Stewart, A., & Moxey, L. (2002). Perspective in statements of quantity, with implications for consumer psychology. Psychological Science, 13(2), 130-134.

# Answer
> 4 votes
It's called "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." Or put another way, it's easier to portray the glass as "half full" rather than "half empty."

Especially when the ratio is not 50-50, but 99- to -1. That is "99 percent good" sounds a lot better than "1 percent bad."

The above psychological factors are so powerful that they appear to outweigh the case where "1% fat" is actually a desired quality.

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Tags: perception, decision-making, economics, consumer-psychology, neuromarketing
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# Question
Title: Good conferences on (computational) neuroscience in Europe and whether to submit to conference or journal?
I'm looking for good (computational) neuroscience conferences in Europe that $\textbf{have proceedings}$. Recommendations? Or are there even such conferences? Should I just send my work to a journal? I'm new in neuroscience, and it seems (compared to CS/Physics) that conferences are not so respected in this field.

# Answer
To touch on your broader question, as I understand getting full text publications in conferences are highly respected in computer science. In psychology and neuroscience (note I don't know so much about computational neuroscience), publishing papers in high impact journals is more respected in the field. While some conferences do have full-length papers, such publications often carry little weight. It is often tricky to even hunt down such conference proceedings. As such they are often barely part of the published research literature. So yes, in psychology and neuroscience, you should generally submit your work to journals if you want to maximise its scientific impact.

That said, conferences are important in psychology and the neurosciences. As with any field, conferences are an important opportunity to network, share ideas, form collaborations, learn about developments and so on. A very common strategy is to present a work in progress at a conference. This allows you to set a preliminary deadline, get some feedback, and then refine your ideas before submitting to a journal.
> 3 votes

# Answer
I do not know of any computational neuroscience conference with proceedings that is always held in Europe.

* Neural information processing systems (NIPS) was held in Europe only once recently, but back in US. (it was in Spain on 2011)
* International joint conference on neural networks (IJCNN) has minor section on computational neuroscience but it's mostly held in the states.
* International conference in acoustics, speech and signal Processing (ICASSP) sometimes has computational neuroscience related topics, but it's very very minor. It'll be in Italy next year.
* European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning (ESANN) seems to have proceedings, but I'm not sure. I have never been to one.

Bernstein Conference and CNS are good conferences but they don't have proceedings, I believe.
> 1 votes

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Tags: publication-process
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# Question
Title: Why is my Gabor patch not resizing as a function of the bounding box?
I'm trying to create a Gabor patch of variable size for an upcoming experiment.

Below is the python function used to generate the code. The code was ported from this tutorial for Matlab (assume `import numpy as np`):

```
def gabor_patch(size, lambda_, theta, sigma, phase, trim=.005):
    """Create a Gabor Patch

    size : int
        Image size (n x n)

    lambda_ : int
        Spatial frequency (px per cycle)

    theta : int or float
        Grating orientation in degrees

    sigma : int or float
        gaussian standard deviation (in pixels)

    phase : float
        0 to 1 inclusive
    """
    # make linear ramp
    X0 = (np.linspace(1, size, size) / size) - .5

    # Set wavelength and phase
    freq = size / float(lambda_)
    phaseRad = phase * 2 * np.pi

    # Make 2D grating
    Xm, Ym = np.meshgrid(X0, X0)

    # Change orientation by adding Xm and Ym together in different proportions
    thetaRad = (theta / 360.) * 2 * np.pi
    Xt = Xm * np.cos(thetaRad)
    Yt = Ym * np.sin(thetaRad)
    grating = np.sin(((Xt + Yt) * freq * 2 * np.pi) + phaseRad)

    # 2D Gaussian distribution
    gauss = np.exp(-((Xm ** 2) + (Ym ** 2)) / (2 * (sigma / float(size)) ** 2))

    # Trim
    gauss[gauss < trim] = 0

    return grating * gauss

```

I would like the size of the Gabor patch to increase proportionally to the `size` parameter. In other words, I would like the dimensions of the bounding box to dictate the diameter of the patch. The problem is that this function does not behave in this way. Instead, the bounding box increases in size while the patch retains the same dimensions.

**Example 1: size = 100**

**Example 2: size = 500**

It's not at all obvious to me what I'm doing incorrectly. Could somebody please point me in the right direction?

Please let me know if I can provide further information. Thank you!

# Answer
The `size` parameter in your code simply means the size of the patch, i. e. the interval in x and y over which you sample your Gabor function. What you are thinking of is the *support* of the function, i. e. the interval where it is noticeably different from 0. This is determined by the `sigma` parameter, which is the bandwidth of the Gaussian.

So if you just increase `size`, you will get a bigger image back, but the area where you can see the ripples will stay the same. If you increase `sigma`, the area with the ripples will get larger, and then you may have to increase `size` as well to see all of it.

By the way, IMHO, the right place to ask this question is on dsp.stackexchange.com.
> 5 votes

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Tags: experimental-psychology, vision
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# Question
Title: How to get out of the habit of eating junk food?
* **What causes habitual eating of junk food?**
* **How can one get out of the habit of eating junk food?**

# Answer
> 2 votes
Paul McKenna would be jumping on this question had it been a self-help question :)

Some of the causes/factors in habitual eating and strategies to combat habitual eating are described below.

**Causes and factors of habitual eating**

* Excessive hunger may precipitate an episode of binge eating compared to average hunger levels (Haedt-Matt & Keel, 2011).
* Negative moods, an immediate break-down of emotion and impulse regulation attempts can contribute to episodes of binge eating in Binge Eating Disorders (BED) (Munsch et al., 2012). Binge-eating behaviours can thus arise from negative moods as a substitution for positive strategies to alleviate those negative moods.
* Depressive symptoms can predict the onset of overeacting and binge eating (Skinner et al., 2012). Similar to point two, these behaviours are a form of maladaptive coping mechanisms against negative affects.

**Strategies to combat habitual eating**

* *Cognitive Restructuring* (CR) - Cognitive restructuring involves a problem-solving methodology where an individual identifies the maladaptive cognitions that are causing the unhelpful behaviour (Moffitt et al., 2012). This consists of rationalising and challenging disruptive thoughts that can cause the specific craving or binge eating behaviour. Moreover, it can involve the process of the replacement or modification of those disruptive thoughts into more healthy, positive thoughts.
* *Cognitive Defusion* (CD) - Defusion from thoughts about food can improve the probability of distancing oneself from the temptation of food cravings (Moffitt et al., 2012). This involves acceptance (not passive resignation) of cravings and temptation of binge eating and build the experiential willingness to be open to these thoughts and temptations. For example, defusion would involve observing the thought associated with the craving - 'I notice I'm having the thought that I need to eat some chocolate' compared to a seemingly factual statement like 'I need to eat some chocolate'. The individual acknowledges the thought, thanks themselves and lets the thought dissipate in time.

**References**

* Haedt-Matt, A.A. & Keel, P.K. (2011). Hunger and Binge Eating: A meta-analysis of studies using ecological momentary assessment. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 44(7), 573-578
* Munsch, S., Meyer, A.H., Quartier, V. & Wilhelm, F.H. (2012). Binge eating in binge eating disorder: A breakdown of emotion regulatory process? Psychiatry Research, 195, 118-124
* Skinner, H.H., Haines, J., Austin, S.B. & Field, A.E. (2011). A prospective study of overeating, binge eating, and depressive symptoms among adolescent and young adult women. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50, 478-483
* Moffitt, R., Brinkworth, G., Noakes, M. & Mohr, P. (2012). A comparison of cognitive restructuring and cognitive defusion as strategies for resisting a craved food. Psychology & Health, 27(2), 74-90

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Tags: emotion, motivation, feeding, habituation
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# Question
Title: What is the difference between having a crush on someone and loving someone?
What is the difference between having a crush on someone and loving someone? What is the psychological basis of this?

# Answer
You may find Sternberg's triangular theory of love as useful framework for distinguishing different types of love. Quoting wikipedia, the theory describes types of love in terms of three dimensions:

> 1. **Intimacy** – Which encompasses feelings of attachment, closeness, connectedness, and bondedness.
> 2. **Passion** – Which encompasses drives connected to both limerence and sexual attraction.
> 3. **Commitment** – Which encompasses, in the short term, the decision to remain with another, and in the long term, plans made with that other.

Using this framework, "loving someone" is the general term, and "having a crush" would be a more specific variant. So perhaps a crush could be conceptualised more in terms of passion and less in terms of long term intimacy and commitment.

Alternatively, you could just look at definitional concepts of a crush. For example, the term "crush" is commonly used in contexts where feelings are not reciprocated. I associate it with younger people (or when seen in older adults, a youthful approach to love). A crush often implies a short term quality, such that the feelings may change from one month to the next.
> 4 votes

# Answer
Adding to Jeromy's answer, where he provides definition of love I am addressing the nature of the crush vs a more adult love style.

By definition, the crush is mostly experienced within teenagers, this group of individuals has less impulse control and ability to moderate their behaviour and feelings due to brain development and hormonal changes. These physiological conditions combined with the newness of sexual feelings and relationships, makes the individual less capable of managing their emotions.

The teenage brain has more white matter and less developed grey matter, meaning the higher functions of reason, moderating and inhibiting extremes of behaviour and emotion are not as well developed as in a mature adult brain.

Meaning they are rules by their limbic system. So sexual attraction or admiration would be felt intensely.

In contrast to the adult who has a more developed brain, stable hormone levels; and, usually, has experienced the teenage crush, and had adult relationships.

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References:

The Urban Dictionary

> **Crush**
>
> 1. a burning desire to be with someone who you find very attractive and extremely special.
> 2. a painful experience, very common among middle schoolers (and high schooler's and even adults to a lesser degree) that involves being obsessed with a member of the opposite sex (or the same sex, if u prefer), being attracted to them physically (most common), or emotionally- also called 'puppy love'

The Free Dictionary

> **crush**
>
> Informal
> a. A usually temporary infatuation.
> b. One who is the object of such an infatuation.

This wikipedia on the Biological basis of love explores how the state that we define as love is also based within the limbic system.

This question Studies linking brain chemistry to sexual infidelity explores the biochemical aspects of sexual attraction and fidelity.

That teenage feeling
Harvard researchers may have found biological clues to quirky adolescent behavior.
By Erika Packard
> 3 votes

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Tags: social-psychology, emotion, physical-attraction, love
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