Neural Correlates of the False Consensus Effect: Evidence for Motivated Projection and Regulatory Restraint.

The false consensus effect (FCE), the tendency to project our attitudes and opinions on to others, is a pervasive bias in social reasoning with a range of ramifications for individuals and society. Research in social psychology has suggested that numerous factors (anchoring and adjustment, accessibility, motivated projection, etc.) may contribute to the FCE.

The mere green effect: An fMRI study of pro-environmental advertisements.

Self-report evidence suggests that consumers prefer green products (i.e., pro-environmental) to standard products, but this is not reflected in purchase behaviors.

An FMRI study of frontostriatal circuits during the inhibition of eye blinking in persons with Tourette syndrome.

Objective: The authors sought to study activity in neural circuits that subserve the inhibition of a semi-involuntary motor behavior, eye blinking, in children and adults with Tourette syndrome and in healthy comparison subjects.

Method: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to scan 120 participants (51 with Tourette syndrome and 69 comparison subjects) as they either blinked normally or successfully inhibited eye blinking. The authors compared the blood-oxygen-level dependent signal during these two conditions across the Tourette and comparison groups.

"Don't worry; you really will get over it": methodological investigations of the fading affect bias.

This study examined 2 methodological issues that might influence the fading affect bias (FAB). The FAB occurs when people report that the affective intensity associated with unpleasant events decreases over time more than the intensity of positive events. In the experiments reported here we investigated the FAB using a between-subject design (Experiments 1a and 1b) and manipulated the order of the ratings (past and current) used to measure the FAB (Experiment 2).