Sleep Deprivation Does Impair Cognition...Especially in Visual Searches

Sleep Deprivation Affects Airport Baggage Screeners' Ability To Detect Rare Targets

ScienceDaily (2007-06-12) -- Sleep deprivation can impair the ability of airport baggage screeners to visually search for and detect infrequently occurring or low prevalence targets that may ultimately pose a threat to an airline and its passengers. ... > read full article

Genes Dictate if 8 or 12 Hours of Sleep Is Enough! Oh That's My Problem!

Why does lack of sleep affect us differently? Study hints it may be in our genes

ScienceDaily (2010-10-25) -- Ever wonder why some people breeze along on four hours of sleep when others can barely function? It may be in our genes, according to new research. ... > read full article

Why Eating is Fun: Thank the Hormone Ghrelin

The Neurobiology Behind Why Eating Feels So Good

ScienceDaily (2006-10-19) -- The need to eat is triggered by the hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin is produced in the gut and triggers the brain to promote eating, but it remains to be determined precisely how ghrelin affects different parts of the brain. A new study shows that in mice and rats, ghrelin triggers the same neurons as delicious food, sexual experience, and many recreational drugs; that is, neurons that provide the sensation of pleasure and the expectation of reward. ... > read full article

The Hormone Ghrelin Linked to Increased Willingness to Pay for Food

Ghrelin increases willingness to pay for food

ScienceDaily (2011-07-15) -- New research suggests that ghrelin, a naturally occurring gut hormone, increases our willingness to pay for food, while simultaneously decreasing our willingness to pay for non-food items. ... > read full article

New Protein Fish Batter Makes Fried Food Better

ScienceDaily (January 1, 2006) -- Deep-fried fish could get healthier with a new protein-based batter extracted from the muscle of discarded fish parts. When coated onto the fish it forms a barrier, locking in taste and moisture while blocking out fat. Read full story..

Food Labeling Can Be Improved!

One in six fast-food customers cut calories after US food labeling system introduction

ScienceDaily (2011-07-26) -- Around a sixth of fast food customers used calorie information and, on average, bought food with lower calories since the introduction of a labeling system in the US, says a new study. ... > read full article

Happy Decision Making!

Shop when you're happy: Positive feelings improve consumer decision-making abilities

ScienceDaily (2011-07-15) -- Consumers who are in a positive mood make quicker and more consistent judgments than unhappy people, according to a new study. ... > read full article

Buying Pretty

Anatomy of a shopping spree: Pretty things make us buy more

ScienceDaily (2010-12-14) -- With the holidays fast approaching and consumers in full shopping mode, new research shows a single luxury item purchase can lead to an unintended shopping spree. ... > read full article

Don't Hide That Tiny Flaw...People May Like it More Than Perfection

Is a little negativity the best marketing policy?

ScienceDaily (2011-07-11) -- Researchers say that a "blemishing effect" takes place when a small flaw is introduced into the marketing of a product. Surprisingly, when positioned in the right way, such a flaw may improve a consumer's overall evaluation of the item. ... > read full article

Neural Basis for Out of Body Experiences

Out-of-body experiences linked to neural instability and biases in body representation

ScienceDaily (2011-07-11) -- Although out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are typically associated with migraine, epilepsy and psychopathology, they are quite common in healthy and psychologically normal individuals as well. However, they are poorly understood. A new study has linked these experiences to neural instabilities in the brain’s temporal lobes and to errors in the body’s sense of itself – even in non clinical populations....read full article

The Brain Likes to Fill in the Gaps: How the Brain Sees What's Not Completely There

The Brain Doesn't Like Visual Gaps And Fills Them In

ScienceDaily (2007-08-21) -- When in doubt about what we see, our brains fill in the gaps for us by first drawing the borders and then 'coloring' in the surface area, new research has found. The research is the first to pinpoint the areas in the brain, and the timing of their activity, responsible for how we see borders and surfaces. ... read the full article

The Nightmare of Being a Woman??? We Just Have More of Them Than Men!

Women Have More Nightmares Than Men, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (2009-01-30) -- A researcher was inspired by her own nightmares and a chance encounter at a lecture to examine more closely the stuff that dreams are made of. Her PhD study has focused on an astounding discovery that women suffer more nightmares then men. ... > read full article

Sleep and Achievement In Sports Seem to Go Together

Snooze you win? It's true for achieving hoop dreams, says new study

ScienceDaily (2011-07-01) -- Young basketball players spend hours dribbling up and down the court aspiring to NBA stardom. Now, new research suggests another tactic to achieving their hoop dreams: sleep. ... > read full article

Sleep and the Moral Brain

Sleep Deprivation Affects Moral Judgment, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (2007-03-02) -- A study published in the March 1 issue of the journal Sleep finds that sleep deprivation impairs the ability to integrate emotion and cognition to guide moral judgments. ... > read full article

The Moral Urge

Brain co-opts the body to promote moral behavior, study finds

ScienceDaily (2011-07-08) -- The human brain may simulate physical sensations to prompt introspection, capitalizing on moments of high emotion to promote moral behavior, according to a researcher. ... > read full article

Beauty and the Brain

Beauty is in the medial orbito-frontal cortex of the beholder

ScienceDaily (2011-07-06) -- A region at the front of the brain 'lights up' when we experience beauty in a piece of art or a musical excerpt, according to new research. The study goes some way to supporting the views of David Hume and others that beauty lies in the beholder rather than in the object. ... read full article

What's Transformative Consumer Research?

Wondering what transformative consumer research is all about? This is a new subfield in consumer behavior research that focuses on issues impacting consumer well-being. A new (and in my opinion) definitive book has just been published by Routledge Press, Transformative Consumer Research: For Personal and Collective Well-Being. Chapters include topics on gambling, addictive consumption (co-authored by yours truly with two great researchers Ab Litt and Baba Shiv), childhood obesity, financial well-being and the book's authors are a range of all of the best researchers doing work on how marketing impacts consumers and how we can make consumers' lives better! Check it out!