Word: fingers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Making the middle-finger gesture brings hostile thoughts to mind," says Chandler. "In our studies, participants were not even aware that their finger movements resembled 'the finger,' and they nevertheless perceived an unrelated other as a more hostile person...
...middle finger isn't the only digit with a message. The thumb talks too, but generally in happier tones, with an upward point indicating approval, good news or some other nicety. That pleasant gesture is thought to have sprung from the grim business of gladiatorial combat, when spectators in the Roman Coliseum would give a thumbs-up or down to determine whether a beaten competitor should live or die. What began in Rome similarly went global...
...Billions of people may speak this digital lingo - and plenty of scientists have tried to study it. Most recently, psychologists Jesse Chandler and Norbert Schwarz came at it in a new way. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, they explored the effect that finger gestures have not on the people at whom they're aimed, but on the bird-flippers and thumbs-uppers themselves. (Learn how to use your emotions to get through the recession...
...rent from his landlord because repairs were not made to his home. The details of the story were left ambiguous enough that Donald could easily be perceived as a justifiably aggrieved tenant - or merely a jerk. While they read, different students were asked to extend either the index finger or the middle finger - though to keep the test free of the subtle influence of language, the term "middle finger" was never actually used. Instead, the students were shown a diagram in which each finger was labeled alphabetically - digit...
...When the reading was done, the researchers asked the students to describe their own moods and, significantly, their feelings about Donald. In general, those who had extended the middle finger while reading were less happy than the ones who had held out the index finger. What's more, they were also likelier not to care very much for Donald - or at least to describe him as a hostile person...