Editor’s Selections: Spite, Stairs, Smounds…and Zombie Wasps!
April 13th, 2010 Editor's Selections 4 Comments
Jason Goldman selects several notable posts each week from Psychology and Neuroscience. He blogs at The Thoughtful Animal.
- Why might spite have evolved? Upon first glance it may not seem a particularly useful survival strategy. But Tom Rees, who writes at Epiphenom, reviews a paper that suggests spite may simply be the inverse of kin-directed altruism, with the same net outcome.
- Want to trick your co-workers into getting more exercise? Travis Saunders, who writes at Obesity Panacea, says, “Place a sign next to your workplace elevator with an arrow pointing to the nearest staircase and see what happens,” and writes about an experiment that did just that.
- Might sound alter our perception of smell? Anne-Sylvie Crisinel, who writes at Body in Mind, offers early evidence that it does. And they’re called smounds.
- Now for your weekly dose of creepy: Zen Faulkes of NeuroDojo describes the process by which wasps create zombie cockroaches so that the baby wasps can EAT THEM ALIVE. You’re welcome.
