Hey, We're Featured!

We, the Co-Founders of Brain Stamp, are deeply honored to be featured on the Teaching High School Psychology blog! (Click on the blog name to check it out.)

The name of the blog gives it all: This blog is one the biggest resources for any teacher of high school psychology. Basically, the site is saturated with dedicated people who have a passion for spreading the study of psychology to others.

Hmm... sounds awfully like what we love to do here at Brain Stamp!

Here are some selected quotes from our interview:

Who motivated or inspired you?

Abby: I was first introduced to psychology informally in seventh grade. I was in a general accelerated course called SAIL, in which my teacher presented the class with videos or readings that he personally found interesting or enriching. Much of what he showed us was tied to psychology—for instance, we watched videos on change blindness and selective inattention, videos I found absolutely fascinating but couldn't explain why. When I finally took AP Psychology in tenth grade, everything made sense. Ever since, I've been absolutely enamored with psychology, and, as with everything I love, I take every opportunity possible to share it with everyone I can. Creating Brain Stamp seemed like an effective way to do so.

(Left to right: Abby Flyer and Yena Kim)

Yena: I’ve always loved to observe the way people interact with each other and with the world. Ever since I was little, my father encouraged me to constantly think about the “why’s” of individual differences in human behavior. When I entered high school, I became deeply involved in my school’s behavioral and social sciences research program and took my first psychology class. Through these experiences, I was able to study (some of) the answers to my endless list of questions and discover the complexity of what makes us who we are. Inspiration, for me, derived from all sorts of places—history, home, school, friends, the news, etc.; curiosity is what drove me to be here.

Thank you all for the love!

#yenakim #abbyflyer #teaching #highschool #psychology #featured

Food Fears: Are Your Biases Hurting Your Health?

By Adrian Ke & Johanna Kann

Imagine that you are a grape at the local grocery store. A small woman strolls toward you and gently picks you up. She examines you closely and, for a second, you think to yourself, “The world is perfect. I’m finally going to be taken home!” You start to buzz with excitement, but then the wheels of her shopping cart creak as it rolls away from you.

“Huh? Was it something I did? Do I smell bad?”

As a small tear starts to form in your little eye, you hear the woman mutter, “These grapes are from Brazil! I can never trust them.”

Nowadays, when people go to the supermarket, they are known to pay close attention to the countries from which their foods originate. This phenomenon is known as the country-of-origin effect, a psychological condition in which consumers respond to products differently simply based on a product’s country-of-origin labeling.

Researchers have discovered that the country of origin actually has an extremely significant effect on how humans perceive goods. For example, one experiment presented two types of canned fruits to participants: one from a native country and another from a foreign country. This study found that people like canned fruits from their own country far more than those from foreign countries. However, no one has looked at fresh produce… yet!

We sought to be the first to solve this mystery.

We tested for the country-of-origin effect by sending out a survey to hundreds of people on the internet. They each saw a picture of fresh produce (specifically, grapes), labeled with a fictional sticker label from one of six different countries: USA, Spain, Brazil, Morocco, China, or, lastly, a control with no country. Then, the participants reported about how high or low the quality of the grapes was.

So what did we find?

Basically, we found that Americans have a negative bias toward China. However, they rated the grapes of every other country, including the control, to be of about the same quality. We also found that ethnocentric people (people who judge other cultures based on their own standards) did not rate American produce to be of a significantly better quality than people who were not ethnocentric.

But why is this important?

First of all, our research suggests that consumers do not pay much attention to the quality of fresh produce from other countries besides that of China. However, the funny thing is that these consumers do not realize that some countries, such as Morocco, have worse food standards than we do in the United States. Consumers also rated Brazilian and Spanish produce to be of about the same quality as U.S. produce, despite the fact that these countries have stricter food safety laws and better quality produce.

We believe that we can use these results to inform the consumer community of our biases about certain countries. Apparently, ethnocentrism does not influence how we think about produce, so this may mean that we have the ability to become more open-minded about buying foreign produce once we become more educated about global food standards.

#adrianke #johannakann #bias #food #foodfears #countryoforigineffect

2016 TOPSS Competition for High School Psychology Students!

Do you like writing?

Do you like winning?

Do you like writing and winning?

If you answered "yes" to the previous questions, then there is a competition that you would love!

The American Psychological Association (or APA for short) has an organization called the APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (or TOPSS for short). This organization is running its annual essay competition, and this year's topic is... racial bias.

Despite the reforms for change, we still live in a world with racial bias in various sections of society, especially in the criminal justice system. While racist behavior may be carried out consciously, psychologists now understand that it may also occur when we are unaware. Whether you mean it or not, the consequences of racial bias may still be severe and damaging.

You will be asked to explore all sorts of questions, including:

"What evidence is there that racial bias exists in modern society?"

"What are the impacts of this problem on society?"

FOUR lucky winners are selected, and each winner will receive $250!

The deadline is March 15, 2016, so hurry before it's too late!

For more information about the competition, visit the website.

#contest #apa #topss #yenakim #highschool #racialbias #stereotypes #prejudice #discrimination