Most Popular Psych Files Episodes of 2012

Top episode: 66,000+ downloads! What is your body position revealing about you? Some things are obvious - you probably know that crossed arms indicate a certain distrust. There are also flirting gestures that I'll bet you think you know well (like women playing with their hair and men sticking out their chests), but what about your thumbs? My thumbs? Yes, you might well be revealing something about yourself by where you're putting them would you believe.

Runner up: 38,207 downloads. When you participate in a sport do you talk to yourself? Do you try to psych yourself up, or do you give yourself instructions on how to hold a part of your body or how much energy to exert or when to hold back?

Bronze metal: 37,897 downloads. In the market for a car? Believe me: they have seen you coming and they are ready to use some sophisticated techniques to persuade you to buy. Learn how persuasion techniques are used to change your attitudes and behavior to align with the goals of the salesman.

An episode on reliability in the top 10? Go figure.

Can you tell your personality from what flavor ice cream you like? There are lots and lots of so called Personality tests on the web. How do you know when you've come across a good one? For example, are the inner workings of your personality revealed in the playlists you have on your smartphone or mp3 device?

An episode about baseball and robot dogs. Easy to figure why this one is in the top 10.

What you think you know about embodied cognition is wrong. There is a lot of talk and a lot of research about embodiment, but listen to one of the top researchers tell you what it is - and what it is not.

The psychology of gender - always an interesting topic.

Do women who work in typically male dominated jobs play down their femininity in order to be gain more respect from their male co-workers? In this episode we'll explore this stereotype threat as well as something you may not have heard of: the lipstick effect.

Freud and therapy - always interesting.
Transference and Countertransference are two key concepts in psychoanalysis and they are fascinating. Need to understand these ideas more fully? Listen to psychoanalyst Kerry Malawista describe them and her book Wearing My Tutu To Analysis.

The influence of red dresses, babies and presidents.

The latest and most interesting studies in psychology. Take a tour with me as I talk about what looking presidential looks like, how babies know that we're telling them a joke, why yawning is contagious and why red dresses are so alluring.

The study that made us all rethink how we conduct research in psychology.
Have Psychologists really found evidence for psychic phenomenon? In this audio episode, Michael Britt talks to the author of the first replication of the famous Daryl Bem study on psychic phenomenon.

One of my favorite topics - even includes a clip from Monty Python (in the third installment in this series).

The Texas GOP platform recently stated that it did not want critical thinking to be taught in the schools. Find out why this alarms psychologists.

Most Popular Psych Files Episodes of 2012