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OK, I admit it.  I find Donald Trump's character to be pretty, well, disgusting. A new study agrees with me.  It says that a person's character , more so than their actions, determines whether we find immoral acts to be ‘disgusting,’ according to new research in Psychological Science , as reported by newswise.com.  “We wanted to know why moral transgressions can be disgusting even when they don’t involve the kinds of things that typically disgust us, like body products, insects, and rotting foods,” says psychological scientist and study co-author Hanah Chapman of Brooklyn College, the City University of New York. “We found that what drives moral disgust seems to be the character of the transgressor — who they are more so than what they do.” The worse someone’s character is, says Chapman, the more disgusting people typically find them to be. The research was prompted by differing findings regarding how our judgments of moral violations evoke specific emotio...

It all comes down to bragging. Pity poor Donald Trump . He won the presidency by clinching the Electoral College . But he just can’t stand that Hillary won the popular vote. In fact, some research points to the fact that, if you add the third-party candidates, Trump won less than 54 percent of our votes. Who would quibble about that? Trump, of course. He needs to be able to brag about everything. Even if you’re not a braggart like Trump, chances are you still probably brag. I guess it’s human nature. We all want to feel like we’re the best, when often, we just didn’t feel that great about ourselves. We brag to feel better about ourselves. But bragging can hide a hole in our heart. Biographers say it all started with Trump’s father, who ran him down a lot. I suspect the bragging was Trump’s way of propping himself up. Experts provide a rationale for that. They say that once we have a negative sense of ourselves, we need to find something that makes us feel good, ...

Well, I lost some friends.  They didn't abandon me, I abandoned them.  How could they possibly have voted for Trump? Seems a lot of friendships have been riven, or at least changed, by this most divisive election.  But a new study says there are ways to repair the rift.  If you want. And where did I see it played out the most?  On Facebook.  During the presidential election of 2016, it was easy to avoid misinterpretation, escalation, damaged relationships and offending Facebook friends with differing opinions. Just never be on Facebook. Only about half a dozen Americans heeded that advice. The rest of the country is left on the day after the contentious election wondering how awkward Thanksgiving will be knowing exactly how Grandma felt about Hillary Clinton, Aunt Jane’s thoughts on Donald Trump and 18-year-old Susie’s impression of the entire electoral process, according to newswise.com. People who study abusive and controlling relationshi...

Pretty depressing. We all know that many Americans are at a 5th grade level when it comes to education and knowing what's going on in the country.  But did you know that the presidential candidates speak at a 6th-to-8th grade level? A readability analysis of presidential candidate speeches by researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute (LTI) finds most candidates using words and grammar typical of students in grades 6-8, though Donald Trump tends to lag behind the others (big surprise), according to newswise.com. A historical review of their word and grammar use suggests all five candidates in the analysis - Republicans Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio (who has since suspended his campaign), and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders - have been using simpler language as the campaigns have progressed. Again, Trump is an outlier, with his grammar use spiking in his Iowa Caucus concession speech and his word and grammar use plu...

Now who would have guessed it?  A new study finds that non-verbal behavior has counted for more this election season than substance. Hmm.....Could they be talking about Trump?  " When style obscures substance: Visual attention to display appropriateness in the 2012 presidential debates ,” recently published in the journal Communication Monographs , and highlighted in the National Communication Association’s newly released research digest, Communication Currents , examines the consequences of appropriate versus inappropriate nonverbal behavior as displayed by candidates during presidential debates, newswise.com reports. Trump's insulting of the pope and flopping his comb-over around, twisting his lips in disgust at Cruz, and pumping his fist in celebration of himself matters more than the fact that, when asked how he'd increase the country's ability to fight terrorists, simply says, "It will be great"? I'm moving to Canada. Communication resea...