Research openings:
1. Positive creativity. The first project is on positive creativity. What is it that leads people to view a creative contribution as positive vs. negative? Was the atom bomb positive? If not, why was so much effort put into developing it? How about facial recognition software? Is it, on balance, good or bad, and why?
2. Truth vs. falsehood. The second project is inspired by recent events. How do people in their daily lives determine whether what they see or hear is true or false? Is meaning in what you read or hear, or do you assign meaning, based on your experience? Is there any association between how people perceive truth and people’s political beliefs?
3. This study is on the psychology of musical instruments, in particular, violins. Violins come in very different prices. But do they sound different? Are the higher priced violins better in their sound, or are they just more expensive? To what extent does price even reflect sound? Participants will listen to the same selection of music played by the same person on violins varying in price and age. They will be asked to evaluate the quality of the instrument based on what they hear. Experts (music students) and novices (students who are not musicians) will listen to selections on instruments of widely varying prices. They will then indicate their preferences for the various sounds of the instruments. They will not know, when they hear a selection, whether it is played on a new or old violin, or an expensive or an inexpensive one.
Prof Sternberg’s email : rjs487@cornell.edu
Website: http://www.robertjsternberg.com/contact-me