High School, Human Behavior Science Projects (Page 2)

Honesty: How Prevalent Is It?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

How trusting are you? Do you think people are basically honest, or do you think people are usually honest only when they think someone is watching? This project explores how well the honor system works for a bake sale-type charity donation. Find out if your hunch is correct. Read more

Do You Hear What You See?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever wondered how virtual reality works? With virtual reality, people feel like they are in one place while knowing they are somewhere else. In this project, you will show the same phenomenon on a smaller scale. You will use the McGurk effect to show how you can hear one sound, while knowing a different sound is physically there. First, you will produce such an experience using audio and video, and then measure the strength of the phenomenon. Read more

The Brains Behind 'Where's Waldo?'

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

What makes you notice someone in a crowd? Why do some things stand out, while others melt into the background? In this science project you can investigate the psychology of how things get noticed, by studying how our brains perform a visual search. Have you ever looked and looked desperately for something? It is so frustrating! The classic example is when I lose my keys. You would think that by now (knowing that I am the kind of person who often loses my keys) I would have a huge, bright red… Read more

Are Composite Faces More Attractive than Real Faces?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Psychologists have long studied why people find certain faces more attractive than others. One interesting method used in this area of research is mixing several faces together to make a composite face. The composite face averages the input faces, so that small, non-symmetric features tend to get lost. In this human behavior science project, you will use an online tool to make composite faces, and determine how they compare to real faces in perceived attractiveness. Read more

Candy Confusion: Can Small Children Mistake Medicine for Candy?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Many medicines come in bottles with special child-proof caps so that small children can't accidentally open the bottle and eat the pills. To a small child who can't read the label, the pills might look just like candy. What cues do we use to tell the difference between medicine and candy? At what age can we tell them apart? This project can show you how to find out. Read more

A Study of Gender Responses to Frustration

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever felt really frustrated? Maybe you were playing a video game and could not easily figure out a particularly challenging puzzle. Or maybe there was something you really wanted but you could not have it for some reason. However it has happened, what do you do when you get frustrated? What about other people — what kind of behaviors have you seen others display when they get frustrated? Do they cry, jump up and down screaming, just give up, or become aggressive? In this human… Read more

Human Perception of the Anomalous Mirror Symmetry Illusion

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The Science Buddies project Design Your Own 3D Printed Optical Illusion shows you how to make your own 3D printed "anomalous mirror symmetry" illusions (Figure 1). The illusions are based on the work of Dr. Kokichi Sugihara. You can read his original paper about the illusions in the Bibliography. Figure 1. Two versions of the "impossible arrow" shape that appears to point to the right while its reflection in the mirror appears to point to the left. Which version of… Read more

Piaget's Theory of Conservation: When One Cup of Water is Less Than One Cup of Water

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Having a younger brother or sister can be a real chore. They can get into your things and mess up all your stuff. But have you ever thought that when younger siblings do this kind of thing, they are actually learning about the world around them and how to interact with their environment? Every day, a young child's brain is getting new information about his or her environment and developing ways to organize that information. Learning about and understanding this conduct is the study of human… Read more

Picture This: How Visualizing Data Can Lead to the Right (or Wrong) Conclusion

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Big data is one of the most promising and hyped trends in technology and business today. Big data refers to data-analysis jobs that are too large and complex to be analyzed by applications that are traditionally used. Big data sets hold valuable information. Many publicly available data sets have the potential to improve our everyday lives by giving us insight into the things we care about. How well-equipped are we to extract information from the data? Visualizations and aggregations (or… Read more

Don't Stand So Close To Me! An Investigation into Personal Space

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

How do you feel when a friend comes too close to you? How far away or close do you think is necessary to have a conversation with someone? The answers to these questions are dependent upon the size of your personal space. Some people like to be within a foot of each other when having a conversation and others feel that being 3 feet apart is still just a little too close for comfort. Personal space is defined as the protective area surrounding a person's body (not necessarily spherical in… Read more

High School, Human Behavior Science Projects (25 results)

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