Figure skater Alysa Liu bites her medal at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Feb. 19.  The positive response to Liu’s performances illustrates how American culture values “high arousal positive states.” 

I once interviewed for a job, and after talking to my would-be boss and being shown around the office, I was intrigued about working there.

As the interview was ending, however, my would-be boss said, “I can tell you’re not that interested.”

I assured him that I was indeed interested, but I must not have been that persuasive because I didn’t get the job. Granted, my would-be boss knew my background as a journalist, and this job was not in journalism, so he could have reasoned that I wouldn’t like the work.

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Or, perhaps the would-be boss was turned off by what he viewed as my stoic expression, however unintentional it was. That’s what research from Stanford University psychology Professor Jeanne Tsai suggests, and it’s the topic of her Open Forum on Thursday.

Tsai has........

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