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Bad Habits? My Future Self Will Deal With That
The New York Times: I’VE been wanting to change some of my longstanding habits that I’m not so fond of. But I think I’ve discovered why this can be so difficult. It’s how we think of our future selves. Now, I know this sounds kind of weird, but I’ve found some research showing that many of us don’t have the incentive to eat healthy or save money or add to our retirement accounts because we think of ourselves in the future as someone different altogether. In fact, a future self can seem to be this annoying other person who wants to prevent you from having fun in the present.
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Adapting Counseling Strategies for Native Communities
Evidence-based psychotherapy should work the same for everyone, right? Wrong. In his research, Joseph P. Gone of the University of Michigan points out that the latest treatments developed by psychological scientists can’t be applied to all communities in exactly the same way. Gone is interested in how evidence-based mental health treatments and the cultural traditions of American Indians can intersect. This intersection, he says, is elusive. Integrating Native traditions and evidence-based therapy, he points out, may require merging spiritual and mental health practices, and clinicians would have to address difficult ethical and political complications.
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Two Heads Are Not Always Better Than One
From the corporate boardroom to the kitchen table, important decisions are often made in collaboration. But are two—or three or five—heads better than one? Not always, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “People who make judgments by working with someone else are more confident in those judgments. As a result they take less input from other people”—and this myopia wipes out any advantage a pair may have over an individual, says psychologist Julia A. Minson, who conducted the study with Jennifer S. Mueller.
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The Rehash Hangover
Oprah.com: Symptom: You can't stop talking about what happened with your stubborn husband/boss/mother. Causes: This habit is called "co-ruminating," says Amanda Rose, an associate professor of psychological science at the University of Missouri. She has found that while we expect that getting everything off our chest will make us feel better, that often isn't true. "We've seen that there's a snowball effect where talking about your problems causes you to dwell on them, and dwelling makes you feel depressed, which makes you complain even more," she says. Read the whole story: Oprah.com
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The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever
Wired Magazine: Jeffrey Mitchell, a volunteer firefighter in the suburbs of Baltimore, came across the accident by chance: A car had smashed into a pickup truck loaded with metal pipes. Mitchell tried to help, but he saw at once that he was too late. The car had rear-ended the truck at high speed, sending a pipe through the windshield and into the chest of the passenger—a young bride returning home from her wedding. There was blood everywhere, staining her white dress crimson. Mitchell couldn’t get the dead woman out of his mind; the tableau was stuck before his eyes. He tried to tough it out, but after months of suffering, he couldn’t take it anymore.
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Getting the point across: Scientists find managers who frequently make pointing gestures tend to be obeyed
Daily Mail: The secret of management may be a lot simpler than most business science courses might have you believe - just point your fingers a lot. Film directors such as Stephen Spielberg do a lot of seemingly meaningless pointing on set - but the gesture helps stamp authority on a chaotic film set. From a very early age, humans associate pointing with teaching and authority - and tend to believe and obey people who point. Psychologists believe we link the gesture to people with knowledge and authority. Simply gesticulating like this may suggest they have greater knowledge and should be obeyed, according to a team from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.