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People Who Think Their Partners Are a Perfect Fit Stay Happier—Even if They’re Wrong
Conventional wisdom says that if you idealize the person you marry, the disappointment is just going to be that much worse when you find out they aren’t perfect. But research challenges that assumption
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To Bet or Not to Bet, That Is the March Madness Question
With college basketball's Big Dance around the corner, a timely bit of science for you: A recent study in Psychological Science found that given a choice whether to gamble or not, we are not so good at forecasting our emotional reaction to the outcome. In a study, done by Eduardo B. Andrad of the University of California, Berkeley and Leaf Van Boven of University of Colorado at Boulder, volunteers were given the choice of gambling or not gambling underestimated the intensity of their affective reactions to the forgone gamble’s outcome. Those who would have been winners felt more displeasure than anticipated, and those who would have been losers felt more pleasure than anticipated.
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Video games produce a mixed report card for classroom skills
The Kansas City Star: He’s only 9, so Michael Kelly’s analysis of what video games are doing to kids’ schooling is more instinct than all the new academic talk out there. “Picture that I’m Mario,” he begins. After some hand-on-chin pondering, the third-grader is shaping an idea how all those hours he spends leaping walls, escaping lava and rescuing princesses as Super Mario just might be making him a better student. Read the whole story: The Kansas City Star
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Asch Lives On
Think you are immune to peer pressure, but APS Fellow and Charter Member Anthony Pratkanis shows that 60 years later people still cave under social pressure. Check out this replication of the famous "Asch Paradigm." Watch the video: YouTube
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Terrorists taunts may tell attack timing
USA Today: Osama bin Laden mumbling from his cave, a cassette tape threatening the West with yet more violence: In an era filled with worries over terrorism, can we turn the taunts of terrorists against them, using their own words to predict their next move? Read the whole story: USA Today
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Your love is my drug: looking at partner’s photo reduces pain
The Med Guru: Forget medication and therapies, a recent study by Stanford University in California, U.S., suggests that just looking at the partner's photograph relieves the pain as much as taking a drug like cocaine. Read the whole story: The Med Guru