-
A research-backed reason not to worry about what your peers think of you
Can you ever really know what your colleagues think about you? New research suggests there’s a good chance you already do. In a meta-analysis led by Hyunji Kim, a psychologist at York University in Toronto, researchers from Canada and Australia found that across more than 150 studies in which subjects ranked themselves in personality tests and were rated by peers, the gaps between self- and peer-perceptions were not wide. This wasn’t the case when the subjects of a study were strangers, but it was as true for work colleagues as it was between friends.
-
These Are the Best Ways to Improve Your Memory
All day every day, your brain is bombarded with new information. Confronted with this tsunami of sensory and cerebral input, it’s no wonder much of it slips through your memory’s grasp. But if you feel like you’re forgetting more than you should—or if you just want to pump up your retention and recall—there are some science-backed ways to improve your memory. --- But there are things you can do. Mindfulness meditation may help beef up your memory. One small 2013 study found that students who took a two-week mindfulness course improved their scores on a test of working memory. They were also better able to block out distraction.
-
Young Trans Children Know Who They Are
Since 2013, Kristina Olson, a psychologist at the University of Washington, has been running a large, long-term study to track the health and well-being of transgender children—those who identify as a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth. Since the study’s launch, Olson has also heard from the parents of gender-nonconforming kids, who consistently defy gender stereotypes but have not socially transitioned. They might include boys who like wearing dresses or girls who play with trucks, but who have not, for example, changed the pronouns they use. Those parents asked whether their children could participate in the study. Olson agreed.
-
We’re All Struggling With Tidiness And Clutter. Here’s How You Can Handle It
Do you ever feel more than just a bit of anxiety when you head home at night? From all that clutter? Papers, books, toys, laundry, kitchen junk? You're not alone. There's a whole de-cluttering industry out there. One of its brightest lights of recent is Japanese de-cluttering guru Marie Kondo, who now has a popular Netflix series. She says de-cluttering is less about just getting rid of belongings and more about finding joy in the possessions we do cherish.
-
Researchers Can Predict Childhood Social Transitions
Children who already demonstrate the strongest “cross-gender” identities are the most likely to socially transition, data suggest.
-
Educated Americans Paved the Way for Divorce—Then Embraced Marriage
The countercultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s threw the American family into chaos. Young adults—educated liberals especially—revolted against the constraints of 1950s family life, engaging seriously with formerly fringe ideas like open marriage and full-time employment for mothers. The old rules were in tatters, and nobody really knew what the new rules were. The likelihood that a given marriage would end in divorce doubled, to 50 percent, between 1965 and 1980. Academics and pundits of the era generally assumed that the retreat from marriage would continue apace.
