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In war zones and refugee camps, researchers are putting resilience interventions to the test
n 2015, in the name of science, more than 800 teenage boys and girls in northern Jordan each allowed 100 strands of hair to be snipped from the crowns of their heads. Roughly half the teens were Syrian refugees, the other half Jordanians living in the area. The hair, molecular biologist Rana Dajani explained to the youngsters, would act as a biological diary. Chemicals embedded inside would document the teens' stress levels before and after a program designed to increase psychological resilience. It was a unique experiment. And it was one that suited Dajani, who's based at The Hashemite University in Az-Zarqa, Jordan.
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The data show that how we connect with romantic partners changes as we age
If you’re in your 20s or 30s and feel insecure in your relationship, you’re not alone. The good news: it’s likely that things will get better, according to data gathered about people’s attachment styles in romantic relationships. The adult attachment theory, developed in the 1980s by American ecologist Cindy Hazan and psychologist Phillip Shaver, sorts individuals into four categories by scoring them on just two traits: “avoidance” and “anxiety.” Avoidance refers to how willing you are to be vulnerable with your partner; anxiety refers to how much you worry about your partner paying attention to you.
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How Rooting for a Rival Could Help Your Team
If the NFL team you hate the most is in the Super Bowl, take heart. Psychological science suggests that a rival team’s win may improve your team’s motivation and performance next season.
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Ratings Rise Over Time Because They Feel Easier to Make
People new to a ratings task are more critical than those who have been doing the evaluation task for longer period of time, a new study suggests.
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We’ve heard a lot of bad apologies lately. What makes a good one?
Think of some of the excuses, denials and apologies we've heard in the last few months. Film producer and alleged abuser Harvey Weinstein urging dismissal of a federal sexual misconduct suit lodged against him because actress Meryl Streep once described their working relationship as "respectful." --- Roy Lewicki, professor emeritus of management and human resources at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, started focusing on apologies in the wake of JetBlue's detailed explanation of a major equipment shutdown in New York, Tiger Woods's mea culpa for extramarital affairs, and British Petroleum's attempt to atone after the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
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Food for Thought: Was Cooking a Pivotal Step in Human Evolution?
The shift to a cooked-food diet was a decisive point in human history. The main topic of debate is when, exactly, this change occurred. All known human societies eat cooked foods, and biologists generally agree cooking could have had major effects on how the human body evolved. For example, cooked foods tend to be softer than raw ones, so humans can eat them with smaller teeth and weaker jaws. Cooking also increases the energy they can get from the food they eat. Starchy potatoes and other tubers, eaten by people across the world, are barely digestible when raw. Moreover, when humans try to eat more like chimpanzees and other primates, we cannot extract enough calories to live healthily.
