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Why We Laugh
The Atlantic: Laughter is universal, but we know very little about the reasons we do it. Dr. Robert Provine has been studying the social and neurological roots of laughter for 20 years, and has come to surprising conclusions about how we operate as human beings. To learn more about Dr. Provine's research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Watch the whole story: The Atlantic
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Espousing Equality, but Embracing a Hierarchy
The New York Times: People never say they want to grow up to be a middle manager, and some company founders aspire never to hire one. In 2002, Google decided to eliminate managers from its engineering operations. “We were of the attitude, ‘Who needs managers? They never add any value,’ ” Craig Silverstein, the company’s first employee after its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, told me recently. Mr. Silverstein, who later served as Google’s technology director, said this refrain “mirrored the common stereotype at the time, of managers just adding levels of bureaucracy.” Read the whole story: The New York Times
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Bosses Spend More Personal Time on Social Media Than Subordinates
Walk by any employee’s work station on a given day and you may see that person quickly closing a Facebook or Twitter page from his or her computer desktop. No one wants to get caught tweeting or posting Instagram pictures when they’re supposed to be working. But studies indicate that four out of five employees now use social media for personal use during working hours. A Norwegian study, however, shows that managers and executives, while critical of employees’ social media use at work, spend more time using social media during office hours than do their subordinates.
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Drug Use Linked with Brain Differences in Teens
LiveScience: Teens who have used drugs even just once in their lives have brain characteristics that are different from those who have never used drugs, a new study finds. In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 71 Mexican-American 16-year-olds, and asked the teens whether they had ever used drugs, including cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. The researchers looked at whether the brain activity of certain regions was in sync (a measure known as "functional connectivity"), which suggests that the regions are talking to one another. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Be Thankful, Save More: Study Says Gratitude Helps Us Reach Financial Goals
TODAY: A sizable body of research shows that people tend to discount the value of future rewards in favor of short-term gratification, but a new paper in the June issue of “Psychological Science” finds that thankfulness triggers patience and a willingness to hold out for greater monetary gain. In a series of experiments, subjects were offered an amount of money on the spot, or a greater amount if they waited until a predetermined future date. Researchers manipulated subjects’ frame of mind by asking them to spend five minutes writing about something that made them feel happy, grateful or neutral prior to being offered the money. Read the whole story: TODAY
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Why Teenagers Act Crazy
The New York Times: Adolescence is practically synonymous in our culture with risk taking, emotional drama and all forms of outlandish behavior. Until very recently, the widely accepted explanation for adolescent angst has been psychological. Developmentally, teenagers face a number of social and emotional challenges, like starting to separate from their parents, getting accepted into a peer group and figuring out who they really are. It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to realize that these are anxiety-provoking transitions. But there is a darker side to adolescence that, until now, was poorly understood: a surge during teenage years in anxiety and fearfulness.
