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Heart Disease Risk Linked With Spouses’ Social Support
Matters of the heart can influence actual heart health, according to new research. A study from researchers at the University of Utah shows that the ways in which your spouse is supportive -- and how you support your spouse -- can actually have significant bearing on your overall cardiovascular health. The findings reveal that when both partners perceive the support they get from each other as ambivalent -- that is, sometimes helpful and sometimes upsetting– each partner’s levels of coronary artery calcification (CAC) tend to be particularly high. These results are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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How the Brain Made Room for Complex Social Ties
When APS Fellow and Janet Taylor Spence Award recipient Naomi Eisenberger was a graduate student, she ran an experiment in which study participants felt socially excluded: Participants situated in an fMRI machine played a virtual game of catch with two other players — or so they thought. In truth, they were playing catch with a computer, and no other human player was participating in the game. At some point, the other “players” quit passing the ball to the study participants, which led to feelings of exclusion.
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Wider-Faced Dates More Attractive as Short-Term Mates
Women may perceive men with wider faces as more dominant and more attractive for short-term relationships, according to a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our study shows that within three minutes of meeting in real life, women find more dominant, wider-faced men attractive for short-term relationships, and want to go on another date with them,” says psychological scientist and lead researcher Katherine Valentine of Singapore Management University. According to Valentine, there’s considerable academic debate about whether physical dominance is advantageous in mating – that is, actually attractive to women.
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A Multicultural Mindset Can Bolster Your Career Prospects
Many leading companies are taking a stand on diversity. They’re actively seeking new hires from different backgrounds and cultures, following the logic that new people can shake up the status quo with fresh insights and unknown perspectives. It’s not difficult to see why -- popular support for such initiatives is at an all-time high. Edward Jones, a leading financial advising firm, just commissioned a survey to see how more than 2,000 adults feel about multiculturalism in the workplace. More than 80% of minority respondents and 66% of people overall said it makes financial sense to hire a diverse group of individuals, and that doing so is likely to instill trust in clients.
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For Athletes, There’s No Place Like Home
Research on sports and athletic competition suggests that there is scientific support for the idea of a “home field advantage.”
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For Infants, Stress May be Caught, Not Taught
Babies not only pick up on their mother’s stress, they also show corresponding physiological changes, research shows.
