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Psychological Science Goes to Mars
Teamwork is important in most jobs — but it’s especially critical for people who have to complete an expensive, high-stakes, and technically complicated mission all while locked in a zero-gravity chamber with their co-workers for eighteen straight months. That’s why NASA is calling on psychological scientists like Eduardo Salas and Kimberly Smith-Jentsch to design strategies that astronauts can use to help each other stay healthy and safe during a voyage to Mars that is planned for 2030. In 2010, Salas and Smith-Jentsch, both of the University of Central Florida, were awarded a three-year, $1.2 million grant by NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.
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Don’t Fear the Cybermind
The New York Times: THE line that separates my mind from the Internet is getting blurry. This has been happening ever since I realized how often it feels as though I know something just because I can find it with Google. Technically, of course, I don’t know it. But when there’s a smartphone or iPad in reach, I know everything the Internet knows. Or at least, that’s how it feels. This curious feeling of knowing has settled over most of us. In a group, someone always seems to be “checking” something in the conversation, piping up with handy facts culled from a rapid consultation with the Great and Powerful Man Behind the Curtain.
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Study: Forcing a Smile Genuinely Decreases Stress
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Happiness makes us smile, but can smiling make us happy? Even if it's a fake smile, because your mouth is propped open by chopsticks? There's the standard smile, which remains located in the muscles surrounding the mouth, and the genuine (or Duchenne) smile, which spreads to the eyes and, at least anecdotally, both looks and feels warmer and more natural. Does one work better than the other? METHODOLOGY: In an experiment that was smile-worthy in its own right, researchers used chopsticks to manipulate the facial muscles of their 169 participants into a neutral expression, a standard smile, or a Duchenne smile.
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The Case for Lying to Yourself
The Wall Street Journal: Lying to yourself—or self-deception, as psychologists call it—can actually have benefits. And nearly everybody does it, based on a growing body of research using new experimental techniques. Self-deception isn't just lying or faking, but is deeper and more complicated, says Del Paulhus, psychology professor at University of British Columbia and author of a widely used scale to measure self-deceptive tendencies. It involves strong psychological forces that keep us from acknowledging a threatening truth about ourselves, he says.
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Dualisten leben ungesünder (Dualists live less healthy)
ORF Austria: Viele Menschen, ob sie sich dessen bewusst sind oder nicht, sind Dualisten: Sie sehen den Geist und den Körper als zwei eigenständige Einheiten an. Forscher zeigen nun, welche Einflüsse derartige Einstellungen auf das alltägliche Verhalten haben. Das in breiten Kreisen der Gesellschaft geltende Motto, wonach in einem gesunden Körper auch ein gesunder Geist wohne, scheint Dualisten weniger anzusprechen. Matthias Forstmann, Pascal Burgmer und Thomas Mussweiler von der Universität Köln konnten nachweisen, dass unsere Vorstellungen über den Zusammenhang von Körper und Geist entscheidende Auswirkungen darauf haben, ob wir uns eher gesundheitsförderlich verhalten oder nicht.
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The Science of Choosing Compassion
Huffington Post: As I walk down bustling Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I often pass homeless people who ask me for spare change. Sometimes I let myself feel compassion for these individuals. But other times I don't want to get emotionally involved, so I look away and keep walking. Maybe you've had a similar experience. Pondering such experiences has led me to systematically explore the factors that influence when people feel compassion for others. The upshot of my research: You can choose to feel more compassion than you might think. There are many cases when we don't feel compassion for others.
