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The ‘flagellation effect’: Can pain compensate for immorality?
Many religious traditions have pain rituals, and some of them are grotesque. Some Shia Muslims whip themselves with zangirs, whips made of knife blades, until their backs are red with blood. In the Hindu ritual of kavadi, believers use meat hooks and skewers to pierce their legs, face and tongue. In Christianity, “mortification of the flesh” dates back to the original teachings, and practices range from wearing hair shirts and chains to various forms of self-flagellation, even self-castration. Pain purifies. It atones for sin and cleanses the soul. Or at least that’s the idea. But is there any psychological truth to this notion?
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Irrational Optimism: ‘On Any Given Sunday’
I have been part of a family football pool for many years now. Every week, each of us predicts the winners for every NFL game, right through the playoffs, and everyone's performance is posted in a running tally. In recent years, I have been one of the very worst players in this pool, but I have a good excuse. I am a longtime Washington Redskins fan, and I pick the 'Skins week in and week out. Other family members hail from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Indianapolis, and they also tend to bet on their home teams. The difference is that those teams are all good -- and the 'Skins are not. In fact, they're been awful for many years now. So I'm in effect giving away points every week.
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Nostalgia for young adulthood? Rethinking the ‘reminiscence bump’
Some years ago, I found myself sitting out a blinding snow storm in a diner on a rural Maryland highway. It was bitterly cold outside, so I ordered soup and coffee and sat on a stool at the counter. I was the only customer for more than an hour, so I struck up a conversation with the fellow working there. He was in his early 40s, I'd guess. He was friendly and did most of the talking, telling me about his high school days. His school was just a couple miles down the road. He had been an All-State linebacker on his championship team, and ran track as well.
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Does an Active Lifestyle Make Good Citizens?
Data suggest that political participation is highest in countries where citizens are the most physically active, independent of citizens’ interest in politics or their economic productivity.
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So much to do! And so little time!
The Christmas season is a hectic time for many people. There are all those cards to write and mail, presents to buy and wrap and deliver, perhaps a tree to haul home and trim, plus extra baking and cooking for family and friends. Few of these are leisure activities. Indeed, most holiday tasks are extremely time-pressured, with rigid deadlines. It always seems that time is way too short to get it all done. But is this perception true? Are these deadlines really looming, or do we in fact have more time than we imagine?
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Visions of sugarplums: The psychology of holiday temptation
Americans typically gain a pound between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. That may not sound like much to worry about, but the problem is that we don't lose that pound once the holiday season ends. Instead, we accumulate a pound per season, year after year, for 10, 15, 20 years and more. Looked at that way, it's no wonder that two-thirds of Americans are now obese. So all we have to do, rather than gaining that pound, is lose a pound during the holidays -- or just stay even. It's only six weeks, so let's show some discipline and skip the gravy, plum pudding and eggnog. It seems simple enough, but alas it's not, as any dieter will tell you.
