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Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks
The New York Times: BAD NEWS SELLS. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers, based partly on data (ratings and circulation) and partly on the gut instincts of producers and editors. Wars, earthquakes, plagues, floods, fires, sick children, murdered spouses — the more suffering and mayhem, the more coverage. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules.
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People perceive future events closer than past
Business Standard: People perceive events in the future as closer than those in the past, as it helps them to approach, avoid or otherwise cope with the events they encounter, a new study has found. Researchers suggest that the illusions that influence how we perceive movement through space also influence our perception of time. The findings provide evidence that our experiences of space and time have even more in common than previously thought.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science. Sleep Consolidation of Interfering Auditory Memories in Starlings Timothy P. Brawn, Howard C. Nusbaum, and Daniel Margoliash In this study, the authors examined the effect of sleep on the consolidation of starlings' memories. Starlings were trained and tested on two similar classification tasks (Task A and Task B). After training on Task B, they were given a final test on Task A. Training and testing on Task B and the final test on Task A occurred before or after a period of sleep.
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Research Explores Links Between Physical and Emotional Pain Relief
Though we all desire relief -- from stress, work, or pain -- little is known about the specific emotions underlying relief. New research from the Association for Psychological Science explores the psychological mechanisms associated with relief that occurs after the removal of pain, also known as pain offset relief. This new research shows that healthy individuals and individuals with a history of self-harm display similar levels of relief when pain is removed, which suggests that pain offset relief may be a natural mechanism that helps us to regulate our emotions.
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Why We’re So Irrational When It Comes to Tax Refunds
TIME: Think about it: A tax refund is just that — a refund of your own hard-earned money. It’s not a gift or a stroke of good fortune. The problem is that most people don’t look at tax refunds this way. Most Americans—a full 75%—receive refunds after filing their taxes. In other words, most Americans have too much money withheld from their paychecks. More than half of Americans—58%, to be exact—say they intentionally plan to receive a refund each year. Understandably, people do so to avoid an unexpected tax payment come April 15, with the idea that it’s better to withhold a bit more to be on the safe side.
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Scientists provide fresh insights into post-sleep paralysis distress
Toronto Telegraph: Canadian scientists have identified the factors that cause distress after sleep paralysis, a psychological phenomenon of which little was previously known, according to a study. Sleep paralysis is a distressing phenomenon often accompanied by vivid sensory or perceptual experiences, which can include complex and disturbing hallucinations and intense fear, which is often experienced by people immediately before sleeping or waking up. For some people, sleep paralysis is a once-in-a-lifetime experience; for others, it can be a frequent, even nightly, phenomenon, Science Daily reported.
