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Your Secret Weapon for More Self-Control
Women's Health: Struggling to stay on task at work? Gargle some Gatorade. Swishing a sugary beverage in your mouth can help boost your self-control, says a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science. Researchers asked 51 students to complete two self-control tasks. In each test, half of the students rinsed their mouths with lemonade and sugar, while the other half rinsed with lemonade and Splenda. Read the whole story: Women's Health
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New Research From Psychological Science
Mirta Galesic, Henrik Olsson, and Jörg Rieskamp How accurately do people assess characteristics of the general population? Participants answered questions about 10 characteristics related to their love life, financial situation, friendships, health, work stress, and education. They also estimated the distribution of these qualities in their own social group and in the larger population. Although participants were fairly accurate in judging their social group, their estimates of the population were less accurate. In addition, participants showed specific trait-dependent enhancements or deficits in the reporting of their own characteristics.
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Give And Take: How The Rule Of Reciprocation Binds Us
NPR: In 1974, Phillip Kunz and his family got a record number of Christmas cards. In the weeks before Christmas they came daily, sometimes by the dozen. Kunz still has them in his home, collected in an old photo album. "Dear Phil, Joyce and family," a typical card reads, "we received your holiday greeting with much joy and enthusiasm ... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's. Love Lou, Bev and the children." The cards from that year came in all shapes and sizes, but the basic message was the same. The writers wanted Kunz to know that he and his family were cared for, and also they wanted to share their own news.
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Dogs Learning Words Focus on Size, Not Shape
The New York Times: Toddlers just learning to speak associate words with shape, not size or texture. Anything shaped like a telephone, for instance, might be called “phone.” But a new study suggests that dogs tend to associate words with size rather than shape. This difference makes it “very doubtful that there is a single mammalian feature in word learning,” said Emile van der Zee, a psychologist at the University of Lincoln in England and the first author of the study, which appears in the journal PLoS One.
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Why does ‘CEO’ mean ‘white male’?
Los Angeles Times: A pedestrian holding a map approaches you and asks for directions. You engage in a short conversation, which is briefly interrupted when two workers walk between you carrying a door. A second later, you continue your conversation. What you don't notice is that the pedestrian is now someone else. Yep, that's right: A different person took his place when the door passed between you. And you didn't even notice. In fact, fully 50% of people who participated in this 1998 experiment by psychologist Daniel Simons were blind to the switch. Why did so many people fail to notice such an obvious change?
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Post-Divorce Journaling May Hinder Healing for Some
Following a divorce or separation, many people are encouraged by loved ones or health-care professionals to keep journals about their feelings. But for some, writing in-depth about those feelings immediately after a split may do more harm than good, according to new research. In a study of 90 recently divorced or separated individuals, psychological scientist David Sbarra of the University of Arizona and colleagues found that writing about one’s feelings can actually leave some people feeling more emotionally distraught months down the line, particularly those individuals who are prone to seeking a deeper meaning for their failed marriage.
