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Why It Really Is Better to Give Than to Receive
The Wall Street Journal: The Beatles famously sang money can't buy love. But can it buy happiness? Satisfaction? Appreciation? These questions surfaced in my mind the other day as I raced to finish—um, I mean start—my holiday shopping. For many of you, the hunt for the perfect gift began early this year. A record-breaking 226 million shoppers tore out of the gate over Black Friday weekend, spending an estimated $52.4 billion collectively—another record—at stores and websites, all in the hopes of spreading a little joy to family members, friends and assorted acquaintances. Unfortunately, our good intentions notwithstanding, research suggests that by and large we miss the mark.
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All It Takes is a Smile (For Some Guys)…
Does she or doesn’t she . . .? Sexual cues are ambiguous, and confounding. We—especially men—often read them wrong. A new study hypothesizes that the men who get it wrong might be the ones that evolution has favored. “There are tons of studies showing that men think women are interested when they’re not,” says Williams College psychologist Carin Perilloux, who conducted the research with Judith A. Easton and David M. Buss of University of Texas at Austin. “Ours is the first to systematically examine individual differences.” The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.
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Why Do People Defend Unjust, Inept, and Corrupt Systems?
Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in—a government, company, or marriage—even when anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system is corrupt or unjust? A new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, illuminates the conditions under which we’re motivated to defend the status quo—a process called “system justification.” System justification isn’t the same as acquiescence, explains Aaron C.
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Positive Memories Sustain Us
Huffington Post: Emotional events are memorable. If I talk to people from my parent's generation, they can all tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot, even though this happened almost 50 years ago. For my generation, the day of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger as well as the attacks on 9/11 have the same force and vividness in memory. All of this would make it seem as though negative events are particularly memorable. And, of course, there is some reason to want to remember negative things that happened in detail.
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How to Beat the Holiday Blues
ABC News: They say it's the most wonderful time of the year. But for many Americans, the holiday season is the most hectic, most stressful and most demanding. "There's the huge expectation to be jolly and cheerful and there's often a big contrast between how people are actually feeling and how they're expected to feel," said Nadine Kaslow, chief psychologist at Emory University School of Medicine. "A lot of the discomfort of the holidays lays in that discrepancy." The financial strain of gift-giving, the memories of holidays past and the weight of wanting everything to be perfect can take its toll. But managing expectations and keeping things laid back can help stave off the holiday blues.
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Fatherhood can be the birth of positive change
Los Angeles Times: Ten tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes may be enough to change men's lives in ways they never thought possible. A recent study found that some men dropped their delinquent ways when they went from "hood" to fatherhood. The research, conducted by scientists in Oregon and Texas, tracked 206 males from a medium-size metropolitan city in the Pacific Northwest. Participants were recruited at age 12 and assessed annually over 19 years, until age 31. Read the full story: Los Angeles Times
