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Coffee Break? Walk In The Park? Why Unwinding Is Hard
Wall Street Journal Asia: A college student deep into studying for a big exam might do well to give his brain a break. Just what he does during that break will determine how helpful that pause will be, a growing body of research shows. A stroll in the park could do wonders, for instance, while downing coffee could leave him just as stressed and depleted as before the break. And, sometimes, forcing oneself to simply power through mental fatigue can be more effective than pausing.
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How Devoted Moms Buffer Kids In Poverty
Children raised in poverty often grow up to have poor health in adulthood, from frequent colds to heart disease. But there’s one thing that might buffer them from that fate: a good mom. That is the conclusion of a new study by a multidisciplinary team led by University of British Columbia psychologist Gregory Miller. The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Much research shows that the stresses disadvantaged children undergo affect their physiological development, making them permanently vulnerable to infection and disease.
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Study of the Day: Attempting to Focus Can Lead to Distorted Images
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: It's a contradiction that we've all experienced. Sometimes, the more we focus on certain objects, the more we misperceive where they are in relation to other objects. METHODOLOGY: Yale University cognitive psychologists Brandon Liverence and Brian Scholl tested this phenomenon across three experiments, where 10 people each completed simple visual tasks. In one trial, participants watched four circles on a computer screen as they moved around on a computer monitor while rapidly changing colors. Before the movement began, two of the circles, the targets, flashed several times.
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Taxer les plus fortunés améliorerait le bien-être
Le Figaro: À coup sûr, Barack Obama n'aura pas manqué de lire cette étude. Alors que le président américain va proposer au Congrès ce lundi une taxe spéciale sur les revenus des contribuables gagnant plus d'un million de dollars par an (environ 725.000 euros), une enquête de l'université de Virginie publiée début septembre dans le journal Psychological Science, souligne que plus un système d'imposition est progressif, plus le niveau de «bonheur» de ses ressortissants est élevé. En d'autres termes, taxer fortement les contribuables les plus aisés serait un catalyseur du bien-être collectif, précise Shigehiro Oishi, directeur de l'étude.
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Av en bok blir du klok
Helsingborgs Dagblad: En mässa för böcker och bibliotek är förstås en god sak. Tycker vi. Men på vilka grunder? Föreställningen att läsning i allmänhet, och skönlitteratur i synnerhet, gör oss till bättre människor är närmast att betrakta som en doktrin bland intellektuella. Den ilska och oro som utbryter varje gång en biblioteksfilial läggs ned eller när det rapporteras att barn läser mindre, bestörtningen när höga politiker förråder sin likgiltighet inför skönlitteratur, beklämningen när idrottsstjärnan himlar med ögonen och flinar åt frågan vilken bok de läste senast … allt bottnar i samma grundmurade uppfattning.
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‘Cheating’ Study Claims Men Resent Sexual Infidelity, Women Jealous Of Shared Love
The Huffington Post: How would you react if you found out that your partner had cheated? Would the emotional betrayal outweigh the physical one, or would the sexual infidelity hurt more than the undermining of your love? A new study says that the answer might have a lot to do with your gender. According to evolutionary psychologist Barry Kuhle's recent study, which was published in Personality and Individual Differences, while men are more likely to interrogate their partners about the sexual nature of an affair, a woman will often ask her partner whether he is in love with the other woman. How did Kuhle discover which aspect of infidelity bothered men and women most?
