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Picky Palates
The New York Times: Q. Why am I such a fussy eater? Does each person have a distinct set of taste buds, or is my fussiness just in my head? A. Differences in taste buds contribute a bit, but there are many other physical and psychological factors, including body weight, state of mind and disease, that make some people finicky, said David A. Levitsky, professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University. “We know that people vary rather remarkably in their ability to taste bitter,” he said, with some able to detect bitterness at very low concentrations.
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Groups Call for Scientists to Engage the Body Politic
The New York Times: When asked to name a scientist, Americans are stumped. In one recent survey, the top choice, at 47 percent, was Einstein, who has been dead since 1955, and the next, at 23 percent, was “I don’t know.” In another survey, only 4 percent of respondents could name a living scientist. While these may not have been statistically rigorous exercises, they do point to something real: In American public life, researchers are largely absent. Trained to stick to the purity of the laboratory, they tend to avoid the sometimes irrational hurly-burly of politics.
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Narcissists Look Like Good Leaders—But They Aren’t!
Narcissists rise to the top. That’s because other people think their qualities—confidence, dominance, authority, and self-esteem—make them good leaders. Is that true? “Our research shows that the opposite seems to be true,” says Barbora Nevicka, a PhD candidate in organizational psychology, describing a new study she undertook with University of Amsterdam colleagues Femke Ten Velden, Annebel De Hoogh, and Annelies Van Vianen. The study found that the narcissists’ preoccupation with their own brilliance inhibits a crucial element of successful group decision-making and performance: the free and creative exchange of information and ideas.
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Fighting the Fear of Public Speaking
The Wall Street Journal: Everyone is afraid of something. Spiders, heights, angry bees. But while spiders and bees can make a picnic challenging, they usually don’t get in the way of doing a job. Unfortunately, my fear is public speaking. At one point, my phobia got so bad that when I gave presentations, my right eye would twitch. Not only would I get nervous about my talk, but I would also stress about the possibility of the eye-twitch emerging, which made it hard to actually present my information. (Try reading notes through an eyeball that has a mind of its own.) The stressing, of course, just made the twitch inevitable. It was a vicious circle. Read more: The Wall Street Journal
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Red pill or blue pill: Who cares? Getting to choose is the best part
Ottawa Citizen: Life is about making choices, from the mundane (Should I eat a Kit Kat for breakfast?) to the momentous (Should I accept this new job?). Though we agonize over some decisions, researchers have found that we generally like having choices. And after we choose something, we tend to like it more. However, a new study examining the experience of choice, suggests that it’s not just about the selections — it’s about the selecting. Simply having the possibility to choose is pleasurable.
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The ultimate brain-boosting evening
Men's Health UK: The area of your brain responsible for memory formation is the hippocampus – and the bigger yours the better. Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh recently discovered a strong correlation between physical fitness and hippocampus size. "If you want to keep your memory and the rest of your mental skills in shape, you need to feed your brain through regular exercise," says Tony Buzan, inventor of Mind Mapping and author of over 100 books on the brain. Read more: Men's Health UK
