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Can you improve your emotional intelligence?
You might think you're fairly intelligent, but are you emotionally intelligent? It's our emotional intelligence that gives us the ability to read our instinctive feelings and those of others. It also allows us to understand and label emotions as well as express and regulate them, according to Yale University's Marc Brackett. Most of us would probably like to think that we can do all of the above. We spot and understand emotions in ourselves and others and label them accurately in order to guide our thoughts and actions.
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People hate small talk so much that some hosts have started banning it from their parties
We'd just left a crowded birthday party when a friend told me he admired the way I made small talk. It's painful for him, he said, to do the idle chit-chat thing with every new and old acquaintance he meets. Well, thanks, I wanted to respond. I've been watching the Weather Channel all week? I should have been more sympathetic to his plight. The prospect of making small talk is paralyzing for many people — which is why parties outright banning it are sprouting up across the globe. The inspiration in many cases appears to be a 2016 article in Wired, in which behavioral scientists Kristen Berman and Dan Ariely write about a dinner party they hosted in this vein.
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Imagining a Positive Outcome Biases Subsequent Memories
Results from two studies suggest that imagining an upcoming event may ‘color’ memory for that event after the fact.
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Should twins be taught separately?
Should twins automatically be put in different classes at school? New research suggests not. A study from Goldsmiths, University of London, finds no strong evidence that putting twins into different classes at school is better for them academically. And this is the case for both identical and non-identical twins. It says there should be no strict rules on separating twins, and it should be left to the youngsters, their parents and teachers to decide what is best. The researchers analysed data from more than 9,000 pairs of twins aged between seven and 16 in schools in the UK and Canada.
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12 Bad Decisions You Make Every Day Without Realizing
Even smart people can make terrible decisions. Generally, it’s not because they spent time deliberating and somehow arrived at the wrong answer. It’s because they didn’t spend any time thinking at all. For example: You might automatically keep your phone on your desk at work, or grab a smoothie as a go-to “healthy” snack. But these aren’t the wisest choices you could make. Below, we’ve listed some of the easiest traps to fall into, at the office and at home.
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Can marriage make you sick?
Is hostility in your marriage stressing or depressing you? Does your partner have a chronic disorder? Then watch out. Although married people generally have better health than others, studies have found, partners in these two situations can face an increased risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University, and Stephanie J. Wilson, a postdoctoral researcher in her lab, study — and explain here — the health effects of intimate relationships. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
