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A Brighter Outlook Could Translate To A Longer Life
NPR: Older women who look on the bright side of life were less likely to die in the next several years than their peers who weren't as positive about the future. The research, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the latest to find an association between a positive sense of well-being and better health, though it's not yet clear whether one causes the other. ... Optimism could conceivably lead to improved health outcomes through several mechanisms, says Eric Kim, an author of the study and research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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How to Motivate Your Team With Something Besides Money
Inc.: Why do so many workplace and workforce 'improvements' backfire? Why do our people always seem like they're on the brink of revolt, distracted and anxious? In the technology-driven age of lean and agile, it's humbling for management to admit that we too often fail to optimize the human element in work. We know that our teams will make or break a business, but we still struggle to truly engage them. I recently had a fascinating conversation with my friend Dan Ariely about what really motivates teams...and how often we miss the mark.
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A Surprising New Way to Encourage Healthy Eating
Scientific American: Autonomy, peer relationships, and parental conflict — these are the universal themes that made the popular 1990s comic Zits identifiable for anyone who has, or has been, a teenager. In one strip, hands in pockets and making a sullen sideways glance, Jeremy slouches next to his father. His t-shirt reads, “question authority.” Next to him, his equally chagrined father sports the t-shirt: “do not question my authority.” While his parents work to steer the 16-year-old in the right direction on his path to adulthood, Jeremy is equally determined to forge his own way. For the most part, their suggestions, pleas, and cajoles, don’t make it past his headphones.
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Is Education Tied To Conspiracy Theory Belief?
NPR: Debunked conspiracy theories have been making the rounds on social media lately, from the thoroughly unsupported claim that millions of people voted illegally in California to false assertions about paid protesters being bused to demonstrations. Conspiracy theories, which typically involve one or more powerful agents secretly manipulating world events, are accepted by a large proportion of Americans.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Metacognitive and Metamemory Beliefs in the Development and Maintenance of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Melanie K. T. Takarangi, Rashelle A. Smith, Deryn Strange, and Heather D. Flowe Metacognition refers to the beliefs we have about the way we think. People who have maladaptive metacognitive beliefs after experiencing a trauma have been found to have greater levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology.
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The Perils of Empathy
The Wall Street Journal: Everywhere you turn in American politics, leaders talk about the need for empathy. The best-known instance, of course, comes from Bill Clinton, who told an AIDS activist in 1992, “I feel your pain.” But it’s also been a recurrent theme in the career of Barack Obama, who declared in 2007 (while still a senator) that “the biggest deficit that we have in our society and in the world right now is an empathy deficit.” ...
