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How Economic Uncertainty Produces Physical Pain
Fortune: Embrace uncertainty — it’s the only surety in life, we’re often told. New research suggests these words may be easier said than done, particularly when it comes tofinancial uncertainty. During the Great Recession of 2008, stocks, bank accounts and IRAs weren’t the only things hurting. People were hurting, physically, and more so than usual. That year, Americans spent an estimated $300 billion on painkillers and other pain-related expenses, a 1,000 percent increase over two decades earlier and more than the combined yearly costs of cancer, heart disease or diabetes (based on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey).
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Five-Month-Old Infants Have General Knowledge of How Nonsolid Substances Behave and Interact Susan J. Hespos, Alissa L. Ferry, Erin M. Anderson, Emily N. Hollenbeck, and Lance J. Rips Research has shown that infants have a sophisticated understanding of the properties of objects, but it is less clear whether infants develop a similar understanding of nonsolid objects. Four- and 5-month-old infants were habituated to the sight of a solid object or the sight of a nonsolid substance (sand or liquid).
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When rejection is the kindest thing a person can do
The Washington Post: Getting dumped is never fun. Neither is finding out that the crush you’ve been nursing is going nowhere. But when I think about all the times I’ve been rejected, the worst part wasn’t the moment of finding out the relationship was over. It was the part before — that awful stretch of uncertainty when I didn’t know whether the person I was into loved me or loved me not. There was the boy I dated in high school who went off to college and started seeing someone else. He couldn’t bring himself to tell me – for months – as I agonized over how hard it was to reach him on his dorm room phone. In the end, his best friend broke the news to me. ...
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The Rich Can Learn From the Poor About How to Be Frugal
The New York Times: I try to be frugal. But my instincts as a consumer are mistaken. Behavioral economics suggests that I’m often frugal in the wrong way and that you may be, too. Consider this situation: You’re shopping for headphones. An electronics store has the model you want for $50, a reasonable price. But a sales clerk says: “You know our other branch has this item on sale for $40.” Going to that store will take 30 minutes, and you can’t buy the headphones for that price online. Do you go to the other branch? ...
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How People Learn to Become Resilient
The New Yorker: Norman Garmezy, a developmental psychologist and clinician at the University of Minnesota, met thousands of children in his four decades of research. But one boy in particular stuck with him. He was nine years old, with an alcoholic mother and an absent father. Each day, he would arrive at school with the exact same sandwich: two slices of bread with nothing in between. At home, there was no other food available, and no one to make any.
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In Real-Estate, ‘Love’ Hurts and ‘Sexy’ Sells
The Wall Street Journal: In luxury real estate, love is cheap and sex sells. An analysis of roughly 1.6 million home listings found that lower-priced homes were most likely to have the word “love” in property descriptions, while homes priced in the millions of dollars were most likely to have “sexy” and “seductive” in the descriptions. “Love is basic,” said Javier Vivas, an economic researcher for Realtor.com, which analyzed the data. “It’s a pre-canned pitch to generically describe something beautiful.” ...
