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The profound power of loneliness
NSF: Loneliness is as close to universal as experiences come. Almost everyone has felt isolated, even rejected. But the power of loneliness -- its potential for causing depression and other serious health problems as well as its surprising role in keeping humans safe from harm -- may be more profound than researchers had previously presumed, says neuroscience researcher John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago. Cacioppo has spent nearly three decades exploring the social nature of the human brain, working to find the mechanisms behind traits such as loneliness, empathy, synchrony and emotional contagion.
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Happy Thoughts Can Make You Sad
Pacific Standard: The secret to success, we are sometimes told, is the power of positive thinking. In fact, there's a famous book devoted to that idea called, appropriately, The Power of Positive Thinking, and there's a similarly themed book called The Secret. But there's another secret, according to new research: Fantasizing about a wonderful, happy future may actually make depression symptoms worse in the long run. It's not that positive thinking is entirely bad for you, psychologists Gabriele Oettingen, Doris Mayer, and Sam Portnow write in Psychological Science. Indeed, in the short run, there's some evidence that daydreaming about good things can curtail symptoms of depression.
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Speed reading slows comprehension, study says
The Boston Globe: In July 2007, six-time World Speed Reading Champion Anne Jones read the final Harry Potter novel in 47 minutes flat, whizzing through 4,200 words per minute. Most people read about 200 to 400 words per minute. The idea of improving that rate is tantalizing: Imagine zipping through a novel over lunch, or clearing your inbox in minutes. ... The review, published last month in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, was led by UCSD cognitive psychologist Keith Rayner, who spent more than four decades studying the process of reading. Read the whole story: The Boston Globe
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Getting to Yes Is Easier Than Saying No
Over 100 million viewers tune in for the NFL’s championship Super Bowl game and musical Halftime Show. Historically, the NFL foots the bill for the musical entertainment; but in 2015 the NFL proposed that top talent like Katy Perry and Coldplay should instead pay them millions of dollars for the privilege of performing during the Super Bowl. Katy Perry and other performers universally refused the deal. After all, Perry already brings in millions from her concerts and record sales. Instead of holding out and demanding that Perry “pay to play,” the NFL eventually conceded, offering the popstar a prime spot as the halftime headliner, free of charge.
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How to Raise a Creative Child. Step One: Back Off
The New York Times: THEY learn to read at age 2, play Bach at 4, breeze through calculus at 6, and speak foreign languages fluently by 8. Their classmates shudder with envy; their parents rejoice at winning the lottery. But to paraphrase T. S. Eliot, their careers tend to end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Consider the nation’s most prestigious award for scientifically gifted high school students, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, called the Super Bowl of science by one American president. From its inception in 1942 until 1994, the search recognized more than 2000 precocious teenagers as finalists.
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Seeing Exemplary Peer Work Can Undermine Student Performance
From academic honors to "employee of the month" awards, we are regularly exposed to and made aware of the exemplary performance of others. Many believe such recognition not only acknowledges the individual but also motivates others to strive toward greater achievement. But new research suggests that exposure to exceptional performance can sometimes have the opposite results, effectively discouraging people from higher-level performance.
