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The Ambivalent Marriage Takes a Toll on Health
The New York Times: Every marriage has highs and lows from time to time, but some relationships are both good and bad on a regular basis. Call it the ambivalent marriage — not always terrible, but not always great, either. While many couples can no doubt relate to this not bad, but not good, state of affairs, new research shows that ambivalence in a relationship — the feeling that a partner may be unpredictable with his or her support or negativity — can take a quiet toll on the health of an individual. ... Arthur Aron of the Interpersonal Relationships Lab at Stony Brook University in New York, notes that every marriage will inevitably have good and bad qualities. But Dr.
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What we talk about when we talk about rape
Los Angeles Times: When I was a young social psychologist and feminist in the 1970s, I never imagined that I would be asked to testify for the defense in a rape case. Rape laws at the time still included the "marital rape exemption," with rape commonly defined as "an act of sexual intercourse with a female, not one's wife, against her will and consent." Men joked about this. "If you can't rape your wife," California state Sen.
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Harvard’s Amy Cuddy is changing lives with a simple pose
The Boston Globe: Amy Cuddy’s directive was simple: Raise your arms in a V shape over your head, keep your posture straight, and hold the pose for two minutes. But when she explained the logic behind this seemingly elementary “power pose” during her 2012 TED Talk, she changed lives. More than 28 million people have watched her talk, “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are,” online. And she’s contacted daily by fans who say that just by tweaking their habits and posture, they’ve become happier, more successful people. Read the whole story: The Boston Globe
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What Is Social Anxiety?
The Atlantic: People today might not actually be avoiding social interaction any more than they did in past decades, but they’re certainly more vocal about it. The rise of digital communication seems to be spawning a nation of indoor cats, all humble-bragging about how introverted they are and ordering their rides and groceries without ever talking to a human. Sometimes reclusiveness can be a sign of something more serious, though. Social anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses, but it’s still poorly understood outside of scientific circles. The good news is that it’s highly treatable, according to Stefan G.
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How Salad Can Make Us Fat
The New York Times: WHEN marketing researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School rigged shopping carts at a major East Coast supermarket with motion-tracking radio-frequency tags, they unwittingly stumbled on a metaphor for our path through the aisles of life. Route data from more than 1,000 shoppers, matched to their purchases at checkout, revealed a clear pattern: Drop a bunch of kale into your cart and you’re more likely to head next to the ice cream or beer section. The more “virtuous” products you have in your basket, the stronger your temptation to succumb to vice. ...
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The Life Scientific
BBC Radio 4: Professor Robert Plomin talks to Jim Al-Khalili about what makes some people smarter than others and why he's fed up with the genetics of intelligence being ignored. Born and raised in Chicago, Robert sat countless intelligence tests at his inner city Catholic school. College was an attractive option mainly because it seemed to pay well. Now he's one of the most cited psychologists in the world. He specialized in behavioural genetics in the mid seventies when the focus in mainstream psychology was very much on our nurture rather than our nature, and genetics was virtually taboo. Read the whole story: BBC Radio 4
