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Why We Worry About Shark Attacks, Not Car Crashes
Our perceptions of risk don’t always match reality, being swayed by factors beyond logic and numbers.
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Firearm Shooting Errors Could Be Reduced Through Cognitive Training
Shooting a firearm requires coordinating many actions that depend upon core cognitive abilities, including the critical ability to stop just before pulling the trigger. People who have difficulty inhibiting responses are more likely to shoot unarmed civilians in simulated scenarios, but response inhibition training can help to reduce these shooting errors, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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How an Insomnia Therapy Can Help With Other Illnesses
The New York Times: It’s a Catch-22 that even those with a common cold experience: Illness disrupts sleep. Poor sleep makes the symptoms of the illness worse. What’s true for a cold also holds for more serious conditions that co-occur with insomnia. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol dependence, fibromyalgia, cancer and chronic pain often give rise to insomnia, just as sleeplessness exacerbates the symptoms of these diseases. Historically, insomnia was considered a symptom of other diseases. Today it is considered an illness in its own right and recognized as an amplifier of other mental and physical ailments.
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Gchat Venting Is Only Making You Madder
New York Magazine: There is really only one way I deal with indignation, be it righteous or ridiculous, if I happen to be at a computer when it happens: I take it to Gchat. I find a friend with the little green dot next to their name, and I’m off, maniacally pouring my (often misspelled and typo-ridden) frustrations into the little chat window. Melissa is typing. Melissa has entered text. But it’s all fair. Sooner rather than later, I’ll likely be on the receiving end of a similar rant from a friend, talking (typing?) them down about some irritating thing their boss or boyfriend or whoever did.
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The science of sleeping in, and why you probably shouldn’t
PBS: I hate sleeping in, but that’s mainly because I can’t. Almost every day, since I was a teen, regardless of whether it’s a weekday, weekend or holiday, I wake up at 6 a.m. As an early bird, I admit to some delusions of morning grandeur — “Let’s wake up early Saturday and climb a mountain!” — but being a morning lark has proved annoying to others in my life, particularly those who function by “catching up” on sleep over the weekends. Maybe you’ve experienced this too? Your boyfriend/girlfriend/life partner/spouse groans as you roll out of bed at the crack of dawn, eager to climb mountains.
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Empathy Is Actually a Choice
The New York Times: ONE death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic. You’ve probably heard this saying before. It is thought to capture an unfortunate truth about empathy: While a single crying child or injured puppy tugs at our heartstrings, large numbers of suffering people, as in epidemics, earthquakes and genocides, do not inspire a comparable reaction. Studies have repeatedly confirmed this. It’s a troubling finding because, as recent research has demonstrated, many of us believe that if more lives are at stake, we will — and should — feel more empathy (i.e., vicariously share others’ experiences) and do more to help. Read the whole story: The New York Times
