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Certain Kinds of Passion Can Take a Toll on Self-Esteem
Whether it’s the drive of an Olympic athlete, the vision of an entrepreneur, or the skill of a fantasy role-playing game champion (more on that later), intense passion often inspires admiration. But the findings from a recent study in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggest that not all passions are created equal; some kinds of passion may even be harmful to your health. Geneviéve A. Mageau and Joëlle Carpentier of the Université de Montréal and Robert J. Vallerand of Université du Québec à Montréal wanted to test Vallerand’s Dualistic Model of Passion.
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Why old people are more happy: They have learnt to avert their eyes from things likely to bring them down
The Daily Mail: Older people are happier than younger adults because, simply, they avert their eyes from things that are likely to make them upset, research shows. The finding explains research that has shown that older adults display more positive emotions and are quicker to regulate out of negative emotional states than younger adults. Given the declines in cognitive functioning and physical health that tend to come with age, we might expect that age would be associated with worse moods, not better ones. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Looking for Trouble (and Seeing It)
The Huffington Post: I've known a few troublemakers over the years. These were guys with huge chips on both shoulders, who would gladly pick a fight if you looked at them wrong. And looking at them wrong could really mean doing nothing provocative at all, because they saw signs of hostility and threat where others did not, especially in others' faces. They were literally looking for trouble. Scientists and clinicians are interested in the dynamic interaction of perception and aggression. Looking for trouble, and seeing it, may be a deep cognitive bias--a negativity bias--that distorts normal emotional processing.
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Smiling during stress may help the heart
United Press International: People who smile even though they don't feel like it had lower heart beat levels, U.S. researcher suggest. Psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman of the University of Kansas conducted a series of experiments involving 169 participants from a Midwestern university. The study involved two phases -- training and testing. During the training phase, participants were divided into three groups, and each group was trained to hold a different facial expression. For the testing phase, participants were asked to work on multitasking activities. What the participants didn't know was that the multitasking activities were designed to be stressful.
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Athlete rituals a theater of the bizarre
Deutsche Welle: Michael Phelps may be known for winning a record 22 Olympic medals. What's less known is that whenever he gets ready to race, he walks to the starting block, takes off his headphones that have been blasting Michael Jackson, and swings his arms three times. Before tennis player Serena Williams won gold in women's singles, she took her shower sandals to the court, tied her shoelaces in a specific way and bounced the ball five times, as she has in every competition for more than 15 years. She also wore the same pair of socks she had been wearing throughout the Olympics, like she does at every tournament. Athletes are often a superstitious lot.
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Can You Guess These Athletes’ Nationalities?
Slate: Watching the Summer Olympics can be confusing; there are people of more nationalities in one place than you’d see in a Coke commercial. Depending on the sport, it can be hard to tell where the athletes are from (there’s not a lot of flag space on a Speedo). One minute you’re cheering for what you think is an American hero, the next she’s waving a Union Jack over her head and belting out “God Save the Queen.” But several decades of research suggests there are subtle ways to pick an American athlete out of a crowd based on just a smile or a wave. ...
