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Stop cheering me up: Some people don’t want to hear it
TODAY: So, your friend is wailing about the miseries of her bush league job, failed romance, clunker of a car, and all-around lousy life. Instead of trying to cheer her up by saying something positive like “things will get better,” you might be better off agreeing that right now her life does indeed stink. Surprisingly, being a Debbie Downer might save you some angst, too, according to new research published in the July issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Read the whole story: TODAY
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401(k) Contributors May Take Fewer Sick Days, Study Suggests
Employees who frequently call in sick can disrupt work flow and hamper productivity. It’s not easy to determine whether new hires will end up being chronic absentees. But a new study reveals one possible harbinger — their lack of participation in the company retirement plan. What’s the connection between absenteeism and retirement saving? Researchers Timothy Gubler and Lamar Pierce of Washington University in St. Louis believe some of the same psychological factors that drive our health behaviors also influence our financial decision-making.
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When ‘I Believe’ Backfires
New York Magazine: It’s the epitome of classic American optimism: The U.S. national team’s World Cup chant, I believe that we will win! Ahead of today’s knockout match against Belgium, ESPNFC.com has a short history of the cheer. The music swells, the “I believe” chant repeats — it’s hard not to watch the two-minute video without getting a little misty-eyed. Yes, I do believe! And maybe it’ll work for the U.S. today — it certainly seems to have so far. But — and here Science of Us offers its sincerest apologies for being a complete and total buzzkill — in everyday life, emerging evidence suggests the “I believe” attitude tends to backfire.
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Large Portion Sizes: Bad for business?
Scientific American: I’m not a big fan of milkshakes. But after a dental operation a few years ago, I decided to try one again. Not too bad, I remember thinking as I sipped the cool, chocolaty concoction. Unfortunately, a bad reaction to my pain medication later that evening meant the milkshake became associated with less than pleasant memories. I haven’t had another since. Memories can play an important role in how soon we want to eat a food again. A person’s memory of the last few bites of a food appear to be especially influential, according to new research published in Psychological Science this month.
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How to Become a Better Reader
Real Simple: Between urgent work e-mails, status updates, tweets, and magazines, you read all the time, right? But when was the last time you lost yourself in a book? The experience of becoming fully immersed in plot and character, “hearing” the words as you read, then carrying those words with you for a while—called “deep reading” by many literacy experts—offers benefits beyond the fun factor. When you’re engaged in this set of operations, your brain isn’t simply taking in surface information.
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The Truth About Free Will: New Answers to Humanity’s Biggest Riddle
Salon: Philosophers have debated for years whether we deliberately make each of the many decisions we make every day, or if our brain does it for us, on autopilot. Neuroscientists have shown, for example, that neurons in the brain initiate our response to various stimuli milliseconds before we’re even aware that we’re taking such an action. This heady debate has hit a very practical road in the past decade: whether individuals who commit crimes are actually responsible for them. Lawyers have argued in court that if the brain determines the mind, then defendants may not be responsible for their transgressions. Read the whole story: Salon
