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Diagnosing Self-Destruction
NPR: And also, Matthew Nock is professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard in Cambridge. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Dr. Nock. ... NOCK: We know there's no simple answer, and as you were highlighting, we have identified risk factors for suicide, so we know that in the U.S. people who are white, people who are male, people with a mental disorder, people with a family history of suicide or mental disorders, are at higher risk. What we haven't done yet is developed an understanding of why it is that people with these characteristics are at high risk.
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Sweaty palms, racing heart help negotiate better
Asian News International: A new study suggests that sweaty palms and a racing heart may actually help some people in get a good deal while negotiating over the price of a new car. As researchers Ashley D. Brown and Jared R. Curhan of the Sloan School of Management at MIT demonstrate in two experiments, physiological arousal isn't always detrimental. "It turns out that the effect depends on whether you are someone who dreads or looks forward to negotiating," Brown said. "It's not inherently harmful." In their first experiment, Brown and Curhan assessed participants' attitudes toward negotiation.
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Wealthy Selfies: How Being Rich Increases Narcissism
TIME: The rich really are different — and, apparently more self-absorbed, according to the latest research. That goes against the conventional wisdom that the more people have, the more they appreciate their obligations to give back to others. Recent studies show, for example, that wealthier people are more likely to cut people off in traffic and to behave unethically in simulated business and charity scenarios. Earlier this year, statistics on charitable giving revealed that while the wealthy donate about 1.3% of their income to charity, the poorest actually give more than twice as much as a proportion of their earnings — 3.2%.
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Poverty significantly saps our mental abilities say researchers
BBC: Being poor can sap a person's mental resources, research published in the journal Science suggests. The work, by an international team, demonstrates how poverty takes its toll on cognitive function, leaving less mental capacity for other tasks. The evidence comes from two studies carried out in India and the US. Previous data had shown a link between poverty and bad decision-making, but the root causes of this correlation were unclear. The US, British and Canadian team tried to shed light on this chicken-and-egg puzzle by isolating the financial factor from others that might interfere with the results.
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Math Anxiety Gets Fresh Look, Different Twist in New Research
Education Week: Considerable research suggests that girls are more anxious about math than boys, but a new study dives deeper to distinguish the general anxiety young people report about the subject from what they may be feeling in math class or at test time. It turns out the latter, "real-time" anxiety is about the same for boys and girls, the study finds. Math anxiety among females has long been of concern because, as the new research points out, prior studies have shown that it "negatively predicts" course enrollment, career choices, and lifelong learning in math fields. This is also connected to the worrisome underrepresentation of females in STEM fields.
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Fear of Holes May Stem From Evolutionary Survival Response
For those with trypophobia, the sight of clusters of holes in various formations can cause intensely unpleasant visceral reactions.
