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‘It’s Just a Dog. Get Over It.’
The Wall Street Journal: Last week, the singer Fiona Apple told her fans that she would be canceling the South American leg of her concert tour in order to be with her dying dog. Ms. Apple's announcement, made in a four-page handwritten letter to fans, has elicited some pushback and—let's face it—some downright snarky commentary, as in: It's just a dog, Fiona. Get. Over. It. What's surprising, though, is that close to 80,000 people have "liked" Ms. Apple's Facebook FB +0.33% posting of her letter, and the vast majority of fans have supported her decision. Such expressions of support are unusual.
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What’s Your Meme? Changing the Climate Change Conversation
The New York Times: Yes we can! Ermahgerd. Occupy. I had a dream. Haters gonna hate. Tear down this wall! Gangnam Style. Drill, baby, drill. We are constantly bombarded by memes in our daily lives. Some spontaneously flare up and then burn out as quickly as they appeared, while others stick around for decades. We hardly consider their presence, much less contemplate their possible influence on our lives. Researchers in the emerging field of meme science are digging deeper, however, investigating how and why these sticky phrases or trends sink into our cultural psyche and subconsciously influence the way we process the world around us.
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Experiencing Discrimination Increases Risk-Taking, Anger, and Vigilance
Experiencing rejection not only affects how we think and feel -- over the long-term it can also influence our physical and mental health. New research suggests that when rejection comes in the form of discrimination, people respond with a pattern of thoughts, behaviors, and physiological responses that may contribute to overall health disparities. “Psychological factors, like discrimination, have been suggested as part of the causal mechanisms that explain how discrimination gets ‘under the skin’ to affect health,” says psychological scientist and senior researcher Wendy Berry Mendes of the University of California, San Francisco.
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Suffer. Spend. Repeat.
The New York Times: In these final weeks before the holidays, it may strike you that retailers have gone out of their way to make holiday shopping as unpleasant an experience as possible. The odd truth is that they probably have. And there’s a reason for that: evidence suggests that the less comfortable you are during the seasonal shopping spree, the more money you’ll spend. ... In a vivid demonstration of the effect in 1999, the psychologists Barbara Price Davis and Eric W. Knowles sent researchers door to door, selling holiday cards for charity. When they described the price as $3 for one package of cards, 35 percent of people decided to buy.
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Is Depression an Emotional Mush?
The Huffington Post: I have a vivid memory of dropping my oldest son off at college, the first day of his freshman year, many years ago. He stood outside his dorm, waving as I drove away, and I was overcome by a complex mix of emotions. I was unquestionably sad -- the tears testified to that -- but I wasn't morose or agitated, and I kind of knew that this sadness would pass. In fact, I was in the same moment keenly aware of a range of powerful and positive emotions -- pride that my son had earned his way into a fine university, relief that he seemed well-adjusted and untroubled and had solid friends. He seemed to be landing OK, and the moment was bittersweet. ...
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Cheese And Raw Veggies May Be Antidote To Kids’ Mindless Eating
NPR: It's hard to eat just one potato chip. The salt, the fat, the crunch — no wonder we mindlessly munch away, especially if we're parked in front of the TV. ... But here's what Mindless Eating author Brian Wansink found in a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics: Kids who snacked on a cheese and veggie combo ate about 70 percent fewer calories than those who snacked on potato chips, yet reported feeling satiated. Wansink found that the effect of eating fewer calories was even most pronounced among overweight children. So who participated in the study? About 200 children in grades three through six.
