-
Sadness And Shopping Are A Bad Mix On Black Friday
Forbes: If Thanksgiving left you sad you may want to consider leaving your credit cards at home before you hit the stores for Black Friday. When it comes to keeping long-term financial consequences in mind, sadder but wiser is just not true. Research, just published in Psychological Science, shows that sadness “made people more myopic, and therefore willing to forgo greater future gains in return for instant gratification.” What the researchers did was induce a sad mood by having subjects watch a short video about a boy’s mentor dying. Then they had subjects make decisions that pit short-term gain against larger long-term gains. The results? Read the whole story: Forbes
-
An Indirect Damage of Terror Attacks: Higher Traffic Fatalities
The Atlantic: On Friday, convicted terrorist Adis Medunjanin was sentenced to life in prison for plotting an attack on the New York City subway system several years back. Public transit has been the target of a number of similar efforts in the post-9/11 era: Madrid trains in 2004, London subway and buses in 2005, the Moscow metro in 2010. Fortunately, in the case of Medunjanin and his cohorts, law enforcement spoiled the plan before its execution. Society doesn't need any additional incentive to prevent a terror attack beyond avoiding the tragedy itself. When the focus of such attacks is public transit, however, stopping them doesn't just save the lives directly at stake.
-
‘It Was a Dark and Stormy Divorce…’
The Huffington Post: About 2 million men and women go through marital separation every year, and many of those separations end in divorce. These stressful and painful events are known to cause all sorts of problems later on, including serious depression and deteriorating health. Despite this, very little is known about what really works to promote healing after a difficult breakup. One promising intervention is what's known as "expressive writing," which involves disclosing one's deepest thoughts and feelings through daily writing exercises.
-
Bothered by Negative, Unwanted Thoughts? Just Throw Them Away
If you want to get rid of unwanted, negative thoughts, try just ripping them up and tossing them in the trash. In a new study, researchers found that when people wrote down their thoughts on a piece of paper and then threw the paper away, they mentally discarded the thoughts as well. The results are published online in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. On the other hand, people were more likely to use their thoughts when making judgments if they first wrote them down on a piece of paper and tucked the paper in a pocket to protect it.
-
Trying for a More Upscale, Relaxed Black Friday
The Wall Street Journal: All it can take is a few TV images of Black Friday deal-chasing—the unruly crowds, packed parking lots and frigid midnight lines—to drive many shoppers straight to the Web for their holiday shopping. That is why this year, many malls around the country are promising Black Friday bargaineers a more white-glove experience. Shopping malls are testing new services and promotions such as reserved parking spots, free refreshments and stations that hold people's packages. "It's their way of telling shoppers, 'We feel your pain,' " says John D. Morris, a senior retail analyst with financial-services firm BMO Capital Markets. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
-
Mini marathons: Tireless toddlers cover more than two and a half miles a day (but that includes 102 falls)
Daily Mail: They may be called baby steps but don’t be fooled: the average toddler walks more than two and a half miles a day. The distance - which would put many adults to shame - is made of 14,208 steps. Perhaps less surprisingly, it also includes 102 falls. To come up with the figures, the New York University researchers videoed more than 130 infants aged between 12 and 19 months as they explored a specially-designed playroom. Another 15 were taped at home. Some were ‘expert crawlers’ who had yet to start to walk. Some had just taken their first steps and a few had been toddling around for months. Read the whole story: Daily Mail
