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How Do Placebos Relieve Pain?
The Huffington Post: Scientists and doctors have been studying placebos for more than half a century. These inert "sugar pills" remain highly controversial, yet they are widely used in clinical treatment today -- especially in the area of pain management. So-called "placebo analgesia" has been observed again and again not only in the pain clinic, but also in the neuroscience lab, where scientists have documented a placebo response in the brain's pain pathways. Despite this evidence, nobody really understands the psychological processes involved in placebo analgesia.
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In dumb luck we can trust
The Sydney Morning Herald: For those interested in events and ideas, our days are full of explanations. Every morning the columnists tell us why politicians acted as they did yesterday. At school and university our children study the causes of historical events. Come evening and the television explains why the market has gone up or down, and the current affairs shows present pundits who predict the future of politics, economics, and international affairs. It seems that the smarter we are, the more we need to know not simply what happened, but why.
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Making Time Stand Still. Awesome.
Check out this photograph. That’s aurora borealis, or the northern lights, as seen from the upper regions of Norway earlier this week. This spectacular display was fueled by one of the most potent solar storms in a decade. One can only imagine what it must have been like to actually witness this event. It must have been truly awesome. I know. I know. Awesome is a tired, overused word these days, when everything from breakfast to a pair of sneakers can be described as awesome. Awesome is no longer connected to awe, that rare and overwhelming emotion inspired by vast and moving events.
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The Amygdala And Fear Are Not The Same Thing
In a 2007 episode of the television show Boston Legal, a character claimed to have figured out that a cop was racist because his amygdala activated - displaying fear, when they showed him pictures of black people. This link between the amygdala and fear – especially a fear of others unlike us, has gone too far, not only in pop culture, but also in psychological science, say the authors of a new paper which will be published in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Indeed, many experiments have found that the amygdala is active when people are afraid.
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People in Power Feel Taller
Scientific American: It’s known that taller people tend to have more jobs with more authority—and higher salaries. But there’s a flip side—the more powerful a person is, the taller he or she feels. The researchers who investigated this phenomenon were inspired by the BP chairman’s comment after the oil spill about the “small people.” There are many such metaphors—think “big man on campus.” Could these metaphors influence—or reflect—reality? Might powerful people actually overestimate how tall they are? Read the full story: Scientific American
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Does Technology Affect Happiness?
The New York Times: As young people spend more time on computers, smartphones and other devices, researchers are asking how all that screen time and multitasking affects children’s and teenagers’ ability to focus and learn — even drive cars. A study from Stanford University, published Wednesday, wrestles with a new question: How is technology affecting their happiness and emotional development?
