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The Perils of Comparative Thinking
“I wept because I had no Porsche, and then I saw a man who had no BMW.” That’s an ancient proverb, slightly doctored for modern American sensibilities. The point is that, regardless of our life circumstances, we derive our happiness and our disappointment from comparisons with others’ fortunes. Indeed, the human brain seems to be perversely wired for relative judgments, even when the comparisons sabotage our well-being. Is there any way to avoid the comparison trap? It should be obvious that my successes or failures in life have nothing to do with you, nor do your troubles or good fortunes reflect on me. How can we make meaningful and helpful comparisons, while avoiding maladaptive ones?
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Taking Safety Personally
A year after the BP explosion and oil spill, those trying to find someone to blame are misguided, says psychological scientist E. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, and author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Geller has spent much of his 42-year career developing interventions to keep people safe, particularly helping companies develop a culture that promotes occupational safety.
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El efecto ilusorio de los suplementos nutricionales
BBC Mundo: La mayoría de estos consumidores, tal como reveló un estudio en Estados Unidos, los toman porque "son buenos para la salud". Pero ahora una nueva investigación sobre estos productos -que incluyen uno o más ingredientes de vitaminas, minerales, hierbas o aminoácidos, solos o combinados- revela que éstos podrían estar causando más problemas que beneficios. Y no se trata de riesgos físicos directos, sino podrían estar provocando en el consumidor "una ilusión" de que se es invulnerable a los problemas de salud, afirma el doctor Wen-Bin Chiou, quien dirigió la investigación en la Universidad Nacional de Sun Yat-Sen, en Taiwán.
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Control Freaks: You’re Perfect Just The Way You Are
Forbes: Are women too controlling? A Google search returns over 20 million hits on the subject, many from men who feel that the answer is a resounding yes. But men aren’t the only ones pointing fingers. Here at ForbesWoman we’ve published pieces with titles like “Tame Your Inner Control Freak,” and a week doesn’t go by when I get self-help pitches meant to help women “learn to finally let go.” Read the whole story: Forbes
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Powerful women ‘will have affairs just like men’
The Telegraph: Both men and women in powerful positions were more likely to stray than their junior colleagues because they had high self–esteem, according to the research. Researchers at Tilburg University in Holland, led by Dr Joris Lammers, a psychologist, found that, contrary to popular perceptions, women with powerful jobs were just as likely to stray sexually as men. "There's been a lot of research indicating gender is the key factor but none of these studies have been done on powerful women," Dr Lammers said. Read the whole story: The Telegraph
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Ostracism: just as bad as bullying but harder to ban
The Boston Globe: The proposed plea deal for five defendants charged in connection with harassing 15-year-old Phoebe Prince -- a South Hadley girl who committed suicide last year -- reminds us of the evils of bullying. Schools across the county have instituted anti-bullying rules, suspending students for abusing their peers with words or physical contact. But what about students who are ostracized? Ignored by their peers as if they don't exist? Consider it bullying or not, it's a form of cruelty that's tougher for authorities to prohibit, yet it can be just as psychologically damaging, says Kip Williams, a professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University.
