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How to Maximize the Surprising Upsides to Aging
It turns out there’s science behind the old saw “the older you get, the wiser you are.” Laura Carstensen, founding director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity, says research has made surprising discoveries about the way older people view their lives. With fewer “what-ifs,” they appear to gain more clarity on their place in the world.
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Hitting the Curiosity Sweet Spot Speeds Up Learning
The world is full of things to learn. Where to start? How to choose what to pay attention to? What motivates someone to seek new knowledge? We’re often curious in a particular way: we want to learn more about things we already know a little bit about. “You can think of curiosity as the process that guides the acquisition of knowledge,” says neuroscientist Celeste Kidd of the University of California, Berkeley. We internally track how well we are learning, or our learning progress, and learning comes more easily and is more enjoyable when curiosity is high. Following our instincts appears to be a particularly rewarding way to explore the world.
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How Thanksgiving Dinner Can Make You A Better Collaborator
... The connection between food and cooperation was explored in a 2019 research article by Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach that was published by The Journal Psychological Science. The authors found that the way a meal is served matters. Shared plates provide stronger cooperation, while eating individual, separate meals brings about less coordination between people around the table.
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Forcing a Smile Using Electrical Stimulation Can Boost Your Mood
The expression “a smile a day keeps the blues away” may have some credence beyond the realm of greeting card messages. The lingering question of whether a smile or frown lifts or depresses emotion has persisted for decades and is still actively debated. ... The idea that the body plays a role in shaping how people feel and perceive the world is “old and fascinating,” says Sebastian Korb, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Essex in England and senior author of the research, which was published in Emotion.
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AI Analysis of Body Camera Videos Offers a Data-Driven Approach to Police Reform
A decade ago then president Barack Obama proposed spending $75 million over three years to help states buy police body cameras to expand their use. The move came in the wake of the killing of teenager Michael Brown, for which no body camera footage existed, and was designed to increase transparency and build trust between police and the people they served. ... Only a small number of police agencies have opened their databases to researchers so far. But if this footage were analyzed routinely, it would be a “real game changer,” says Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford University psychologist, who pioneered this line of research.
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How Soulmate Parenting Can Lead to Parent-Child Estrangement
It’s easy to sympathize with both my patient and her son. With the son for having suffered more than he might have with earlier intervention. With the mother for believing she had failed him and creating a potential end to their relationship. ... Consider, for example, recent research by Jean Twenge or Jonathan Haidt, who showed that Gen Z — those born between 1998 and 2012 — are more at risk for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and actual suicide than the generations preceding them.
