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Making Aging Positive
The Atlantic: Between 1900 and 2000, average life expectancy increased by nearly 30 yearsin the United States and most other developed countries of the world, and the developing world is catching up quickly. For the first time in history, most people now being born can expect to live seven, eight, nine, or more decades. This achievement changes not only the trajectory of individual lives but also the shape of societies: Adults 60 and older are now the fastest-growing segment of our population. This achievement gives rise to new important questions: What do we want to do with an extra 30 years? How should we, as individuals and as a society, shape the trajectory of our longer lives?
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Dog People vs. Cat People: Who’s More Outgoing? More Intelligent?
LiveScience: "Dog people" and "cat people" really do have different personalities, according to a new study. People who said they were dog lovers in the study tended to be more lively — meaning they were more energetic and outgoing — and also tended to follow rules closely. Cat lovers, on the other hand, were more introverted, more open-minded and more sensitive than dog lovers. Cat people also tended to be non-conformists, preferring to be expedient rather than follow the rules. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Find a Purpose, Set Goals and You’ll Live Longer, Canadian Study Finds
National Post: It takes about 14 years for a child to go through grade school, hit puberty, and be at the cusp of an inescapable question: “What are you going to do with your life?” And that’s about how long a new Canadian study took to examine the ways that having a clear life purpose may help you live longer, no matter your age. The study, published by Carleton University’s Department of Psychology, looked at the life purpose of more than 6,000 participants over a 14-year period, and was published this week in the journal Psychological Science. Read the whole story: National Post
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Taking Notes? Bring a Pen, Skip the Computer
The Boston Globe: Just about every professor has complained about students with screens in front of them flitting over to Facebook or Tumblr instead of listening to a lecture. But, those distractions aside, it’s hard to blame the kids for wanting to type their notes instead of write them out longhand. Think of how much quicker you can type an e-mail than write a letter: Digital note-taking is simply easier. A paper published online in the journal Psychological Science last month, however, suggests that longhand may actually hold an advantage when it comes to the most important reason we take notes—that is, to help us remember what we’ve heard.
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A Question of Trust: Fixing the Replication Crisis
The Guardian: Human beings are born to communicate with each other. Communication involves both trust and vigilance. We constantly monitor how reliable the information is and how trustworthy the person is who has provided the information. So what about information we get from scientists? Psychology has recently provided material that could figure in a crime scene investigation story. This is not a story about scientific fraud, but about the failure to replicate experiments. This is serious because replication is the gold standard by which we know if we can trust a result. Read the whole story: The Guardian
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Here’s a New Way to Waste Time: Pre-crastinate
New York Magazine: Introducing a newly discovered way to waste time: “Pre-crastinating,” the inverse of procrastinating. If procrastination is putting things off, pre-crastination is “the tendency to complete, or at least begin, tasks as soon as possible,” even if doing so will cost us more time and effort in the long run, according to an upcoming paper in Psychological Science (the researchers sent Science of Us an early copy). Read the whole story: New York Magazine
