-
Individual Brain Activity Predicts Tendency to Succumb to Daily Temptations
Activity in areas of the brain related to reward and self-control may offer neural markers that predict whether people are likely to resist or give in to temptations, like food.
-
Psychological Consequences Of Calling Obesity A Disease
NPR: I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'd like to thank Celeste Headlee for sitting in for me while I was away. On the program today, we are focusing on some interesting health issues that might be on your mind after a week of holiday meals and family gatherings. Later, we will tell you about some interesting new findings about depression in new mothers who are living in multigenerational households. But we're going to start by talking about obesity, which affects 1 in 3 Americans. Last year, you might remember, the American Medical Association, the nation's largest physicians group, classified obesity as a disease.
-
The Search for Our Inner Lie Detectors
The New York Times: Is a job applicant lying to you? What about your boss, or an entrepreneur who is promising to double your investment? Most of us are bad at spotting a lie. At least consciously. New research, published last month in Psychological Science, suggests that we have good instincts for judging liars, but that they are so deeply buried that we can’t get at them. This finding is the work of Leanne ten Brinke, a forensic psychologist — she previously studied parents who killed their children and lied about it — who has turned her attention to the business world. “Perhaps our own bodies know better than our conscious minds who is lying,” explained Dr.
-
An Ill-Timed Smile Can Hurt You in Negotiations
Smiling can be a disarming expression on a date or at a social gathering. But in the boardroom, it could prove perilous. A new psychological study examines how the interpretation of facial expressions can impact economic decision making in a business setting. "A business person in a negotiation should be careful about managing his or her emotions because the person across the table is making inferences based on facial expressions," said Peter Carnevale, professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. "For example, a smile at the wrong time can discourage cooperation." The study—a joint project between Carnevale and Celso M.
-
Chopping the Cherry Tree: How Kids Learn Honesty
Back in the 90s, in the midst of the so-called culture wars, Republican moralist William Bennett published a hefty collection of stories and fables and poems called the Book of Virtues. The bestselling volume extolled timeless values like courage and compassion and honesty. At the same time, Herbert Kohl and Colin Greer authored an anthology called A Call To Character, which also used stories to promote a somewhat different set of timeless values. The dueling miscellanies represented a fundamental and acrimonious division over how to raise and instruct the next generation of American citizens.
-
You Feel Closer to Your Destination Even When You’re Not
Pacific Standard: If there’s one thing science is good at, it’s showing us how things we do every day affect the way we think and feel about the world in ways we’d never imagine. Take, for example, moving around. You probably wouldn’t expect the simple act of getting closer or further away from a place changes your perspective on that place very much, if at all. But, according to a new study, it totally does. Sam Maglio and Evan Polman, of the University of Toronto and University of Wisconsin-Madison, respectively, recently hit the streets of Toronto and Vancouver and interviewed pedestrians at strategically chosen subway stops, crosswalks, and a mall.
