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Can Upward Mobility Cost You Your Health?
The New York Times: Americans love a good rags-to-riches story. Even in an age of soaring inequality, we like to think that people can still make it big here if they work hard and stay out of trouble. The socioeconomic reality of most of the last four decades — stagnant wages, soaring income and wealth inequality, and reduced equality of opportunity — have dented, but not destroyed, the appeal of the American dream. Those who do climb the ladder, against the odds, often pay a little-known price: Success at school and in the workplace can exact a toll on the body that may have long-term repercussions for health.
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The Relationship Between Anxiety and Performance
Harvard Business Review: I choked. It was just a middle-school tennis match against a manifestly worse player, but I became overwhelmed with anxiety. Before we’d started, the most important thing was to win. But during the match, I just wanted to get off the court fast. Burping uncontrollably, afraid of throwing up, I hit balls out. I hit them into the net. I double-faulted. And I lost 6-1, 6-0. After shaking hands and running off the court, I felt immediate relief. My distended stomach settled. My anxiety relented. And then self-loathing took over. This was a challenge match for a lower-ladder JV position. The stakes were low, but to me they felt existentially high.
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New Year’s Resolutions and the Fear of Losing Money
The New Yorker: To commit to a New Year’s resolution is to gamble. Gym memberships and weight-loss programs are expensive, but they’re good investments if they bring health and happiness. Unfortunately, as I learned eight years ago, people don’t take the prospect of losing money lightly. In the summer of 2005, I interviewed dozens of habitual gamblers in Atlantic City. I waited as they stumbled from the casino onto the boardwalk, squinting into the sunshine, and asked each one a string of questions about their gambling beliefs. Many believed that a roulette wheel could become “stuck” on red or black (known as the hot-hand fallacy).
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Fake It ‘Til You Make It: Why Faking Confidence Is Actually A Really Good Strategy at Work
Bustle: You’ve probably heard the phrase ”fake it ‘til you make it.” The idea is that imitating confidence — be it at work, in romance, or whatever — can A) trick people into thinking you’re competent and confident and B) eventually lead to actual competence and confidence. But does it really work? Experts say yes! In an article at Fast Company, Drake Baer, co-author of organizational psychology book Everything Connects, looks at how appearances can be convincing when it comes to confidence. “In a perfect — or at least more rational world — the most qualified people would rise fastest,” Baer writes.
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Where Americans Get Enough Exercise
The Atlantic Cities: The new year is a time when many of us vow to head back to the gym. Moderate exercise not only helps us slim down and look better, it's also associated with all sorts of good health outcomes, from higher energy and productivity, better sleep and sex, and even greater longevity. In many cases, exercise may treat diseases as effectively as drugs, as one BMJ study recently showed. Everyone knows it, but not everybody does it. Just a month after making those New Year's resolutions, 36 percent will already have given up, according to University of Scranton psychologist John Norcross. Read the whole story: The Atlantic Cities
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Why “Just Say No” Doesn’t Work
Scientific American: “Just say no.” In 1982 First Lady Nancy Reagan uttered those three words in response to a schoolgirl who wanted to know what she should say if someone offered her drugs. The first lady's suggestion soon became the clarion call for the adolescent drug prevention movement in the 1980s and beyond. Since then, schools around the country have instituted programs designed to discourage alcohol and drug use among youth—most of them targeting older elementary schoolchildren and a few addressing adolescents. There is good reason for concern about youth substance abuse. A large U.S. survey conducted in 2012 by psychologist Lloyd D.
