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How the Brain Creates the ‘Buzz’ That Helps Ideas Spread
How do ideas spread? Are we able to predict what messages will go viral on social media? New research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, takes a significant step towards answering these questions, identifying for the first time a brain region associated with the successful spread of ideas, or viral “buzz.” "Our study suggests that people are regularly attuned to how the things they're seeing will be useful and interesting, not just to themselves but to other people," says the study's senior author Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences.
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Violent Video Games Don’t Make Us Less Caring
TIME: Do violent video games make people more callous and less likely to help others? The latest study suggests not— but it likely won’t be the last word. ... Dozens of other studies, however, have shown more aggression and less caring behavior following game play. Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State who led a 2010 review of the research involving nearly 70,000 participants said, “I think the field is not really divided. It is like global warming. 95% of scientists believe [videogames can cause violence and reduce empathy], and a vocal minority do not.” Read the whole story: TIME
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The Morality of Meditation
The New York Times: MEDITATION is fast becoming a fashionable tool for improving your mind. With mounting scientific evidence that the practice can enhance creativity, memory and scores on standardized intelligence tests, interest in its practical benefits is growing. A number of “mindfulness” training programs, like that developed by the engineer Chade-Meng Tan at Google, and conferences like Wisdom 2.0 for business and tech leaders, promise attendees insight into how meditation can be used to augment individual performance, leadership and productivity. ...
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Diet or Exercise: Which Matters More for Weight Loss?
Women's Health: You know you should exercise and eat healthfully to keep your weight in check. The thing is, research suggests that when people devote time to one healthy habit, they spend less time on the other. So which is more important if you're worried about your waistline: your workout or your diet? Turns out, people who think that diet is the most important factor in weight control tend to have a lower body mass index (BMI) than those who believe that exercise is the key, according to six new studies published in the journal Psychological Science. Read the whole story: Women's Health
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Feeling Stressed? Then You May Become More Helpful
TIME: How did your friend get you to babysit her kids for the weekend, or your sister talk you into hosting the next book club meeting? They probably asked when you were anxious about a work project or stressed about making an impending mortgage payment. Stress, however, isn’t traditionally associated with altruism. When self-discipline wanes, such as when you are hurried, hungry or distracted, you are less likely to be helpful to strangers (if you’re late for an appointment, you’re probably not stopping to help the person who just dropped the contents of his briefcase).
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The Suicide Detective
The New York Times: For reasons that have eluded people forever, many of us seem bent on our own destruction. Recently more human beings have been dying by suicide annually than by murder and warfare combined. Despite the progress made by science, medicine and mental-health care in the 20th century — the sequencing of our genome, the advent of antidepressants, the reconsidering of asylums and lobotomies — nothing has been able to drive down the suicide rate in the general population. ...
