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A (new and revised) silver linings playbook
The Serenity Prayer is the cornerstone of many addiction recovery programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous. Borrowed from the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, it is most often recited this way today: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The prayer captures the paradoxical nature of addiction and recovery. Alcoholics must accept the fact that they are powerless over alcohol and cannot drink, ever. But alcoholics are still agents with plenty of personal power to change their own lives.
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You, An Idea Thief? Say It Isn’t So.
The Wall Street Journal: All good things come to an end. By 1970, the beloved Beatles had decided to go their separate ways. Within a year, George Harrison reached No. 1 with a solo song, “My Sweet Lord.” But his sweet time at the top was short-lived. Within a month, a lawsuit was filed. Harrison’s song had original lyrics, but shared a melody and harmony with the 1963 hit song by the Chiffons, “He’s So Fine.” Was the Beatles’ lead guitarist guilty of plagiarism? ... The psychologist Dan Gilbert calls this kleptomnesia: generating an idea that you believe is novel, but in fact was created by someone else. It’s accidental plagiarism, and it’s all too common in creative work.
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Low Self-Control Promotes Selfless Behavior in Close Relationships
When faced with the choice of sacrificing time and energy for a loved one or taking the self-centered route, people’s first impulse is to think of others, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “For decades psychologists have assumed that the first impulse is selfish and that it takes self-control to behave in a pro-social manner,” says lead researcher Francesca Righetti of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
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Oh, the Humanity. Putting Faces on Social Causes
The Huffington Post: Back in the 1940s, the U.S. Forest Service began a public service campaign aimed at preventing forest fires. It featured Smokey Bear, a humanized caricature of a bear wearing blue jeans and a ranger's hat. In a kind, gravelly voice, Smokey enlisted public support with slogans, his most famous being: "Remember -- only you can prevent forest fires." Smokey's effort is considered one of the most enduring and effective advertising campaigns of all time. I know the ads worked for me as a boy. I grew up in a heavily wooded area, and became extremely cautious about matches and campfires as a result of Smokey's message, as did all my friends.
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Which Comes First — Optimism Or Good Health?
LiveScience: Boosting optimism, defined as the general expectation that the future will be favorable, could provide new ways to improve health, some researchers believe. But scientists remain unsure if optimism precedes health improvements, or vice versa. Julia Boehm, a psychologist at Harvard University, and her colleagues performed what she describes as one of the first studies to investigate a measurable link between psychological and physiological health. To test the correlation, researchers focused on the association between optimism and antioxidant concentration in the body. Antioxidants can help combat disease by neutralizing unstable molecules called free radicals.
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What Causes Obesity? Answer May Affect Your Waistline
LiveScience: People's beliefs about what causes obesity may affect their waistlines, according to a new report. People who named a lack of exercise as the main cause of obesity were more likely to be heavier than those who blamed a poor diet, according to the findings. "Across multiple studies, we found the first evidence that people generally have two different lay theories about what causes obesity, and that these beliefs impact people's actual likelihood of being overweight," wrote the study authors, led by Brent McFerran, a marketing professor and social psychologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Read the whole story: LiveScience
