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Would Angry Teens Chill Out If They Saw More Happy Faces?
NPR: All day long we're surrounded by faces. We see them on the subway sitting two by two, pass them on the sidewalk as we make our way to work, then nod to them in the elevator. But most of those faces don't tell us much about the emotional life of the person behind the face. "People don't just go around the world smiling or grimacing or frowning," says psychologist Marcus Munafo of the University of Bristol. "The majority of the facial expressions that you come into contact with — people walking past you in the street, for example — will be ambiguous to some extent." Read the whole story: NPR
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How Meditation Might Boost Your Test Scores
The New York Times: Mindfulness meditation, the ancient and flourishing practice that increases awareness of random thoughts and redirects attention to the present moment, has been used to manage stress, depression and even chronic pain. But can it improve test scores? Researchers in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who have been studying the relationship between mindfulness and mind-wandering, or the tendency to let our minds drift away on “task-unrelated thoughts,” as it is referred to in academic literature, sought to find out.
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Meditation May Make You Nicer
Smithsonian Magazine: Traditional Buddhists meditate in the pursuit of enlightenment. Non-religious practitioners may try it out in order to find a bit of calm or perhaps to treat anxiety or depression. But whatever their motivation, people who meditate, new research shows, act nicer than those who don’t. Researchers from Harvard University and Northeastern University recruited around three dozen participants interested in meditation. Half of the group was put on a wait list, while the other half was split into two groups. These two groups participated in meditation sessions that promote calm and focus in the mind.
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Get a grip on your stress now to avoid problems later
USA Today: Here's a good reason to get a grip on the stress in your life. If you handle stress poorly -- everything from conflicts at work to disagreements with your spouse to irritations like sitting in traffic jams -- it may put you at greater risk for anxiety disorders and other mental health issues 10 years later, a new study shows. Daily stressors can cause wear and tear on your emotional health, says Susan Charles, professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California-Irvine and lead author of the research. It's not the number of daily stressors, it's how you respond to them.
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In Sales, Confidence and Charisma May Not Seal the Deal
Think of a stereotypical salesperson and you’re likely to conjure up someone who’s extraverted, gregarious, and assertive. But a new study reveals that “ambiverts,” people who are neither introverted nor extraverted but who fall somewhere
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Calling a Bluff: Is It All in the Arms?
The Huffington Post: In a recent Radiolab interview, Duke talked about how she weighs risk and certainty and doubt in deciding to hold or fold. It's largely math, but not the straightforward odds of drawing to an inside straight. She computes odds and acceptable losses over long periods of time. Surprisingly, she said, she gets very little help from other players' "tells" -- the inadvertent facial expressions that give away emotions and intentions. Pros are very good at "disappearing" into the well-known "poker face." We all know the expression "poker face" because the face is where we expect to find meaningful information. But what if poker players are looking in the wrong place?
