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Bullies Hurt By Their Own Cruelty
LiveScience: "Mean girls" might be just as hurt by their own cruelty as the people they exclude, researchers say. Engaging in social bullying causes people to feel shame and guilt and makes them feel less connected to others, a new study shows. "In real life and in academic studies, we tend to focus on the harm done to victims in cases of social aggression," study researcher Richard Ryan, professor of clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "This study shows that when people bend to pressure to exclude others, they also pay a steep personal cost.
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A Salvo in the Soda Wars
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial ban on large, sugary drinks was slated to go into effect today, but a state judge struck it down at the last minute. Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling invalidated the proposed regulations—approved by the city board of health in September—that would have prohibited city restaurants, movie theaters and other food service providers from serving sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. The regulations were intended to help curb troubling obesity rates.
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Babies Prefer Individuals Who Harm Those That Aren’t Like Them
Infants as young as nine months old prefer individuals who are nice to people like them and mean to people who aren’t like them, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In our social lives, we tend to gravitate toward people who have things in common with us, whether it’s growing up in the same town, disliking the same foods, or even sharing the same birthday. And research suggests that babies evaluate people in much the same way, preferring people who like the same foods, clothes, and toys that they like. This preference helps us to form social bonds, but it can also have a dark side.
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Frustration May Increase Attraction to Violent Video Games
Denying people the opportunity to engage in stealing, cheating, and other taboo behaviors may lead them to seek out violent video games as a way of managing their frustration.
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You’re Not as Good an Investor as You Think You Are
The Wall Street Journal: Are those who can't remember the crash condemned to repeat it? Markets have been rising and investors returning to stocks, thanks to cheap money from central banks, a rash of takeover deals, the glimmers of economic recovery—and an epidemic of amnesia. ...
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Sustainable Satisfaction: How Aging Makes Your Mind More Charitable
The Huffington Post: What is it that draws so many of us to community causes as we age? Is it just an excess of wealth that inspires philanthropy, or are our brains actually learning to perceive our relationships with the world around us in different ways? Part of the answer may be that as we grow older, we're also growing more satisfied with what we already have. According to one recent study, our overall opinions of our own well-being, our relationships and our career status tend to rise later in life -- and not just for those who've spent the past few decades clawing their way to the top. As the journal Psychological Science reports, a team led by Angelina R.
