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Why We Like People Who Share Our Taste In Music
The Huffington Post: When you're at a party and you meet new people, you'd like to have some way to get to know about them quickly. You can try to talk about sports with people, but not everyone follows sports. You can try to talk about politics, but those conversations can get heated quickly. Instead, people often ask others about music. Finding out the music that someone else likes seems to give you a lot of information about them, quickly.
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Could stock market stress induce poorer financial decisions?
Los Angeles Times: The Dow Jones industrial average's wicked drops this week seem to have many investors turning to U.S. Treasury bonds and otherwise retreating into defensive economic positions to wait out the apparent financial meltdown. But the results from a recent study indicated that stress, perhaps in the form of an unstable stock market or high unemployment, might cause people to make even more risky financial decisions. A 2009 paper published in the journal Psychological Science showed how people's decision-making changed in response to acute stress.
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Spoiler Alert: Stories Are Not Spoiled by ‘Spoilers’
Many of us go to extraordinary lengths to avoid learning the endings of stories we have yet to read or see – plugging our ears, for example, and loudly repeating “la-la-la-la,” when discussion threatens to reveal the outcome. Of book and movie critics, we demand they not give away any plot twists or, at least, oblige with a clearly labeled “spoiler alert.” We get angry with friends who slip up and spill a fictional secret. But we’re wrong and wasting our time, suggests a new experimental study from the University of California, San Diego. People who flip to the last page of a book before starting it have the better intuition. Spoilers don’t spoil stories.
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Influence Your Child’s Palate Before Birth
ABC News: Want to instill in your child a love of vegetables? Start early. Very early. New research by the Monell Chemical Senses Center finds mothers can influence a baby's palate and food memories before it is born. The study finds that what a woman eats during her pregnancy shapes the baby's food preferences later in life. In the womb, the baby is surrounded and nourished on the amniotic fluid, which is filled with the flavors of what the mom has eaten. Read more: ABC News
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Moving On and Moving Up in the World
Huffington Post: As the forward-thinking science of positive psychology enters its second decade, the study of well-being is evolving both inside and out. This past July, at the Second World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia over 1200 attendees from over 62 countries gathered to present new research and pose important challenges facing this young field. President of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) Antonella Delle Fave of the University degli Studi di Milano, addressed the importance of cultural relevance as to what is valued and meaningful, and pointed to challenges positive psychology has faced in looking beyond the western perspective.
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Salute: L’Estate Dei Bambini, Salgari E Harry Potter Per Imparare Nuove Parole
Agenzia Stampa Quotidiana Nazionale: Non è vero che le donne sono meno propense al rischio degli uomini, nei fatti molto dipende dal tipo di limite che si deve superare. Se ad esempio si parla di business, sono gli uomini a rischiare di più, mentre le donne hanno maggiore coraggio nel prendere una posizione impopolare quando si tratta di parlare in pubblico. A descrivere le differenze è uno studio pubblicato su Psychological Science che ha analizzato le differenze.
