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Les aliments gras remonteraient le moral, indépendamment de leur goût
Metro France: Une étude belge, publiée cette semaine dans le Journal of Clinical Investigation, renseigne sur les envies d'aliments gras que peuvent éprouver les personnes ayant le morale en berne. Surprise : elles n'auraient rien à voir avec leur goût. es chercheurs de l'Université de Louvain (Belgique) ont choisi douze participants de poids normal et en bonne santé, auxquels ils ont injecté des solutions concentrées en acides gras et des solutions de sérum physiologique, en présence d'images et de musique triste ou neutre. Les sujets auxquels on a injecté la solution grasse se disaient moins tristes que les personnes ayant reçu le sérum physiologique. Lire plus: Metro France
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Copying Someone’s Behavior? Watch Who You Mimic
LiveScience: While imitating another may be a sincere form of flattery, such mirroring can get you into trouble socially if you're copying the wrong person, new research shows. When participants in the study mirrored (or copied the mannerisms of) an unlikeable person, they were also judged as less competent and likeable by others, the researchers found. Mirroring happens all the time and has been shown to involve mirror neurons, which are the cells in the brain that activate when we watch someone else perform a particular action that we also perform ourselves. Read more: LiveScience
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Beat loneliness – to avoid a stroke: Why isolation is as bad for you as smoking
Daily Mail: Loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking. It seems astonishing, I know, but scientific research suggests that social isolation, in the long term, is as damaging as a 15-a-day cigarette habit or being an alcoholic. Other studies have found that those with a poor social network are at increased risk of dementia and high blood pressure, that the genes we need to fight off serious viral infections seem to be less active in the lonely than in the rest of the population, and that loneliness may cause cancer or heart disease. Read more: Daily Mail
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Uncommon knowledge
Boston Globe: DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS may or may not supplement one’s health, but they can have at least one serious side effect: bad behavior. Researchers offered people either a multivitamin or a pill that they were told was a placebo - although both pills were actually placebos. Those in the multivitamin group reported feeling more invulnerable and, in turn, reported more interest in hedonistic activities and less interest in healthy eating and exercise. Indeed, in an actual walking task, they ended up walking a lot less. Read more: Boston Globe
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The Other Side of the Mirror
Forbes: I’ve posted previously about the power of mirroring – that gentle mimicry that acts as a kind of “social glue” in business relationships. Mirroring signals rapport, trust, and cohesion. Two people who like and agree with one another will often unknowingly place their bodies in mirror images of one another and even unconsciously move in synchrony. And this “limbic symmetry” strengthens their bond. When done with intent, mirroring can be a useful leadership technique in sales, negotiations, job interviews, collaboration and team building.
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Political Negotiations Also Shaped By Human Psychology
NPR: We all know congressional negotiators are trying to balance party and ideology, principle and pragmatism. But negotiators are people, too, and psychology has some useful things to say about the ongoing debt-ceiling standoff. Here are some key ideas to keep in mind. CHOICES: Behavioral economists find that people tend to make much better decisions about their future selves, rather than their present selves. Ask the alcoholic whether he is ready to give up booze next year and he'll find it easy to say yes. Ask him right now to walk by the bar and he'll balk. The same phenomenon shows up all the time for people who aren't alcoholics. Read more: NPR
