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Comfort Foods Help Alleviate Loneliness
Food Product Design: A new study in the journal Psychological Science suggests comfort foods can help fight loneliness. In the study, volunteers were asked to spend several minutes writing about a fight with a friend or loved one. Then, some in the study were either asked to write about their favorite comfort foods. Others were even served chicken soup if they had previously indicated they enjoy it. Read the whole story: Food Product Design
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How even just thinking about comfort food is good for the soul
The Daily Mail: Comfort food may be bad for the waistline but it is good for the soul, say researchers. A study found that even thinking about mashed potato, chicken soup or chocolate pudding can combat loneliness. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Think You’ll Ace That Test? Think Again. Then Start Studying
How we feel when encountering information that we’re trying to learn biases our ability to predict what we’ll remember.
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Not-so-abstract art
Science News: People who scoff that a child could have painted a splotchy, abstract piece of modern art see more in such creations than they realize. When forced to choose a favorite between a painting by a child, chimp or other animal and one by an abstract expressionist artist, people untrained in art usually picked the professional’s creation, even if it was mislabeled as that of a child or a non-human animal, say psychologists Angelina Hawley-Dolan of Boston College and Ellen Winner of Harvard University. Read the whole story: Science News
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Are the Wealthiest Countries the Smartest Countries?
U.S. News & World Report: It’s not just how free the market is. Some economists are looking at another factor that determines how much a country’s economy flourishes: how smart its people are. For a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers analyzed test scores from 90 countries and found that the intelligence of the people, particularly the smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies. Read the whole story: U.S. News & World Report
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A sobering message about free will
Addiction is a disorder of the will, yet treatment for alcoholism and other addictions often comes with decidedly mixed messages about willpower and abstinence. On the one hand, newly sober addicts and alcoholics often hear the news that two of every three of them will ultimately relapse. There is a frightening sense of inevitability in this not-so-hopeful message. On the other hand, this folk wisdom can also be heard echoing through the rooms of recovery: “Relapse is not a requirement.” Not a requirement, yet two of three will fail. This seeming contradiction can be confusing to those struggling to shake their compulsions in early sobriety.
