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Are Positive Emotions Good for Your Health in Old Age?
The notion that feeling good may be good for your health is not new, but is it really true? A new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reviews the existing research on how positive emotions can influence health outcomes in later adulthood. “We all age. It is how we age, however, that determines the quality of our lives,” said Anthony Ong of Cornell University, author of the review article. The data he reviews suggest that positive emotions may be a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and illness. There are several pathways through which a positive attitude can protect against poor health later in life.
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Students Are More Likely to Retake the SAT if Their Score Ends With ‘90’
High school students are more likely to retake the SAT if they score just below a round number, such as 1290, than if they score just above it. That's the conclusion of a study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, which found that round numbers are strong motivators. The work was inspired by a study that found that a car's value drops suddenly when it passes a 10,000 mile mark—so a car that has 70,000 miles is worth markedly less than one with 69,900 miles.
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Apologies Aren’t as Good as People Imagine They’ll Be
We all want an apology when someone does us wrong. But a new study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people aren't very good at predicting how much they'll value an apology. Apologies have been in the news a lot the last few years in the context of the financial crisis, says David De Cremer of Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He cowrote the study with Chris Reinders Folmer of Erasmus University and Madan M. Pillutla of London Business School. "Banks didn't want to apologize because they didn't feel guilty but, in the public eye, banks were guilty," De Cremer says.
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Irrational Optimism: ‘On Any Given Sunday’
I have been part of a family football pool for many years now. Every week, each of us predicts the winners for every NFL game, right through the playoffs, and everyone's performance is posted in a running tally. In recent years, I have been one of the very worst players in this pool, but I have a good excuse. I am a longtime Washington Redskins fan, and I pick the 'Skins week in and week out. Other family members hail from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Indianapolis, and they also tend to bet on their home teams. The difference is that those teams are all good -- and the 'Skins are not. In fact, they're been awful for many years now. So I'm in effect giving away points every week.
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Driving Simulators Help Older Adults Improve Their Road Skills
Older drivers could benefit from training programs that put them behind the wheel—in a driving simulator, with an observer who helps them develop their skills. That's the conclusion of a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Older people are at much higher risk of car crashes than younger drivers. Some states and provinces test older drivers, hoping to get the riskiest drivers off the road. But the tests they use are inadequate, says Normand Teasdale of Université Laval in Québec, who cowrote the study with Pierre-Luc Gamache, Carol Hudon, and Martin Simoneau.
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People Neglect Who They Really Are When Predicting Their Own Future Happiness
Humans are notoriously bad at predicting their future happiness. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that part of the reason for these mispredictions lies in failing to recognize the key role played by one’s own personality when determining future emotional reactions. The new evidence comes from Jordi Quoidbach, a psychological scientist at the University of Liege, Belgium. Quoidbach and Elizabeth Dunn, his collaborator at the University of British Columbia, found that our natural sunny or negative dispositions might be a more powerful predictor of future happiness than any specific event.
