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Visions of sugarplums: The psychology of holiday temptation
Americans typically gain a pound between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. That may not sound like much to worry about, but the problem is that we don't lose that pound once the holiday season ends. Instead, we accumulate a pound per season, year after year, for 10, 15, 20 years and more. Looked at that way, it's no wonder that two-thirds of Americans are now obese. So all we have to do, rather than gaining that pound, is lose a pound during the holidays -- or just stay even. It's only six weeks, so let's show some discipline and skip the gravy, plum pudding and eggnog. It seems simple enough, but alas it's not, as any dieter will tell you.
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Motivation to End Racism Relies on ‘Yes We Can’ Approach
If you’re trying to end racism, it’s not enough to get people to understand that racism is still a problem. You also have to make them feel like they can do something about it, according to a study published in Psychological Science.
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Bitter Food = Bitter Guest: Choose Thanksgiving Menu Wisely
It’s that time of year again: turkey, stuffing, and gravy! As you prepare your Thanksgiving meal for family and friends, heed this warning from an upcoming article in Psychological Science: The taste of the food and drinks that you serve your guests may impact their moral judgments of you in more ways than one. Psychological scientist Kendall J. Eskine and coauthors from the University of New York noted that several studies have linked physical disgust to moral disgust, but no study has explored morality in conjunction with taste. In their experiment, students drank either a sweet (Minute Maid Berry Punch), bitter (Swedish Bitters), or control (water) beverage.
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Getting Lost in Buildings: Architecture Can Bias Your Cognitive Map
Some people always know which way is north and how to get out of a building. Others can live in an apartment for years without knowing which side faces the street.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Effects of Adult Attachment and Emotional Distractors on Brain Mechanisms of Cognitive Control Stacie L. Warren, Kelly K. Bost, Glenn I. Roisman, Rebecca Levin Silton, Jeffrey M. Spielberg, Anna S. Engels, Eunsil Choi, Bradley P. Sutton, Gregory A. Miller, and Wendy Heller Adults with insecure attachment styles may have difficulties regulating emotions and this may put them at an increased risk for mental health problems. Volunteers underwent fMRI scans while performing an emotion-word Stroop task.
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Upper-Class People Have Trouble Recognizing Others’ Emotions
Upper-class people have more educational opportunities, greater financial security, and better job prospects than people from lower social classes, but that doesn't mean they're more skilled at everything. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds surprisingly, that lower-class people are better at reading the emotions of others. The researchers were inspired by observing that, for lower-class people, success depends more on how much they can rely on other individuals.
