-
Why It’s So Hard to Put ‘Future You’ Ahead of ‘Present You’
I have this awful, corny joke I trot out whenever I’m glossing over details for future plans with friends or brushing off something I don’t want to deal with: “That’s Future Tim’s problem. Let that chump deal with it.” Poor, poor Future Tim. Constantly set up for failure by that jerk Past Tim. As Present Tim — who, ahem, is always on top of things — I can say that Past Tim isn’t bad. He’s just wired that way. And I’m sure as you’re reading this, a few instances come to mind of when Past You has, quite inconsiderably, set up Future You for failure. Why do we do this to ourselves? What makes us act against our own self-interest, even when we are acutely aware we’re doing so?
-
The invisible people are shouting ‘We’re here! We’re corporeal! Get used to it!’
Several years ago, a pair of college-age women took turns walking on a well-traveled path across the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Upon encountering another pedestrian, the women did one of three things: met that person’s eyes; met that person’s eyes and smiled; or looked toward their eyes but past them — “looking at them as if they were air,” in the words of Eric D. Wesselmann. Wesselmann is a psychology professor, now at Illinois State University. The experiment that he and his colleagues conducted was created to study feelings of connection and exclusion.
-
Walter Mischel Remembrances
Walter Mischel, Psychologist Who Created ‘Marshmallow Test,’ Dies at 88 The Washington Post The experiment was “simplicity itself,” its creator, psychologist Walter Mischel, would later recall. The principal ingredient was a cookie or a pretzel stick or — most intriguingly to the popular imagination — a marshmallow. In what became known as “the marshmallow test,” a child was placed in a room with a treat and presented with a choice. She could eat the treat right away. Or she could wait unaccompanied in the room, for up to 20 minutes, and then receive two treats in reward for her forbearance. Conducting their work at a nursery school on the campus of Stanford University in the 1960s, Dr.
-
People Like You More Than You Know
As a young child, I was painfully shy. I’d watch other children at play in the park, wishing I could join their ranks for a game of tag, hide-and-seek, or jump rope, but too scared to approach them. Eventually, my mother would come to the rescue. She’d get up from the bench where she was sitting with the other moms, take my hand, and ask the other kids if I could play too. The answer was always yes (I’m sure the other children didn’t want to get in trouble with their own moms), and then I’d be all set for the rest of the afternoon… until the pattern repeated itself the next day.
-
How to Be Better at Parties
Whether you love them or hate them, parties are important. They are where people meet future business and romantic partners and friends, where small talk becomes the stuff of life. Who among us, save the most self-sufficient and confident partygoer (and who is that insufferable person, anyway?), wouldn’t like to party better? This guide will teach you how to make seamless, beautiful small talk that leads to important conversations and connections. It will ease you into mingling effortlessly, and it will even demonstrate the right way to leave (without ruining your life). Go forth and party.
-
Is Hypnosis Real? Here’s What Science Says
Look into my eyes. The phrase calls to mind images of a psychotherapist swinging a pocket watch. Or maybe you picture Catherine Keener in the film Get Out, tapping her teacup and sending an unwilling man into a state of hypnotic limbo. “There are many myths about hypnosis, mostly coming from media presentations,” like fictional films and novels, says Irving Kirsch, a lecturer and director of the Program in Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School. But setting aside pop culture clichés, Kirsch says hypnosis is a well-studied and legitimate form of adjunct treatment for conditions ranging from obesity and pain after surgery to anxiety and stress.
