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Why Coffee Shops Boost Concentration
New research might explain why many people who have the option of working from home readily swap out their pajamas for pants and their couch for a seat at the local coffee shop – sitting next to someone busily typing away can increase your own concentration and mental effort. In two experiments, Belgian psychological scientists Kobe Desender, Sarah Beurms, and Eva Van den Bussche demonstrated that -- under the right circumstances -- concentration can be contagious. “In the current study, we showed for the first time that the exertion of mental effort is contagious.
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When Daydreaming Becomes a Problem
The Wall Street Journal: Can daydreaming become extreme to the point where it impacts daily functioning? It is a controversial notion, but Eli Somer, a clinical professor of psychology at the University of Haifa in Israel, believes extreme daydreaming—when individuals immerse themselves in vivid alternative universes which they prefer to reality—should be considered a mental disorder with a clinical diagnosis and treatment options. ... Eric Klinger, a professor emeritus in the psychology discipline at the University of Minnesota, Morris, doesn’t believe there is currently enough evidence suggesting that maladaptive daydreaming should be its own separate mental condition.
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The real reason some people end up with partners who are way more attractive
The Washington Post: You’ve probably come across those couples where one partner is significantly more attractive than the other. It’s often fodder for fictional comedy – think of oafish Homer and demure Marge in "The Simpsons," Peter and Lois Griffin in "Family Guy," or this fake article in the Onion. In real life, of course, it’s also a source of pain for some couples, who may be hurt and embarrassed to hear that their partner “could do so much better than you.” While there are all kinds of variations within partners, mixed-attractiveness couples do go somewhat against the grain.
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We Know You Hate ‘Moist.’ What Other Words Repel You?
The New York Times: Moist. Luggage. Crevice. Stroke. Slacks. Phlegm How did those words make you feel? Certain everyday words drive some people crazy, a phenomenon experts call “word aversion.” But one word appears to rise above all others: “moist.” For that reason, a recent paper in the journal PLOS One used the word as a stand-in to explore why people find some terms repellent. “It doesn’t really fit into a lot of existing categories for how people think about the psychology of language,” the study’s author, Paul Thibodeau, a professor of psychology at Oberlin College, said of moist.
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Why Richer People Spend More Time With Their Friends
The Atlantic: In the 1994 movie adaptation of the comic book Richie Rich, Macaulay Culkin plays a boy whose immense wealth keeps him having from a normal, friend-filled childhood. The movie’s happy ending—Richie ditches his stuffy prep-school milieu and becomes rich in friendship with some middle-class kids from the sandlot—points to a reassuring PG-movie morality. However, according to a new study in Social Psychological and Personality Science, it may actually be high earnings that bestow Americans with the ability to spend more time with friends.
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Better Math Skills Predict Bigger Bank Accounts
Having a head for numbers is an ability that people can bank on—quite literally. Being good with numbers gives people an edge in all kinds of jobs, from investment banking to professional poker. But the ability to quickly and intuitively crunch numbers—a skill called numeracy—doesn’t just give people an edge in math class. New research shows that it can also lead to greater personal wealth. Numeracy skills go beyond the capacity to calculate numbers, extending to other important abilities like reasoning, information processing, and accurately analyzing risk.
