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Quick Thinkers Seem Charismatic, Even If They’re Not That Smart
The Atlantic: The rapid-fire back and forth of a witty repartee is an exhilarating thing. When the conversation is ping-ponging between you and someone else—be it on a date, or in a business meeting, or at happy hour—chances are you’ll find yourself drawn to that person. And it’s the speed that’s the key, according to a new study in Psychological Science.
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Study: Just playing with money makes children more likely to work hard—and give less
Quartz: Money often does strange things to us—kids included. Many parents have observed that their children may be changed by an allowance, for example, or even just an intense game of Monopoly. And now science bears this out. According to new research from the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois at Chicago, even kids who lack concrete knowledge about what money is exhibit behavioral changes just from encountering it. ... “Money is a double-edged sword.
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Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive
Harvard Business Review: Too many companies bet on having a cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners culture to drive their financial success. But a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line. Although there’s an assumption that stress and pressure push employees to perform more, better, and faster, what cutthroat organizations fail to recognize is the hidden costs incurred. Read the whole story: Harvard Business Review
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Loneliness May Warp Our Genes, And Our Immune Systems
NPR: Loneliness has been linked to everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's disease. Depression is common among the lonely. Cancers tear through their bodies more rapidly, and viruses hit them harder and more frequently. In the short term, it feels like the loneliness will kill you. A study suggests that's because the pain of loneliness activates the immune pattern of a primordial response commonly known as fight or flight For decades, researchers have been seeing signs that the immune systems of lonely people are working differently.
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Men’s Interest in Babies Linked With Hormonal Responses to Sexual Stimuli
Young men’s interest in babies is associated with their physiological reactivity to sexually explicit material, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study showed that young men who reported more interest in babies showed a lower increase in testosterone in response to sexually explicit material than men who weren’t as interested in babies. “Our findings show there is a strong mind-body connection: Liking or not liking babies is related to how a man’s body – specifically, his testosterone – responds to sexual stimuli,” explains Dario Maestripieri of the University of Chicago, lead researcher on the study.
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Sodium Warnings Are a Nice Idea, Which Is Why It’s Too Bad They’re Probably Useless
New York Magazine: Should you find yourself at a New York City location of a chain restaurant this week, you will find something new on the menu: menacing little black triangles, each encasing a white salt shaker, meant to signify that the dish in question contains an excessive amount of sodium. The warning labels are in accordance with a rule passed by the NYC Board of Health earlier this fall, and they're intended to alert consumers that an item on a chain restaurant’s menu contains at least 2,300 milligrams of sodium. ...
