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Intake of Alcohol Makes Smiles Contagious Among Men
Science World Report: A latest study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh reveals that in men alcohol boosts sensitivity to pleasant social behavior like smiles, The study also highlights the risk factors that trigger the drinking problem among men. They based their finding on the evaluation of 720 healthy social drinkers of ages 21-28. A study conducted earlier showed that compared to women, men are nearly 50 percent more likely to consume alcohol and most of the drinking problems also occur among men in social settings.
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Memories of Pain During Childbirth Tied to Intensity Rather than Length of Labor
Childbirth is physically intense and, for many women, it is the most painful experience they will have. And yet, new research shows that the amount of time a woman spends in labor doesn’t seem to impact how she remembers her labor pain afterwards. The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that the peak and end levels of pain women experienced, and whether they received an epidural, impacted their recall of labor pain afterward.
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Preventing Worker Burnout Can Boost The Bottom Line
NPR: Burnout at work seems like a fact of life, especially with employers cutting back on leave benefits. But some companies are trying novel fixes. In addition to boosting morale, some employers say, eliminating burnout can increase productivity and profitability. At Aptify, a Virginia software company, burnout was a problem a few years ago. Projects demanded long hours, which affected motivation and morale. It's a medium-size firm, with 200 workers, but at the time, procedures seemed overly corporate and cumbersome.
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Spouse personality may affect career success
The Chicago Tribune: The personalities of husbands and wives may affect their spouses' success at work, suggests a new study. Husbands and wives who were conscientious and helped create satisfying home lives for their spouses were linked to future job satisfaction, promotion and income, researchers found. "The person that you marry and spend a lot of time with . . . can influence you in a different domain," Joshua Jackson told Reuters Health in a phone call. Jackson, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, co-authored the paper with Brittany Solomon, a graduate student at Washington University. Read the whole story: The Chicago Tribune
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Practice Does Not Make Perfect
Slate: A decade ago, Magnus Carlsen, who at the time was only 13 years old, created a sensation in the chess world when he defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov at a chess tournament in Reykjavik, Iceland, and the next day played then-top-rated Garry Kasparov—who is widely regarded as the best chess player of all time—to a draw. Carlsen’s subsequent rise to chess stardom was meteoric: grandmaster status later in 2004; a share of first place in the Norwegian Chess Championship in 2006; youngest player ever to reach World No. 1 in 2010; and highest-rated player in history in 2012. What explains this sort of spectacular success?
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The Psychology Behind Costco’s Free Samples
The Atlantic: In 2010, a Minnesotan named Erwin Lingitz was arrested in a Supervalu grocery store after spending an excessive amount of time at the deli counter. In the words of a Supervalu spokesperson, Lingitz had violated “societal norms and common customer understanding regarding free-sample practices.” While the charges were later dropped, the evidence remains incriminating: After a search, Lingitz was found to have stored in his pockets about a dozen soy sauce packets and “1.46 pounds of summer sausage and beef stick samples.” Lingitz may have gotten carried away, but his impulse is more or less universal. People love free, people love food, and thus, people love free food.
