-
In These Gyms, Nobody Cares How You Look In Yoga Pants
NPR: If you want to lift weights or use the treadmill at Downsize Fitness, you have to be at least 50 pounds overweight. Kendall Schrantz is a fan – and a member. The 24-year-old has struggled with her weight since she was in the second grade. The looks she got at other gyms made her uncomfortable. But now she drives more than an hour to Downsize Fitness in Fort Worth three times a week, just to exercise. "It's worth every single penny I paid for gas," she said. "It's worth the time I spend on the road, the miles." ...
-
Labeling Obesity as a Disease May Have Psychological Costs
Messages that describe obesity as a disease may undermine healthy behaviors and beliefs among obese individuals, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that obese individuals exposed to such messages placed less importance on health-focused dieting and reported less concern about weight. These beliefs, in turn, predicted unhealthier food choices.
-
Are Death Row Inmates Innocent If They Refuse a Last Meal?
Pacific Standard: In May 2007, Philip Workman, soon to be executed by the state of Tennessee for murdering a police officer, was asked what he wanted for his final meal. Workman, who claimed he had not committed the murder, refused to eat anything. Deliver a pizza to a homeless person instead, he said. What if death row inmates’ acceptance or refusal of a last meal reveals their actual guilt or innocence in the crime they’ve been accused of committing? That’s a correlation Kevin M. Kniffin, a research associate at Cornell University’s Lab for Experimental Economics and Decision Research, has begun to explore in a study recently published in Law.
-
Gossip and Ostracism May Have Hidden Group Benefits
Conventional wisdom holds that gossip and social exclusion are always malicious, undermining trust and morale in groups. But sharing this kind of "reputational information" could have benefits for society, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Robb Willer, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, explored the nature of gossip and ostracism in collaboration with co-authors Matthew Feinberg, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford, and Michael Schultz from the University of California–Berkeley.
-
Charitable acts may backfire, researchers report
Medhill: If someone volunteers at a charity hoping to reel in a love interest, is that act still viewed as altruistic? Not likely, according to a study published in the January edition of Psychological Science. Yale University researchers found that people tend to view personal and corporate charitable acts performed for personal gain as less moral than other types of self-interested behavior.
-
What do the government’s ‘industrial organizational psychologists’ do?
The Washington Post: The federal government’s industrial organizational psychologists, or I-Os as they are known, aren’t exactly what people might think of when they hear the word “psychologist.” They don’t provide traditional therapy, meaning one-on-one talk in a warmly lit room, tissue boxes at the ready, a parent figure ready to blame. ... One example is when an I-O makes sure testing questions for a department’s hiring and promotions are fair and comply with employment laws and Civil Rights Acts. They also ensure that the testing questions are legally defensible, designing ways to measure performance and understanding the implications and caveats for each performance measure.
