-
How Our Brains Navigate the City
The Atlantic: To navigate certain parts of New York City — namely Queens and much of Manhattan — all you need to be able to do is count. In Manhattan neighborhoods like the West Village, and most of Brooklyn, things get a good bit trickier. You can no longer depend on the logical numbered progression of streets and avenues, and must instead rely on some other picture inside your head. For a while now psychologists have debated just what that picture looks like. Some believe we need to orient ourselves by local reference points. Under this theory, we're lost until we see that certain street or certain landmark, at which point the rest of the grid emerges in our minds.
-
Religious People Have Higher Self-Esteem But Only In Some Countries, Study Shows
Huffington Post: Are religious people happier? Studies have shown that God-fearing folks tend to have higher self-esteem than nonbelievers, but new research published in the January issue of Psychological Science adds some nuance. It shows that religious belief is linked to high self-esteem only in countries that emphasize religious belief. Researchers at three European universities looked at the religious beliefs and self-esteem of users of an online dating service across 11 countries, from the devoutly Catholic Poland to the world's least religious country, Sweden. The analysis showed that in religious countries, self-esteem was higher among believers than nonbelievers.
-
What We Find Gross, and Why
The New York Times: Did you hear the one about the Texan at his first Passover Seder? He was mightily impressed with the soup. “These matzo balls sure are delicious, ma’am,” he told his hostess. “What other parts of the matzo do y’all cook with?” This old joke came to mind as I read “That’s Disgusting,” a lively look at all things revolting by Rachel Herz, a psychologist at Brown. I thought of it as Herz described an evening with friends at a pretentious restaurant, where she ordered the appetizer special, duck oysters. It turned out “oysters” was code for “testicles” — how come her dinner companions hadn’t warned her?
-
Will Pay for Status
Huffington Post: There are lots of ways to show other people that you have status. I travel a lot, and the airlines treat frequent travelers specially. At the start of the boarding process, the people who fly a particular airline often get on the plane first, and are often given upgrades to first class. Everyone else on the plane has to walk by the people in first class as they get on. So, the people sitting in first class get a chance to feel special. How much is this kind of status worth?
-
Where’s My SuperHero Cape?
Woman's Day: A few days ago I talked about divorced people having a higher incidence of early death. Gee, that was swell, wasn't it? That was the bad news, though, and now for the good news: stress makes you stronger. A study done for Current Directions in Psychological Science shows that hardships make you more resilient, and better able to cope with stress in comparison to those who haven't faced as many hardships in their own lives. Mark D. Seery, Ph.D., is the study author, and a psychology professor at the University at Buffalo. He likens living through adversity to the effect of exercise making your body stronger: Read the full story: Woman's Day
-
Betty White turns 90: What are her secrets to longevity?
Los Angeles Times: Betty White celebrated her 90th birthday this week, and the veteran actress is still going strong. Between appearing as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland," working with animal organizations and winning awards, she is one busy woman. We figured she must have some secret to living a long, full and productive life that the rest of us need to know. So we talked to Howard Friedman, coauthor of "The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study" (Hudson Street Press, 2011) to find out what lessons we can learn from White. Friedman is also a distinguished professor of psychology at UC Riverside.
