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The Map in Our Head
The Wall Street Journal: When you’re strolling in your home city, and you see someone with pull out a map, you can be pretty sure you’re looking at a tourist. But a new study suggests that a map-like spatial orientation is layered on top of people’s understanding of even highly familiar places. In other words, you may not have a map stashed in a fanny pack, but you can’t escape the way of looking at the world that maps tutor us in. From a new study in Psychological Science: "We examined how a highly familiar environmental space—one’s city of residence—is represented in memory.
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Writing Meaningful Thoughts is Akin to Weight Loss Exercises: Study
International Business Times: It could be that the act of writing down values and beliefs is the next big fat-buster, as part of a mental diet strategy. A Canadian study suggests value affirmation as a psychological step towards weight-loss initiatives. According to the study, the intervention for effective weight loss is possible by writing down thoughts about one's self-defining values. The research, published in Psychological Science - a journal of the Association for Psychological Science - stated that women who wrote about their most important values (like notes on close relationships, music or religion) lost more weight over the following few months than women who did not.
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Bite-Size Science, False Positives, and Citation Amnesia
The Chronicle of Higher Education: There are good things about short psychology papers. They’re easier to edit and review, not to mention less time-consuming to write. A short paper on a CV looks just as impressive as a long one. Also, a short paper is more likely to be noticed by reporters with little to no attention span—especially if the result is interestingly contrarian—and thus bring the researcher widespread acclaim and riches. Or at least a mention in some blog.
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Il linguaggio dell’amore esiste
La Stampa: Il linguaggio dell’amore esiste, eccome. E non solo esiste, ma sembra essere persino un elemento predittivo di un rapporto felice e duraturo, affermano alcuni psicologi. A quanto pare sia gli uomini che le donne sono fortemente attratti dalle persone dell’altro sesso che parlano in modo simile al loro: questo è quanto asseriscono alcuni ricercatori dell’Università del Texas (Usa), i quali affermano sulle pagine di Psychological Science, su cui è stato pubblicato lo studio, che lo stile di linguaggio adottato da un maschio e una femmina in seguito al loro incontro potrebbe prevedere se i due sono candidati al fidanzamento.
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Why Are Older People Happier?
Older people tend to be happier. But why? Some psychologists believe that cognitive processes are responsible—in particular, focusing on and remembering positive events and leaving behind negative ones; those processes, they think, help older people regulate their emotions, letting them view life in a sunnier light. “There is a lot of good theory about this age difference in happiness,” says psychologist Derek M. Isaacowitz of Northeastern University, “but much of the research does not provide direct evidence” of the links between such phenomena and actual happiness.
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Study of the Day: The National Pride That Brings Happiness
The Atlantic: Nationalism that's rooted in respect for laws and institutions, not race or religion, makes citizens the happiest, according to new research. PROBLEM: Previous research has shown that national pride makes people feel good about their own lives. But does what you're proud of matter too? METHODOLOGY: Tim Reeskens, a sociologist from Catholic University in Belgium, and Matthew Wright, a political scientist at American University, categorized national pride into "ethnic nationalism," which is tied to ancestry and religious beliefs, and "civic nationalism," which prioritizes respect for a country's institutions and laws.
