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Why make New Year resolutions if genes and environment decide our behaviour rather than free will?
Irish Times: THE NEW YEAR is a time for resolutions. You promise to take up jogging, spend more time with friends, do good works or maybe smile a little more frequently. But are you fundamentally deluding yourself into thinking you can change? A growing body of research suggests that much of our behaviour is determined by either our genes or our environment, leaving little room for personal choice. The age-old notion of “free will” is under attack, boosted by examinations of brain activity during decision-making.
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Die Sicherheit des Status quo
Wiener Zeitung: "Gott soll einen behüten vor allem, was noch ein Glück war", zitiert Friedrich Torberg seine Tante Jolesch. Mit seinen Büchern über die Tante Jolesch er nicht nur seiner Jugend und dem jüdischen Leben im Wien und Prag der Zwischenkriegszeit, sondern auch dem Schönreden ein Denkmal gesetzt. Wer vom zweiten Stock aus dem Fenster fällt und nicht tot auf dem Pflaster landet sondern in einem Misthaufen, hat noch ein Glück gehabt. Und wem der Bäcker sagt, dass sein geliebtes Rauchfangkehrerbrot aus ist, auch. Das Brot würde eh nur blähen, wenn er es hätte. Wenn eine Katastrophe gerade noch verhindert wurde, reden wir das Resultat schön.
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Because You Said So?
The Epoch Times: Adults rely heavily on verbal labels to identify objects and understand the world around them, and scientists have long believed that children’s minds work the same way. A new study from Ohio State University, however, suggests otherwise. “As adults, we know that words are very predictive,” said study co-author Vladimir Sloutsky in an Ohio State news report. “If you use words to guide you, they won’t often let you down.” For example, if you see an object that looks like a pen, but someone tells you that it is a tape recorder, you might be inclined to believe it and start searching for the microphone or a power switch, he explained.
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A Simple Weight Loss Strategy. Really. Maybe.
Dieting and weight control are really pretty simple. We gain weight, and have trouble losing it, because we eat too much and move too little. If we can switch that around, most of us should be able to maintain a sensible weight without resorting to unhealthy gimmicks. But that’s just the biology of weight control. What about the psychology? Why do we habitually take in too many calories, even when we know those calories are a ticket to obesity and all sorts of chronic diseases? There are two major reasons for unhealthy weight, according to experts. One is a simple lack of self-control. We live in a society where every day we confront an abundance of high-calories foods.
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People Don’t Just Think with Their Guts; Logic Plays a Role Too
For decades, science has suggested that when people make decisions, they tend to ignore logic and go with the gut. But Wim De Neys, a psychological scientist at the University of Toulouse in France, has a new suggestion: Maybe thinking about logic is also intuitive. He writes about this idea in the January issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Psychologists have partly based their conclusions about reasoning and decision-making on questions like this one: “Bill is 34. He is intelligent, punctual but unimaginative and somewhat lifeless. In school, he was strong in mathematics but weak in social studies and humanities.
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Earlier Autism Diagnosis Could Mean Earlier Interventions
WKAR Public Radio: Autism is usually diagnosed in children between the ages of two and three or later, but new research shows that it's possible to find symptoms in much younger children and to diagnose autism at 18 to 24 months. Brooke Ingersoll is an assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University. She recently wrote a paper on autism published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. Ingersoll told WKAR's Gretchen Millich that if children can be diagnosed earlier, it might be possible to prevent them from developing autism. BROOKE INGERSOLL: Autism is a behaviorally-defined disorder. The way you identify it or diagnose it is based on behaviors.
