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Dating Duo Illuminates Modern Humans’ Journey
Science: WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA—When University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Harold Dibble was reopening excavations at the Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smuggler's Cave) in Morocco a few years ago, he looked for experts to help him figure out when prehistoric humans had occupied the cave, which is a key site for understanding the spread of Homo sapiens. Dibble knew our species had been there more than 50,000 years ago—beyond the practical limit of radiocarbon dating. So he recruited two dating aces from the University of Wollongong in Australia, Zenobia Jacobs and Richard Roberts, experts in the technique of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating.
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Why Extroverts Are Happier Than Introverts
MSNBC: Extroverts are the cheeriest personality type, and a new study finds that the root of their happiness may be in their memories. People who are extroverted remember the past in a more positive light than other personality types, researchers report in the June issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences. This rose-tinged viewpoint explains much of the happiness gap between extroverts and people who are neurotic, a personality trait marked by anxiety and irritability. Read the whole story: MSNBC
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Who knows you best? Not you, say psychologists
Know thyself. That was Socrates’ advice, and it squares with conventional wisdom. “It’s a natural tendency to think we know ourselves better than others do,” says Washington University in St. Louis assistant professor Simine Vazire. But a new article by Vazire and her colleague Erika N. Carlson reviews the research and suggests an addendum to the philosopher’s edict: Ask a friend. “There are aspects of personality that others know about us that we don’t know ourselves, and vice-versa,” says Vazire.
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Uomo: fare il macho è un mestiere difficile
TGCOM: Anche i machi hanno la vira dura. Anzi durissima: guadagnarsi la fama di "tipo tosto" è un cammino lungo e complicato, mentre è facilissimo, purtroppo, perdere il titolo dopo averlo conquistato. Tant'è vero che, quando un uomo si sente minacciato nella sua virilità, diventa subito aggressivo e in attimo passa al contrattacco. Sono le conclusioni di uno studio della University of South Florida (Usa) pubblicato sulle pagine di "Current Directions in Psychological Science", rivista della Association for Psychological Science. Spiega Jennifer Bosson, autrice dello studio insieme a Joseph Vandello: "Il sesso è un fatto sociale e gli uomini lo sanno.
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Mind Reading: How to Use Quirks of the Mind to Change Behavior
TIME Healthland: How can we motivate ourselves to do what we really want to do? By better understanding the brain's unconscious tendencies and tactics, argues journalist Wray Herbert — or, in other words, tricking ourselves into doing it. In his new book, On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Brain's Hard-Wired Habits, Herbert, who has been writing about psychology for more than three decades, offers insight into how to use the quirks of the mind to change behavior. Read the whole story: TIME Healthland
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Why Happiness Isn’t Always Good: Asians vs. Americans
TIME: Among journalists — and less so among psychologists — the subset of mental-health research called “positive psychology” has become powerfully influential. Positive psychology, which was more or less founded by a University of Pennsylvania professor named Martin Seligman, focuses not on ordinary or pathological behavior — the two subjects that most psychologists study — but on how we can cultivate positive emotions to build resilience and well-being. Many research psychologists, either out of academic rigor or academic jealousy, have questioned Seligman's work.
