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The Visual Side of Pain
The Wall Street Journal: Perceptions of pain can be changed by distorting the view of the affected body part, a new study finds, opening a fresh window onto the psychological side of pain. Researchers affixed a heat-producing device to the left index fingers of 18 volunteers. A mirror was set up so that when the subjects looked toward their left hand what they saw was really a reflection of their right hand. (To complete the effect, the right index finger got its own non-functioning thermode.) Then they started turning up the heat, slowly. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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Experts – lots of them – weigh in on Charlie Sheen
The Washington Post: Like the sight of relief workers pouring into devastated areas, nothing so heartens reporters chronicling the gut-wrenching story of a Hollywood celebrity crackup as the sight of e-mails streaming in to offer unsolicited assistance in the form of easy quotes from academics, lawyers, and other aspiring talking heads. Read the whole story: The Washington Post
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More Reasons to Be Nice: It’s Less Work for Everyone
A polite act shows respect. But a new study of a common etiquette—holding a door for someone—suggests that courtesy may have a more practical, though unconscious, shared motivation: to reduce the work for those involved. The research, by Joseph P. Santamaria and David A. Rosenbaum of Pennsylvania State University, is the first to combine two fields of study ordinarily considered unrelated: altruism and motor control. It is to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Roots of Self-Sabotage: Seduced By the ‘Devil We Know’
The human mind is irrational, and this irrationality can be quirky and entertaining. But all too often our quirkiness crosses the line into perversion. We make self-destructive decisions when we should know better, and choose options that are (seemingly) designed to sabotage our hopes and end up in failure and unhappiness. Why would we do this? There are obviously many and complex reasons for bad decisions, but in recent years, psychological scientists have been focusing on human thinking—flawed human thinking—as one source of self-sabotage.
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On Ash Wednesday, it’s good to feel the pain
The Los Angeles Times: Ash Wednesday marks a day of sacrifice and penance for Christians in order to atone for their sins. The theology of the idea coincides nicely with psychology. Feeling pain, it seems, really cleanses the mind of guilty burdens, according to a new study. Australian researchers tested the idea of whether pain and sacrifice ease guilt. They recruited 62 young men and women under the guise that they were part of a study on mental and physical activity. Read the whole story: The Los Angeles Times
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Ash Wednesday Idea: Beat Guilt This Lent — Literally
Politics Daily: In an age when boosting self-esteem is seen as the answer to every problem, the idea of physically punishing oneself to expiate guilt is a notion that borders on the medieval. But just in time for Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season of penance, new research shows that some form of "mortification of the flesh"-- the old-fashioned term for inflicting physical discomfort for spiritual growth -- can in fact alleviate feelings of guilt. Read the whole story: Politics Daily
