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Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness
The New York Times: BLACKPOOL, England — The woman on the other end of the phone spoke lightheartedly of spring and of her 81st birthday the previous week. “Who did you celebrate with, Beryl?” asked Alison, whose job was to offer a kind ear. “No one, I…” And with that, Beryl’s cheer turned to despair. ... John T. Cacioppo, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and director of the university’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, has been studying loneliness since the 1990s. He said loneliness is an aversive signal much like thirst, hunger or pain. Read the whole story: The New York Times
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September Is Your Second-Chance January
New York Magazine: September has a back-to-school vibe that’s hard to shake. This tends to be true even if it’s been many years since you were a student, and even if you currently have no school-age children at home. The writer Gretchen Rubin has observed that September is like the “other January,” in that many people come up with resolution-type goals for their post–Labor Day selves. “Even if you’re a big grown-up adult,” she said in a recent Facebook chat, the traditional start of the American school year “kind of has that sense of new beginning.” Your actual 2016 resolutions are likely long-forgotten, but that’s okay. September is your second chance.
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How to Pick the Fastest Line at the Supermarket
The New York Times: You dash into the supermarket for a few necessities. You figure it will be 10 minutes — tops — before you are done and on your way home. Then you get to the checkout lanes and they are brimming with shoppers. Your plan for a quick exit begins to evaporate. But all is not lost. For anyone who has ever had to stand in line (or if you are a New Yorker, you stand on line) at a supermarket, retailer, bank or anywhere else, here are some tips from experts for picking the line that will move the fastest. ... To some degree, waiting is all in your head. Research has found that, on average, people overestimated how long they waited in a line by 36 percent.
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Facebook And Mortality: Why Your Incessant Joy Gives Me The Blues
NPR: Clearly, researchers love Facebook, even if some of the rest of us are ambivalent. A 2012 survey of social science papers related to the social network turned up 412 separate studies, and there have been even more since. Among the most popular questions: What effect does Facebook have on emotional states? It does seem a reasonable question. After all, about 22 percent of the world's population uses Facebook regularly, according to the company, logging on for about 50 minutes a day. But is all this interconnectedness creating psychological benefits or global gloom? The answer, it turns out, is complicated. Read the whole story: NPR
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If you’re going to Instagram your food, you may as well do it right. Here’s how.
The Washington Post: I have taken a few photos of taupe sandwiches. Blobby, beige plates of pasta. Drinks so dimly lit you couldn’t tell what they were. Scroll deep, all the way to the bottom of my Instagram, and you will see my shame. Photographing your food — something more and more of us are doing these days — is frivolous and fun. But it can also be tricky. Just because something looks delicious in person doesn’t mean it will appear as enticing through your phone’s five-inch screen. It’s a problem that stymies even high-profile food celebrities: Martha Stewart, famously, was bad at photographing food for social media. ...
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Stereotypes Skew Our Predictions of Others’ Pains and Pleasures
Every day, millions of people – including senators, doctors, and teachers -- make consequential decisions that depend on predicting how other people will feel when they experience gains or setbacks. New research looking at events ranging from college football games to US elections shows that our predictions about others are less accurate when we have information about the groups they belong to, such as which political party or sports team they’re rooting for. This research suggests that our reliance on stereotypes about social groups interferes with accurately predicting how others will feel.
