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Where Happiness Hides
We all think we know what will make us happy: more money. A better job. Love. But psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky says happiness doesn't necessarily work like that. This week, we explore why happiness often slips through our fingers, and how to savor — and stretch out — our joys. ...
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Research Roundup: What’s ‘News’ in the APS Observer
In this special episode of Under the Cortex, the entire APS communications team shares its top highlights from the September/October 2021 Issue of the Observer.
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The Wild Science of How Geronimo the Alpaca Captured Our Hearts
He spends his remaining days lolling around, oblivious to his fate. Faced with an upcoming death sentence, his only crime is that he has tested positive for an infectious disease. Meanwhile, a controversial government agency has a warrant for his destruction which could be executed at any moment. Pleas from his loving family are ignored as hundreds of thousands of well-wishers and activists rally to his defence. This is Geronimo the alpaca. It’s the fluffy animal caught at the centre of a lengthy legal battle, thrust across the headlines, capturing the imagination of Britain.
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The Secret to Happiness at Work
Every year, Gallup asks a sample of American adults what might seem to be a rather loaded question: How much do you like your job? The results may surprise you. The portion who say they are “completely satisfied” at work has risen dramatically over the past two decades, from 41 percent in 2001 to 55 percent in 2019. In 2020, despite the fact that millions of Americans had shifted to remote work, 89 percent said they were either “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied. ...
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Helping Students Cope with the Pressure to Succeed
Experts say that students from high achieving schools, who are privileged in terms of educational opportunities, are at greater risk of substance abuse, depression and anxiety than the national norm, because of an unrelenting, insidious pressure to succeed. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with students and a psychologist about how adolescent wellness is as vulnerable to academic pressure as it is to poverty, trauma and discrimination. ...
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America needs a Chief Friendship Officer
America is suffering from a lack of friendship. The average American hasn’t made a new friend in the last five years. According to the American Enterprise Institute’s American Perspectives Survey from May 2021, Americans report having fewer friendships than in the past three decades. Nearly one in five Americans has no close social connections, a double digit increase from 2013. Fifteen percent of men have no close friendships at all, a fivefold increase since 1990. Loneliness and isolation are far more common experiences for people with few close friendships.
