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Happy New Year! Your Resolutions Won’t Bring You Joy
It is the new year. A time for growth. A time to explore new possibilities in life. A time to sidle up to the person hogging the treadmill you want at the gym and whisper, “This won’t make you any happier, you know.” Yes, that’s trolling. But it’s evidence-based trolling! Whether your resolution is to lose weight, stop smoking, or finally catch that road runner, research suggests that whether you achieve the goal or not might not matter as much for our overall happiness as we like to think. “Changing circumstances won’t make you hugely happier,” said Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of California Riverside.
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What Research Says About Sticking to New Year’s Resolutions
It's January 1st, which means everyone has a fresh opportunity to tackle their latest resolutions and improve their lives in some way, whether it be eating healthier, running more frequently, or finally cracking open Mark Twain's three-volume autobiography. Unfortunately, research shows it's unlikely most will actually stick to those personal pledges. One 2014 poll, conducted by researchers at the University of Scranton, found that, while 77 percent of people adhered to their New Year's resolutions within the first week, that figure dips to 46 percent after six months. Given the subjects of most people's resolutions, that statistic is actually quite concerning.
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Joy From Giving Lasts Much Longer Than Joy From Getting, Study Shows
The holidays are a time for giving and receiving presents, gifts and cheer. Two new studies conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University show that giving to others makes us happier than giving to ourselves. “If you want to sustain happiness over time, past research tells us that we need to take a break from what we’re currently consuming and experience something new,” says study co-author Ed O’Brien, of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. --- Research findings were published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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The Lives They Lived 2018
Walter Mischel: A psychologist of great discipline who sometimes couldn't wait before grabbing that second marshmallow. Picture a boy, 8 years old, assisting his parents in a strange and somber task. In their gracious home in Vienna, they are throwing family documents into the fireplace, trying to erase their Jewish identities in the flames. Hitler’s troops have just rolled through their streets to cheering crowds. Now the boy, about to throw another document into the fire, stops: This one has a gold seal and a photo affixed. The man in the photo, he learns when he shows it to his parents, is his maternal grandfather, who once lived in the United States.
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Implicit Attitudes Can Change Over the Long Term
Data collected from 2004 to 2016 show that Americans’ attitudes toward certain social groups are becoming less biased over time.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring the neural underpinnings of perceiving familiar faces and extremeness aversion as a heuristic.
