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‘Fortnite’ Reaches New Level Of Video Game Popularity — And Addiction
If you’re having trouble getting your kid to the dinner table because they’re playing 'Fortnite,' you’re not alone. Over 200 million gamers have registered for the video game worldwide. And it’s not just kids — parents, Major League Baseball players, even the popular rapper Drake have all caught on. It’s fun and popular, but some say also addictive. Here's how to start evaluating and curbing that addiction.
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Why People Wait 10 Days to Do Something That Takes 10 Minutes
I’m trying to construct an alternative theory of myself in which I’m a tidy person. It’s not going well. Walking my recycling from my apartment to the trash room down the hall takes me anywhere from two minutes to a month. I hate looking at broken-down boxes and empty LaCroix cans in my apartment, but studies say humans are bad at prioritizing long-term goals over instant gratification, and I apparently find doing anything else much more gratifying. It doesn’t take a scientist to explain why I might put off other things, such as doing my dishes. Those are annoying and kind of gross, and the primary reward is just being able to use them in the future.
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Yum and Yuck: The Psychology Of What We Eat…And What We Spit Out
Paul Rozin has been studying the psychology and culture of food for more than 40 years. And he's come to appreciate that food fills many of our needs, but hunger is just one. "Food is not just nutrition that goes in your mouth or even pleasant sensations that go with it," he says. "It connects to your whole life, and it's really a very important part of performing your culture and experiencing your culture." This week, we chew over the profound role that food plays in our lives. Then, we spit it all out — we study the ick factor that turns us off to cockroaches, skunks, and poop. Rachel Herz explains the sensation of disgust, and why it doesn't always come naturally.
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Why it’s healthy to sing this holiday season
One of the highlights of Katy Cadman’s week is conducting two-hour-long MomChoir practice sessions with more than 50 other women. When all the voices come together for a song such as All I want for Christmas is You, the effect can be electrifying, says Cadman, the Vancouver choir’s artistic director. “You leave just buzzing with excitement and enthusiasm and this feeling of camaraderie,” she says. The high Cadman describes matches what researchers are learning in their labs: Singing has powerful effects on the brain, and it may provide a potent antidote to modern maladies such as stress, loneliness and depression.
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The case for buying kids audiobooks this holiday season
Giving kids books as presents always feels good. It might not elicit the joy that a new gadget might, but there is comfort to knowing that what you are giving is unambiguously good for them and not potentially addling their brains. What about audiobooks? Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of the 2015 Raising Kids Who Read, says audiobooks are a wonderful way to fill time that might otherwise not have been filled. “Print may be best for lingering over words or ideas, but audiobooks add literacy to moments where there would otherwise be none,” he wrote recently in the New York Times.
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The science of giving gifts your loved ones won’t want to return
Trying to find an ideal gift for a friend or family member, or at least something that won’t end up in the trash, is a perennial source of pre-holiday anxiety. As it happens, behavioral science can help. After all, gift-giving combines economics and psychology (the exchange of goods plus the complicating desire to affirm or celebrate a personal relationship), and those two academic fields have grown ever more entwined in recent years. So before struggling to sort through the likes, dislikes, quirks and wishes of the people on your holiday lists, you may want to consider some recent findings about which gift-giving strategies work — and which don’t. First, should we give gifts at all?
