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Teenagers ‘can be corrupted’ by Hollywood sex scenes
The Telegraph: Psychologists concluded that teenagers exposed to more sex on screen in popular films are likely to have sexual relations with more people and without using condoms. The study, based on nearly 700 popular films, found that watching love scenes could "fundamentally influence" a teenager's personality. The researchers, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, concluded youngsters were more prone to take risks in their future relationships. They also concluded that for every hour of exposure to sexual content on-screen, participants were more than five times more likely to lose their virginity within six years.
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Gain time for yourself by giving it to others
CBC News: If it seems as if there’s never enough hours in the day to do all the things you want — try reversing that feeling by volunteering your time to do things for other people. A new U.S. study suggests that helping others boosts our sense of personal competence and efficiency, which in turn stretches out time in our minds. And ultimately, giving time makes people more willing to commit to future engagements despite their busy schedules, says lead researcher Cassie Mogilner of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Toddlers Object When People Break the Rules
We all know that, for the most part, it’s wrong to kill other people, it’s inappropriate to wear jeans to bed, and we shouldn’t ignore people when they are talking to us. We know these things because we’re bonded to others through social norms – we tend to do things the same way people around us do them and, most importantly, the way in which they expect us to do them. Social norms act as the glue that helps to govern social institutions and hold humans societies together, but how do we acquire these norms in the first place?
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Meditation, Exercise Could Protect You From The Flu
The Huffington Post: Who knew meditation could be so handy during cold and flu season? A small new study finds that mindfulness meditation and moderate exercise seem to have protective effects against cold and flu, with people who engage in the practices having less severe, shorter and fewer symptoms of acute respiratory infection -- and fewer days missed from work due to the sickness -- than people who don't engage in either practice. Specifically, undergoing mindfulness training was linked with a 40 to 50 percent decrease in symptoms, while exercise was linked with a 30 to 40 percent decrease in symptoms, researchers reported, compared with people who did neither activity.
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Rethinking Labels Boosts Creativity
Scientific American Mind: To become more inventive, new research suggests, we should start thinking about common items in terms of their component parts, decoupling their names from their uses. When we think of an object—a candle, say—we tend to think of its name, appearance and purpose all at once. We have expectations about how the candle works and what we can do with it. Psychologists call this rigid thinking “functional fixedness.” Tony McCaffrey, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, developed a two-step “generic parts technique,” which trains people to overcome functional fixedness.
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When Romance Is a Click Away
The Wall Street Journal: For many men and women looking for new love at midlife and beyond, the place to go is obvious: the Internet. But how best to navigate cyberspace in pursuit of romance? Eli J. Finkel, a professor of social psychology at Northwestern University, recently co-wrote a study about the benefits and limitations of online dating. We spoke to Dr. Finkel from his office in Evanston, Ill. Here are edited excerpts of that conversation: WSJ: People at midlife and beyond are the fastest-growing segment using Internet dating sites. Why is that? DR.
