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The Pacific Standard Guide to Gift Giving
If you clicked on the headline to this story, one thing is obvious: You really saved your Christmas shopping until the last minute. That said, here are a few well-researched tips that might come in handy as you start swiping that credit card: --- Don't Feel Too Bad If You Need to Re-Gift You might be deterred from re-gifting for fear that the original giver will find out about your slothful Christmas strategy. But fortunately, those original gift-givers seem to be OK with their present turning into someone else's freebie. A 2012 article in Psychological Science found that the people most bothered by the re-gifting process were actually the guilt-ridden re-gifters, not the original givers.
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Shake It Off; Dr. Maria Kovacs on Mood and Depression
Shake it Off Have you ever had a bad mood you just couldn’t shake? Everyone feels grouchy or irritable some days. But a bad mood or major mood swings that go on too long may signal a bigger problem. The good news is that certain healthy habits can help you boost your mood. “Some people are more moody than other people. Normal mood actually varies from person to person,” explains Dr. Carlos Zarate, chief of NIH’s mood disorders group. That’s because we all have different “temperaments,” or combinations of personality traits that are biologically based. These are fairly stable over time. “Considerable research shows that people really differ in their basic temperament,” says Dr.
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Should You Quit Drinking for Dry January? Here’s What Experts Say
Resolutions go hand in hand with the start of a new year. And Dry January, the annual initiative to stop drinking alcohol for the first month, is one of the more popular New Year’s challenges, drawing in millions of people in multiple countries each year. Should you try it in 2019? Here’s what experts say. Conventional wisdom (and federal guidelines) say that moderate drinking — up to a drink per day for women, or two per day for men — is okay for health.
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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.
