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Right-Hand Bias Is Everywhere
The Atlantic: As any left-handed person who’s ever struggled with a pair of scissors can attest, the physical world is largely built for righties, who comprise up to 90 percent of the population. But that imbalance also affects lefties in more subtle and profound ways than just unwieldy office supplies. Daniel Casasanto, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, studies the ways in which the world is mentally biased toward the right. His research has shown that politicians, for example, tend to use their non-dominant hand for negative gestures, and parents in recent decades have shown a preference for baby names typed on the right side of the keyboard.
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What Couples Who Communicate Well Do Differently
Refinery29: Countless books and articles have been written on the importance of communicating in romantic relationships, but a recent study suggests that there's one aspect of communication that stands out above the rest: empathy. The study, published last month in Psychological Science, found that feeling empathy mattered more than simply listening to what partners had to say. Read the whole story: Refinery29
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Facebook Reactions, the Totally Redesigned Like Button, Is Here
Wired: YOUR NEWS FEED is about to get a lot more expressive. After months of user testing in a handful of countries, Facebook today is releasing “Reactions” to the rest of the world. The feature isn’t so much a new tool as it is an extension of an existing one; by long-pressing—or, on a computer, hovering—over the “like” button, users can now access five additional animated emoji with which to express themselves. Each emotive icon is named for the reaction it’s meant to convey. “Like” you already know—say hello to “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry”. ...
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Everything Is Crumbling
Slate: Nearly 20 years ago, psychologists Roy Baumeister and Dianne Tice, a married couple at Case Western Reserve University, devised a foundational experiment on self-control. “Chocolate chip cookies were baked in the room in a small oven,” they wrote in a paper that has been cited more than 3,000 times. “As a result, the laboratory was filled with the delicious aroma of fresh chocolate and baking.” In the history of psychology, there has never been a more important chocolate-y aroma. Here’s how that experiment worked. Baumeister and Tice stacked their fresh-baked cookies on a plate, beside a bowl of red and white radishes, and brought in a parade of student volunteers.
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The Psychological Case for Instagramming Your Food
New York Magazine: The most important thing about a good food picture, as any amateur food photographer can tell you, is natural light. It’s why you can find particularly determined patrons of the food-photography arts looking like lost waiters — carrying plates of food to nearby windows just to take a picture. If there is no natural light, there is always the option of flash. And don’t forget about angles and composition. Capturing a full Sunday-brunch spread is near impossible to do while sitting down, so you might as well stand up, maybe even on your chair to shoot from above.
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The Kryptonite of Smart Decisions? Overconfidence
Research shows that people in general are overconfident, but entrepreneurs appear to be particularly prone to cockiness. About half of new companies fail within five years, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite the imposing failure rate for new businesses, entrepreneurs are often quite confident that their ventures are going to succeed. One survey of 3,000 entrepreneurs found that 81% believed that their chance of success was 70% or higher; and a whopping 33% estimated their chance of success to be 100%. New research from psychological scientists Daylian Cain (Yale University), Don A.
