Go Easy on Yourself, a New Wave of Research Urges (NYT): [R]esearch suggests that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step toward better health. People who score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. Preliminary data suggest that […]
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The Claim: A Fake Smile Can be Bad for Your Health (NYT Really?) [S]cientists examined what happened when the drivers engaged in fake smiling, known as “surface acting,” and its opposite, “deep acting,” where they generated authentic smiles through positive thoughts, said an author of the study, Brent Scott, an assistant professor of management
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Placebo Outperforms Drug in Oxford Study (PsychCentral): Positive expectations of a treatment may be more powerful than the drug itself when it comes to getting well. According to a brain imaging study at Oxford University, volunteers who believed their medication would help actually doubled the natural physiological or biochemical effects of an opioid drug. On
NPR Science Friday: Growing A Bigger Brain Is A Walk In The Park A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that adults who walked for 40 minutes three times a week for a year had brain growth in the hippocampus — an area of the brain associated with spatial memory.
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Inspiration from Brain Stimulation? (PsychCentral): Are we on the verge of reality transcending science fiction with the use of brain electrodes to enhance individual creativity and expression? Doctoral student Richard Chi and Dr. Allan Snyder from the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney seem to think so. They found that participants who
How Meditation May Change the Brain (NYT): [S]cientists say that meditators…may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.
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Positive Vibes Really Do Protect Health (PsychCentral): An evidence-based review of published literature finds support for the premise that feeling good may be good for your health…“We all age. It is how we age, however, that determines the quality of our lives,” said Anthony Ong, Ph.D., of Cornell University, author of the review article. The
The latest in relationship science relayed by Tara Parker-Pope. “People have a fundamental motivation to improve the self and add to who they are as a person,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “If your partner is helping you become a better person, you become happier and more satisfied in the relationship.”
A study shows people more accurately assessing personality traits of attractive people. “If people think Jane is beautiful, and she is very organized and somewhat generous, people will see her as more organized and generous than she actually is,” Biesanz said. “Despite this bias, our study shows that people will also correctly discern the relative ordering
Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills (NPR) Pratt says playing these video games changes your ability to learn, and to find and integrate new information. “Video game players are able to pick up very subtle, statistical irregularities in environments and use them to their advantage,” Pratt says. “And these same irregularities in environments are
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