Does the guilt really make guilty pleasures taste better?
s. Via Kellogg: ...participants who had been primed for guilt both liked the candy more and said they would be willing to pay more for it than those primed with neutral words. Guilt also made the initial pleasurable reaction last longer—the guilt-primed participants remembered liking the candies more than neutral-primed participants. And: Neither Goldsmith nor her colleagues were surprised by the consistency of these results. “Guilt is linked with pleasure because often times when we experience guilt, we experience pleasure,”…
1 min read
You Become The Fictional Characters You Watch
a Science Daily: Researchers at Ohio State University examined what happened to people who, while reading a fictional story, found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own -- a phenomenon the researchers call "experience-taking." They found that, in the right situations, experience-taking may lead to real changes, if only temporary, in the lives of readers. In one experiment, for example, the researchers found that people who strongly…
1 min read
Research Shows These 5 Simple Things Can Help You Live To 100
ugh. Be happy. Be optimistic. Get enough sleep. Stay out of debt. Do not stay at a boring job that pays badly. Have a good relationship with your boss. Try and get promoted. Kissing ass is good for you. Job insecurity and unemployment are correlated with poor health. Connecting with others can be more important than exercise. Spend time with friends. Loneliness can kill you. Blaming others can make you ill. Forgive. It's essential to have a feeling of control…
1 min read
Can starving yourself for a while every day improve health, extend life and make you look good?
termittent fasting may have very powerful effects: Restricting caloric intake to 60-70% of normal adult weight maintenance requirement prolongs lifespan 30-50% and confers near perfect health across a broad range of species. Every other day feeding produces similar effects in rodents, and profound beneficial physiologic changes have been demonstrated in the absence of weight loss in ob/ob mice. Since May 2003 we have experimented with alternate day calorie restriction, one day consuming 20-50% of estimated daily caloric requirement and the…
3 minutes
Watching TV Increases Empathy
s. Via an excellent piece by Jonathan Gottschall in the Boston Globe: As the psychologist Raymond Mar writes, “Researchers have repeatedly found that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative.” For example, studies reliably show that when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgmentally (say, “Modern Family”), our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction. And it's not just TV. It's fiction, in…
2 minutes
Can anything in life ever surpass winning 14 gold medals?
ybe not. Research shows that extremely positive events can skew perspective so much that everything that follows pales in comparison. Maybe this is why many athletes have trouble staying retired. Via Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness: As I was watching Michael Phelps receive his 14th gold medal – what a week! – this is what I was thinking: “How could anything in this 23-year old swimmer’s life ever top this?” And: “After he comes down from the…
1 min read
Here Are 7 Things That Will Make You Happier In 7 Seconds, According To Research
ink about something you love. Imagine how you would feel if you lost it. Now be happy you have it. Research shows savoring has powerful affects on well-being. Take a nap. Studies show we can process negative thoughts just fine when we're exhausted -- but not the happy ones. Smile. Happy or not, just smile. Studies show it can trick your mind into thinking you feel good. And it has plenty of other benefits. Hug someone. Corny? Maybe. But it…
1 min read
How To Be A Better Person: 7 Steps Backed By Research
all want to know how to be a better person. The science can be surprising. First, remember context, context, context. Your context dramatically affects your behavior, so manipulating it is the easiest, most painless way to change yourself. This is why the religious are nicer on Sundays and mentioning God makes people clean up their act. Thinking about your childhood (seriously, get a teddy bear) and seeing others do nice things can make you act more ethically. Our circumstances…
2 minutes
