Here’s How You Can Quickly Relieve Stress
recently posted on how owning a dog is associated with a number of powerful health benefits. Turns out you don't even need a real dog to experience some of those effects. Watching a video of a cute animal can reduce heart rate and blood pressure in under a minute. Via Richard Wiseman's excellent book 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute: In an innovative study, Deborah Wells examined whether merely looking at a video of an animal can…
1 min read
The Science Behind Why Dogs Might Just Be Man’s Best Friend
g owners experience a wide range of health benefits. Via Richard Wiseman's excellent book 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute: After carefully following the recovery rates of patients who had suffered a heart attack, Friedmann discovered that those who were dog owners, compared to those without a canine pal, were almost nine times more likely to be alive twelve months later. This remarkable result encouraged scientists to explore other possible benefits of canine companionship, resulting in studies showing…
2 minutes
What everyday object can motivate you to work harder and be a better person?
mirror. From Willpower: Resdiscovering the Greatest Human Strength: When people were placed in front of a mirror, or told that their actions were being filmed, they consistently changed their behavior. These self-conscious people worked harder at laboratory tasks. They gave more valid answers to questionnaires (meaning that their answers jibed more closely with their actual behavior). They were more consistent in their actions, and their actions were also more consistent with their values. And: Whenever people focused on themselves,…
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How To Quickly And Easily Make Any Task Seem Easier
an back instead of leaning forward. Via Harvard Business Review: People who leaned back so that their eyes were an average of 38.8 inches from a computer screen found the task of pronouncing meaningless strings of letters easier than people who leaned forward to 12.5 inches, say Manoj Thomas of Cornell and Claire I. Tsai of the University of Toronto. That's because increasing the physical distance from a complex task also increases the psychological distance, which mitigates the sense of…
1 min read
Is envy our default setting?
s. It requires mental effort to not be envious. Via Peer Reviewed By My Neurons: Envy is a shitty thing. In addition to feeling bad that there’s something you don’t have, you often feel bad about how stupid it is that you’re envious. The good news is that a new study by Jan Crusius and Thomas Mussweiler should alleviate the negative feelings that stem from the latter situation. Through a series of experiments they found that envy appears to be our…
2 minutes
Can skipping breakfast lead to murder?
e book Willpower: Resdiscovering the Greatest Human Strength points out some fascinating connections between eating, self-control and violent behavior. Kids who skip breakfast misbehave more than kids who eat their Wheaties. After given a snack, all the children are little angels again: All the children in a class were told to skip breakfast one morning, and then, by random assignment, half of the children were given a good breakfast at school. The others got nothing. During the first part of…
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How important is it to feel like you belong?
t feeling socially connected can make you stupider and lead to an early death: When people’s sense of social connectedness is threatened, their ability to self-regulate suffers; for instance their IQ performance drops (Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002). Feeling lonely predicts early death as much as major health risk behaviors like smoking (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008). Source: " Mere Belonging: The Power of Social Connections" from Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Join over 285,000 readers. Get a free weekly update…
1 min read
Can not talking about our problems cause physical health difficulties?
's very possible. Both childhood and more recent traumas not shared with others were correlated with health issues. Writing about these experiences improved immune system function and overall health: Results from a series of studies are summarized in support of a general theory of inhibition and psychosomatics. According to this view, to inhibit thoughts, feelings, or behaviors is associated with physiological work. In the short term, inhibition results in increased autonomic nervous system activity. Over time, inhibition serves as a…
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