To increase willpower should you focus on greater self-control or greater self-compassion?
lf-compassion. Via The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It: Study after study shows that self-criticism is consistently associated with less motivation and worse self-control. It is also one of the single biggest predictors of depression, which drains both “I will” power and “I want” power. In contrast, self-compassion— being supportive and kind to yourself, especially in the face of stress and failure— is associated with more motivation and…
2 minutes
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
The most proven technique for increasing long term happiness
is technique has been proven again and again and again. Here it is, explained by its originator, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman. Via Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being: Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you…
2 minutes
7 Things Every Facebook User Needs To Know, Backed By Research
bsp; Your Facebook profile probably reveals your true personality. It's especially indicative of how extroverted and open to new experience you are but it can also tell people whether you have anxiety and even predict your job performance. I wouldn't get too paranoid though; most people just judge you off the photo. Then again that photo can predict how happy you'll be 3.5 years from now. (Just from status updates, Facebook knows how happy the entire US is every…
2 minutes
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…
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