Divorce Is Contagious
vorce is the dissolution of a social tie, but it is also possible that attitudes about divorce flow across social ties. To explore how social networks influence divorce and vice versa, we utilize a longitudinal data set from the long-running Framingham Heart Study. We find that divorce can spread between friends, siblings, and coworkers, and there are clusters of divorcees that extend two degrees of separation in the network. We also find that popular people are less likely to get…
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Are people nicer where the pace of life is slower?
s. Via The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You): In 2008, with Stephen Reysen and Ellen Ganz, both also at California State University at the time, Levine asked: does the pace of life in cities have any effect on helping behavior? Here’s what these researchers did to answer this question. First, they measured the pace of life in twenty-four US cities. These cities were sampled from the stereotypically torpid…
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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Friendship, Backed By Research
me insights about friendship from research, with links to the studies: The secret to making friendships last is staying in touch every two weeks. Yawning can tell you who your real friends are. Yes, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. There is a limit to how many real friends you can have -- in life and on Facebook. More time with friends produces the happiness equivalent of an extra $133,000 a year. For more on the science behind making…
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How To Be More Charismatic: 5 Tips Backed By Research
me insights about how to be more charismatic from research, with links to the studies: Assume everyone already likes you and they probably will. When you speak in public, use imagery. In general, limit your time at the computer. It can degrade social skills. Guys, consider growing a beard. A course that was successful in making managers more charismatic focused on these techniques: -Framing through metaphor-stories and anecdotes -Demonstrating moral conviction -Sharing the sentiments of the collective -Setting high expectations -Communicating confidence -Using rhetorical devices…
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What does Facebook know about your relationships?
cebook crunches the numbers and comes up with some interesting info on when people get together and when they split up: The days around Valentine's Day and Christmas are good chances to try your luck or breathe a bit easier. The data showed far more people paired up around these times than joined the ranks of the newly single. And: Across age groups, the summer months are bad news for relationships. In 2010 and 2011, May through August were clearly…
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This Increases A Woman’s Ability To Get Sexually Aroused
ercise. Via Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex: Along these same lines, exercise has been shown to improve a woman’s ability to get aroused. Which makes sense: Exercise makes the body more efficient at body more efficient at pumping blood. “So when you get into a sexual situation,” says Cindy Meston, who ran the study, “the response is both quicker and more intense.” (Though it’s also possible, Meston allows, that women in better shape simply feel less self-conscious.…
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Ladies: is smiling the key to getting a man to approach you?
e contact plus smile gets results. Via How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships: The smile's pickup power was proven for posterity by solemn researchers at the University of Missouri. They conducted a highly controlled study titled "Giving the Come-On: Effect of Eye Contact and Smiling in a Bar Environment."15 (I kid you not.) To prove their hypothesis, female researchers made eye contact with unsuspecting male subjects enjoying a little libation in a local…
1 min read
Will watching Shrek turn your kid into a creative genius?
ay, it won't turn your kid into Picasso but recent research says it has two things going for it. Green stimulates creativity: According to newly published research, innovative thinking seems to be stimulated by the color green. A research team led by University of Munich psychologist Stephanie Lichtenfeld reports the color of limes and leaves “has implications beyond aesthetics.” Specifically, a glimpse of green appears to activate “the type of pure, open (mental) processing required to do well on creativity…
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