Can you best reach your own potential by helping others reach theirs?
bsp; Undergrads who wrote letters of encouragement to "at-risk" middleschoolers advising them to persevere and that intelligence "is not a finite endowment but rather an expandabale capacity" became, themselves, happier and better in school for months afterward. Truth is, there were no middleschoolers. Just writing the letters achieved these results. Via Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World: Or consider another study, this one with American students at Stanford asked to serve as pen pals with "at-risk" middleschoolers. The…
2 minutes
Can sex reduce depression and increase intelligence?
bsp; Semen contains a number of powerful mood-altering chemicals. Research shows women who have regular unprotected sex are less depressed and perform better on cognitive tests. Via Jesse Bering's excellent book, Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?: And Other Reflections on Being Human: Perhaps the most striking of these compounds is the bundle of mood-enhancing chemicals in semen. There is good in this goo. Such anxiolytic chemicals include, but are by no means limited to, cortisol (known to increase…
3 minutes
Is it true you only use 10% of your brainpower?
in 25K+ subscribers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: No, it's not true. But don't feel bad about believing it: Via 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior: In one study, when asked “About what percentage of their potential brain power do you think most people use?,” a third of psychology majors answered 10% (Higbee & Clay, 1998, p. 471). Fifty-nine percent of a sample of college-educated people in Brazil similarly believe that people…
3 minutes
5 things you need to know about that wonder-beverage, coffee:
in 25K+ subscribers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: In terms of what we desire throughout the average day we wish for coffee slightly less than sex and a bit more than alcohol. Regular drinkers don't really get a boost from coffee, they just get their fix. In fact when you haven't had your coffee everything with caffeine tastes better. The strategic use of coffee can make you more persuasive. The smell of coffee actually makes people nicer to…
2 minutes
5 things you need to know about alcohol:
in 25K+ subscribers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: If you want to crack someone's skull, use an empty beer bottle, not a full one. Are you a mean drunk but don't want to get into fights? Take Prozac. Just thinking about alcohol can increase aggressiveness. People who suppress their anger are most likely to get violent when drinking. Force bars to close early and violent crime goes down. Ban liquor and the homicide rate goes up. Alcohol…
3 minutes
What’s the single strongest predictor you will die an early death?
bsp; "Parental divorce during childhood was the single strongest social predictor of early death." Via The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study: We were surprised to find that although the death of a parent during one’s childhood was usually difficult, it had no measurable impact on life-span mortality risk. The children adapted and moved on with their lives. That was the end of the good news. Although losing one’s parent to divorce…
1 min read
How different are the bodies of female movie stars, pornstars, healthy women, and average women?
in 25K+ subscribers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: Via A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals about Human Desire: We analyzed the average BMI and weight of 202 popular American porn actresses under age thirty. In addition, psychologists Martin Voracek and Maryanne Fisher analyzed the bodies of mainstream European porn actresses. The following table compares the BMI and weights of these porn stars with other women. Join 25K+ subscribers. Get a free daily update via…
1 min read
How do most people react in life-or-death situations?
bsp; I hope you didn't expect this to cheer you up... "...our findings show that human behavior in life-and-death situations is best captured by the expression 'every man for himself.'" (Hat tip: BPS) Since the sinking of the Titanic, there has been a widespread belief that the social norm of “women and children first” (WCF) gives women a survival advantage over men in maritime disasters, and that captains and crew members give priority to passengers. We analyze a database of…
2 minutes
