Can music negatively affect your memory?
llow @bakadesuyo Although music can have a very positive effect on our general mental health, music can, in the circumstances described, also have negative effects on cognitive performance. Perham remarks, "Most people listen to music at the same time as, rather than prior to performing a task. To reduce the negative effects of background music when recalling information in order one should either perform the task in quiet or only listen to music prior to performing the task." Source Follow me on…
1 min read
Do men and women see luck very differently?
present experimental evidence which sheds new light on why women may be less competitive than men. Specifically, we observe striking differences in how men and women respond to good and bad luck in a competitive environment. Following a loss, women tend to reduce effort, and the effect is independent of the monetary value of the prize that the women failed to win. Men, on the other hand, reduce effort only after failing to win large prizes. Responses to previous…
2 minutes
Posting will resume tonight.
ve been overwhelmed with Comic-Con for the past week. Posting will resume tonight. Thanks, Eric
1 min read
How do women’s tastes vary in short term vs long term partners?
hort-term sexual appeal largely rested on targets’ attractiveness, particularly among women with an unrestricted sociosexual orientation. Dating appeal was dependent on attractiveness, particularly among unrestricted women, and on ambition. Ambition and attractiveness synergistically influenced targets’ long-term desirability, and these preferences were not moderated by women’s sociosexual orientation." We investigated the moderating influence of individual differences in women’s sociosexuality on romantic preferences within three specific relationship contexts. Female participants were presented with four prospective mates, varying in their ambition and attractiveness,…
1 min read
Why Don’t The French Get As Fat As Americans?
's the French paradox redux: Why don't the French get as fat as Americans, considering all the baguettes, wine, cheese, pate and pastries they eat? Because they use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over. "Furthermore,…
2 minutes
Does similarity breed attraction in romantic relationships?
in 25K+ readers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: The association between perceived similarity and liking for a romantic partner was examined in college students' relationships over the course of one year. Despite substantial evidence that similarity breeds attraction, perceived attribute similarity was positively correlated with liking only in high commitment relationships. In low-commitment relationships, perceived dissimilarity was associated with greater liking and with maintenance of liking over time, consistent with Aron and Aron's (1997) self-expansion model. Relationship…
1 min read
Can friends have no effect on happiness? Do we really know our friends? Does money facilitate even the closest of friendships?
me for another deeper dive. It's been a while. Before I've explored politics not once but twice, who you should marry, the magic power of the color of red, if women are more risk averse than men, discrimination and what you should do after you commit a murder. So what about friendship? Hardly a shocker, friendship is key to our happiness and quality is better than quantity: Relying on the theoretical model of [Lyubomirsky et al. 2005, Review of General…
5 minutes
Do laws against Muslim veils actually increase religiosity?
iling among Muslim women is modelled as a form of cultural resistance which inhibits the transmission of secular values. Individuals care about opinions of their community members and use veiling to influence these opinions. Our theory predicts that veiling is highest when individuals from highly religious communities interact in highly secular environments. This accounts for puzzling features of the new veiling movement since the 1970s. Though veiling helps retain religious values, we show that bans on veiling aimed at assimilation…
1 min read
