When can an angry mood be beneficial?
ger focuses attention on rewards, increases persistence, makes us feel in control and more optimistic about achieving our goals. Via The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You): So what does anger actually do? When Ford examined where participants spent most of their time looking, he found a clear bias toward rewarding stimuli. It was the erotic couples that seemed most interesting to the angry participants, not the knives. By…
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What keeps conversations smooth and enjoyable on a date?
a Brain Trust: 93 Top Scientists Reveal Lab-Tested Secrets to Surfing, Dating, Dieting, Gambling, Growing Man-Eating Plants, and More!: Interestingly, though, what mattered most beyond these obvious tools was not how prospective Romeos and Juliets acted but how they reacted. How does Romeo respond when Juliet quips and vice versa? The best responses (in addition to being warm and other-focused) walked a tightrope between too passive and too active. On the too passive side, Romeo might accept and agree with…
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Orgasms Make You Live Longer
a Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex: Are there other nonsexual health benefits to be derived from orgasm? Affirmative, say Rutgers University sex researchers Barry Komisaruk and Beverly Whipple. Their readable and comprehensive The Science of Orgasm says that people who have regular orgasms seem to have less stress and enjoy lower rates of heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and endometriosis. They also appear to live longer. British researcher G. Davey Smith and two colleagues calculated that…
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Why do people have sex?
a Brain Trust: 93 Top Scientists Reveal Lab-Tested Secrets to Surfing, Dating, Dieting, Gambling, Growing Man-Eating Plants, and More!: ‘Nobody’s ever looked at why people have sex!’ ” says Cindy Meston, psychologist at the University of Texas– Austin, and author of the book Why Women Have Sex. She and Buss rectified that: 1,549 undergraduates settled on 237 reasons for sex. Women listed as their top ten reasons: (1) I was attracted to the person; (2) I wanted to experience the…
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Can it be dangerous to say you like someone if you really don’t?
ying you like them might make you actually like the person. Via Scientific American: Saying you are fond of someone might make you actually like that person, according to a study in the October 2011 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. And: They said they liked people 17 percent more often when they had previously been told to say “likable” compared with when they had said “unlikable.” The study used a method that has been shown…
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Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello… Why would anyone enjoy watching tragedy?
bsp; Via Miller McCune: Researchers led by Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick of Ohio State University have tentatively propose some answers. In the journal Communication Research, they present evidence that watching tragedy inspires self-reflection, which allows us to re-focus on the people in our lives we might otherwise take for granted. The melancholy emotions these tales arouse ultimately provoke pleasant feelings of gratitude. And: In other words, contentment breeds complacency. Tragedy wakes us up, reminds us that horrible things can and do happen,…
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Why are smart people usually ugly?
bsp; Trick question. They're not. Via Slate (Hat tip: The Atlantic): ...the bulk of the evidence suggests that smart people are not "usually ugly." In fact, the opposite seems to be true: Either smart people are more beautiful than average, or dumb people are more ugly (or both). And while no facial features within the normal range could ever be that useful as a predictor of intelligence, people can perform better than you’d expect from random chance using nothing more…
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Is increasing willpower as easy as pretending you’re left-handed?
om Willpower: Resdiscovering the Greatest Human Strength: One simple way to start is by using a different hand for routine tasks. Many habits are linked to your dominant hand. Right-handed people, in particular, tend to use their right hands for all sorts of things without giving the matter the slightest thought. Making yourself switch to your left hand is thus an exercise in self-control. You can resolve to use your left hand instead of your habitual right hand for brushing…
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