What simple thing can you put in the kitchen to help you eat less?
mirror. Via Richard Wiseman's excellent book 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute: Placing a mirror in front of people when they are presented with different food options results in a remarkable 32 percent reduction in their consumption of unhealthy food. Seeing their own reflection makes them more aware of their body and more likely to eat food that is good for them. Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 5 easy, scientifically-proven tips…
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Can noise make you more creative?
derate background noise can increase creativity. Via the WSJ: People in the moderate-noise groups scored higher on the objective word-association test, and their answers to the other problems were rated, subjectively by peers, as more creative. Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 10 proven ways to be more creative Are you more creative when you're drunk? What are the four types of creativity?
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What are the most sleep-deprived jobs?
therine Rampell at the New York Times pulls some interesting data from a recent study: What topped the list of the most sleep-deprived professions? Home health aides Lawyers Police officers Physicians Which professions are the most well-rested? Forest/logging workers Hairstylists Sales representatives Bartenders Join 45K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: How little sleep can you get away with? What does falling asleep after sex say about your relationship? Do some people only need a few hours…
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Can laughter save your life?
bsp; People who use humor to cope with stress have better immune systems, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, experience less pain during dental work and live longer. The researchers recommend people laugh for 15 minutes a day. Via Richard Wiseman's excellent book 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute: People who spontaneously use humor to cope with stress have especially healthy immune systems, are 40 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, experience less…
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Are your goals making you unhappy?
ople are happier when their goals are aligned, meaning their short term goals lead to the achievement of their long term goals. (If your short term goal is to be a great poet and your long term desire is to be a billionaire I'm really not that surprised you're miserable.) Via Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom: The psychologists Ken Sheldon and Tim Kasser have found that people who are mentally healthy and happy have…
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What’s the best way to “play hard to get”?
tablish that you're hard to get in general but very enthusiastic about the person you're with. Via Richard Wiseman's excellent book 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute: As a result of the interviews, the researchers speculated that the best strategy would be to give a potential date the impression that in general you were hard to get (and therefore a scarce resource worth having) but really enthusiastic about him or her specifically. They tested this notion by using…
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Are creative people crazy?
ere's definitely overlap in terms of personality and cognitive traits: We investigated the relationship between creativity, personality, latent inhibition (LI), and psychopathology. For this purpose, a sample of actors, 2 clinical samples (alcohol and polydrug dependents), and a group of university students were compared with respect to psychometrically determined creativity, personality, and LI. The results suggest that actors and polydrug dependents can be characterized by (a) high scores in the personality dimension psychoticism, (b) high originality during creative idea generation,…
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Is being a successful Wall Street trader in your DNA?
bsp; Looks like there may be a genetic basis for what makes someone a good Wall Street trader: What determines success on Wall Street? This study examined if genes affecting dopamine levels of professional traders were associated with their career tenure. Sixty professional Wall Street traders were genotyped and compared to a control group who did not trade stocks. We found that distinct alleles of the dopamine receptor 4 promoter (DRD4P) and catecholamine-O-methyltransferase (COMT) that affect synaptic dopamine were predominant…
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