Are morning people happier?
oks like it: A literature on young adults reports that morning-type individuals, or “larks,” report higher levels of positive affect compared with evening-type individuals, or “owls” (Clark, Watson, & Leeka, 1989; Hasler et al., 2010). Morning types are relatively rare among young adults but frequent among older adults (May & Hasher, 1998; Mecacci et al., 1986), and here we report on the association between chronotype and affect in a large sample of healthy younger and older adults. Overall, older adults…
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Is regifting really that bad?
e people who originally gave the gift are not nearly as offended as regifters think they'll be. Five studies investigate whether the practice of "regifting"-a social taboo-is as offensive to givers as regifters assume. Participants who imagined regifting thought that the original givers would be more offended than givers reported feeling, to such an extent that receivers viewed regifting as similar in offensiveness to throwing gifts away (whereas givers clearly preferred the former). This asymmetry in emotional reactions to regifting…
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Should you be more afraid of sore losers or happy winners?
ware the winners. Winners are more likely to be aggressive toward losers than vice versa: Who is more likely to behave aggressively? Is it someone outperformed by others or is it someone who outperformed others? For safety reasons, it is important to know the answer to this question. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were told that they did worse or better than an ostensible partner on a first task. Then they aggressed against this partner on a second task…
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Do we learn more from success or failure?
ganizations definitely seem to learn more from failure. Knowledge from failure is better remembered too: It is unclear whether the common finding of improved organizational performance with increasing organizational experience is driven by learning from success, learning from failure, or some combination of the two. We disaggregate these types of experience and address their relative (and interactive) effects on organizational performance in the orbital launch vehicle industry. We find that organizations learn more effectively from failures than successes, that knowledge…
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Can lust make you smarter?
s. In his book The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You), social psychologist and university professor Simon Laham explains how lust can make us smarter and other possible benefits of indulging in the seven deadly sins. Via Eurekalert: Lust can make you smarter. Research shows that people with sex on the brain are better at solving 'analytic thinking' problems. Lust triggers us to become focused on the present and…
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Here’s Why Your Phone Is Making You More Selfish
ght be. Looks like our phones can fulfill our need for human contact, making us less inclined to go out of our way to help others. Via Science Daily: The researchers found that after a short period of cellphone use the subjects were less inclined to volunteer for a community service activity when asked, compared to the control-group counterparts. The cell phone users were also less persistent in solving word problems -- even though they knew their answers would translate…
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What do we regret buying? What do we regret not buying?
're more likely to regret purchasing things. We're more likely to regret not purchasing experiences. Forget the new TV. Go on vacation: Previous research has established that experiential purchases tend to yield greater enduring satisfaction than material purchases. The present work suggests that this difference in satisfaction is paralleled by a tendency for material and experiential purchases to differ in the types of regrets they elicit. In 5 studies, we find that people's material purchase decisions are more likely to…
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What can help keep a relationship happy over the long term?
ng term love is not rare but you need to feel similar to one another. Long distance relationships are even more stable than local ones. It doesn't all hinge on how much time you spend together. But put in some effort to present your best self whenever you are together. Act like it's a first date all the time. How you speak about your relationship says a lot more than you might think. Share the good things, show gratitude and…
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