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fell behind on my RSS feeds while in San Diego, which, as regular readers can well imagine, is a potentially overwhelming problem. I'm all caught up and thought I'd share some not-abstracts that caught my eye: Technology may help James Bond but it's actually hurting real spies. Corporate espionage is easy. And if you're good at it you can win an iPad. If either of those two links interest you, you should check out Bruce Schneier's book Beyond Fear.…
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Why do young people do such risky things?
llow @bakadesuyo There are many reasons, obviously, but I found this one to be novel and interesting -- young people think happiness declines with age so they live it up: Using data from a 2007 survey in Northern Ireland (representative sample, N = 1036), we replicate and extend the US-based findings of Lacey et al. (Journal of Happiness Studies 7:167–182, 2006). Consistent with Lacey et al., we find that young people mispredict happiness levels in old age, believing—wrongly—that happiness declines with age.…
1 min read
Do Homosexual Couples Save More?
mosexual couples are far less likely to have kids and it looks like they use that income to save for retirement: We analyze how sexual orientation is related to household savings using 2000 US Census data, and find that gay and lesbian couples own significantly more retirement income than heterosexuals, while cohabiting heterosexuals save more than their married counterparts. In a household savings model, we interpret this homosexual-specific differential as due to the extremely low fertility of same-sex couples, in…
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Are we happier when we’re busy?
..people who are busy are happier than people who are idle. Curiously, this last effect is true even if people are forced to be busy." There are many apparent reasons why people engage in activity, such as to earn money, to become famous, or to advance science. In this report, however, we suggest a potentially deeper reason: People dread idleness, yet they need a reason to be busy. Accordingly, we show in two experiments that without a justification, people choose…
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Here’s what happens when you evaluate students by gratefulness and materialism:
terialistic youth seem to be languishing while grateful youth seem to be flourishing. High school students (N = 1,035) completed measures of materialism, gratitude, academic functioning, envy, depression, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption. Using structural equation modeling, we found that gratitude, controlling for materialism, uniquely predicts all outcomes considered: higher grade point average, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption, as well as lower envy and depression. In contrast, materialism, controlling for gratitude, uniquely predicts three of the six outcomes: lower grade…
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Who is more likely to have never had sex: normal weight women or overweight/obese women?
rmal weight women: OBJECTIVE: To characterize the relationship between body mass index and sexual behavior, including sexual orientation, age at first intercourse, ever having had sex with a male partner, number of partners, and frequency of intercourse. METHODS: This study employed the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, a cross-sectional, nationally representative database in which women between the ages of 15 years and 44 years were surveyed regarding reproductive health outcomes. Sexual behavior was compared between body mass index groups-normal…
2 minutes
Does deodorant make men more confident?
llow @bakadesuyo Human body odour is important in modulating self-perception and interactions between individuals. Artificial fragrances have been used for thousands of years to manipulate personal odour, but the nature and extent of influences on person perception are relatively unexplored. Here we test the effects of a double-blind manipulation of personal odour on self-confidence and behaviour. We gave to male participants either an aerosol spray containing a formulation of fragrance and antimicrobial agents or an otherwise identical spray that lacked…
2 minutes
Who is more willing to terminate a life threatening pregnancy: men or women?
llow @bakadesuyo Abortion is a controversial topic in society, and as such, has not been thoroughly explored from different theoretical perspectives. Across two studies, we investigated abortion decisions under varied conditions. Participants read hypothetical scenarios, deciding whether to terminate a life-threatening pregnancy in different circumstances. Men were more likely than women to terminate a life-threatening pregnancy. Participants were less likely to terminate the pregnancy when they could not have future children. Other individual difference variables also influenced participants’ abortion decisions.…
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