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Claustrophobic offices stifle creativity
The Telegraph: Chinese and US scientists conducted an experiment which saw volunteers seated inside or outside a cardboard box measuring five feet by five feet. Those seated outside the box, in an airier, less constricted environment were found to be more stimulated, with a greater their ability to think 'outside the box.' The team ensured that, cardboard aside, each environment was identical and that participants did not feel claustrophobic inside the box. Having set the volunteers a test, findings showed that people outside the box were consistently more creative in their thinking. Read the full story: The Telegraph
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La ‘folie des grandeurs’? Les dirigeants se voient plus grands qu’ils ne le sont en réalité…
Express Belgium: Les recherches montrent que les personnes de grande taille sont plus susceptibles d’avoir du pouvoir et gagnent plus d’argent en moyenne, mais que peut-on dire des personnes de petite taille ? C’est ce que ce sont demandé deux chercheurs, le Professeur Jack Goncalo, de l’université Cornell University de New York, et le Docteur Michelle Duguid, de l’université Washington de St. Louis. Ils ont donné des tests d’aptitudes à 266 sujets qu’ils ont associés par binômes, et qu’ils avaient préalablement mesurés. Ensuite, chaque membre du binôme devait jouer le rôle ou bien de l’employeur, ou bien de l’employé, selon des notes qui leur étaient attribuées.
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Are We Bad at Forecasting Our Emotions? It Depends on How You Measure Accuracy
How will you feel if you fail that test? Awful, really awful, you say. Then you fail the test and, yes, you feel bad—but not as bad as you thought you would. This pattern holds for most people, research shows. The takeaway message: People are lousy at predicting their emotions. “Psychology has focused on how we mess up and how stupid we are,” says University of Texas Austin psychologist Samuel D. Gosling.
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How Do Placebos Relieve Pain?
Scientists and doctors have been studying placebos for more than half a century. These inert “sugar pills” remain highly controversial, yet they are widely used in clinical treatment today—especially in the area of pain management. So-called “placebo analgesia” has been observed again and again not only in the pain clinic, but also in the neuroscience lab, where scientists have documented a placebo response in the brain’s pain pathways. Despite this evidence, nobody really understands the psychological processes involved in placebo analgesia.
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Courage & cowardice
National Post: To psychologists, courage, like its opposite cowardice, is not an internal state of mind but an external process. It requires not only bravery, but also success, just as cowardice requires both fear and failure. Both also demand a certain perfection in the results. For example, of the 74 people awarded the Carnegie Medal in 2008 for "saving or attempting to save" another's life, a study found, only one left someone unrescued. "It's sort of like you have to do it or die trying," said Cynthia Pury, editor of The Psychology of Courage: Modern Research on an Ancient Virtue.
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Nurturing mums raise physically healthier adults
Zee News: Washington: Adults who had nurturing mothers in childhood have better physical health in midlife, a new study has found. Brandeis psychologist Margie Lachman with Gregory Miller and colleagues at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles reveal that while children raised in families with low socioeconomic status (SES) frequently go on to have high rates of chronic illness in adulthood, a sizable minority remain healthy across the life course. The research sought to examine if parental nurturance could mitigate the effects of childhood disadvantage. Read the whole story: Zee News