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The Reason Our Minds Wander
The Atlantic: You probably aren’t living in the moment. Most people spend their leisure time in imaginary worlds—reading novels, watching television and movies, playing video games and so on. And when there isn’t a book or screen in front of us, our minds wander. This seems to be the brain’s natural state. Neuroscientists describe the brain regions involved in mind wandering as the “default network,” so-called because it’s usually humming along, shutting down only when something demands conscious attention. Read the whole story: The Atlantic
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Why We Think We’re Better Investors Than We Are
The New York Times: From their earliest days, the loosely confederated research efforts that came to be known as behavioral economics spawned a large quantity of studies centered on securities investment. This was not because the field’s pioneers were especially interested in stocks and bonds, nor was the early research commonly underwritten by financial services firms.
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The American Dream Is Alive and Well, Just Not So Much in America
TIME: Millions of immigrants have flocked to the United States in the hopes of making better lives for themselves. Nowadays, however, people hoping to achieve the iconic “American Dream” could be better off heading to Australia or Germany. That’s the central finding according to a recent study published in Psychological Science, which examined the influence of genetic factors on intelligence measures like aptitude and achievement, which are used to predict success at school and work. The researchers specifically wondered whether how these genetic influencers would differ between low and high levels of socioeconomic status, and whether the results would differ across countries.
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Suppressing traumatic memories can cause amnesia, research suggests
The Guardian: Suppressing bad memories from the past can block memory formation in the here and now, research suggests. The study could help to explain why those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological conditions often experience difficulty in remembering recent events, scientists say. Writing in Nature Communications, the authors describe how trying to forget past incidents by suppressing our recollections can create a “virtual lesion” in the brain that casts an “amnesiac shadow” over the formation of new memories.
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What Research Says about Defeating Terrorism
Scientific American: Terrorism is as old as history and almost certainly older. In 68 B.C., for instance, the Roman city of Ostia, a vital port for one of the world's earliest superpowers, was set on fire by a band of thugs. They destroyed the consular war fleet and, rather embarrassingly, kidnapped two leading senators. Panic ensued—the same panic that has now been recapitulated down the centuries, courtesy of such terror groups as the Irish Republican Army, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the African National Congress, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, al Qaeda and, most recently, ISIS. ...
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Why Virginia Basketball Will Make You Yawn
The Wall Street Journal: Everyone in the NCAA tournament has a pre-game routine, and they’re willing to entertain almost anything if it has the right psychological effects. Virginia guard Malcolm Brogdon, though, prepares for the opening tip in what may be the strangest way possible. “I’ve never met a player,” said teammate Marial Shayok, “who yawns on a consistent basis.” This is how one of college basketball’s best players gets ready for games: He yawns. It’s a habit that Virginia fans have begun anticipating and some of Brogdon’s teammates have seen so often that they barely notice anymore. The first time Shayok witnessed it, however, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
