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Researchers find better way to predict suicide attempts
USA Today: Asking a soldier about self-worth or emotional pain may be a better way of predicting suicide than inquiring whether they intend to kill themselves, researchers report. Research has shown that more than half of troops who die by suicide denied in their last medical appointment that they were contemplating the act. Scientists are concerned that they fail to admit suicidal thoughts out of worry it would harm their military career.
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And the Memory Wars Wage On
National Geographic: I was reminded of the “memory wars” of the 1990s yesterday when listening to an episode of Marc Maron’s popular WTF podcast. The guest, comedian Tom Arnold, told Maron about his traumatic childhood, which included an alcoholic mother who abandoned him and a neighbor who molested him. Arnold said he came to terms with the trauma through therapy, which culminated in him confronting the neighbor in person. The man denied it, apparently yelling at Arnold that his memories were wrong. It was a heartbreaking story, and obvious from Arnold’s telling that he deeply believes his memories are not at all wrong. ...
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The Psychology of Begging to Be Followed on Twitter
The Atlantic: “Twitter is the best and Twitter is the worst.” This was the response Dr. Marion Underwood, clinical psychologist and University of Texas at Dallas psychology professor, received from one of her 15-year-old daughter’s friends when she asked what the girl thought of the social networking juggernaut. “I can’t get off of it,” the girl elaborated. “I can’t stop getting on Twitter.” If these sound like the words of an "addict," it’s because they (at least kind of) are. Underwood was inspired to take her informal poll after watching the teen in question spend the entirety of her daughter’s birthday party glued to her phone, reading and sending tweets.
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Why We Miss Creative Ideas That Are Right Under Our Noses
NPR: There are times when I've thought about singing during the program or maybe telling a bad joke. I'm getting the feeling this morning that our producer and editor, Rachel Ward and Kenya Young, would shoot me down. You ever have this experience? Pitch what you think is a brilliantly creative idea and your boss or manager says nope. If so, it might be worth listening to Steve Inskeep's conversation with NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam. Shankar's found some research explaining why good ideas get rejected. ...
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What Faces Can’t Tell Us
The New York Times: CAN you detect someone’s emotional state just by looking at his face? It sure seems like it. In everyday life, you can often “read” what someone is feeling with the quickest of glances. Hundreds of scientific studies support the idea that the face is a kind of emotional beacon, clearly and universally signaling the full array of human sentiments, from fear and anger to joy and surprise. Increasingly, companies like Apple and government agencies like the Transportation Security Administration are banking on this transparency, developing software to identify consumers’ moods or training programs to gauge the intent of airline passengers.
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When We Use Fate As A Scapegoat
The Huffington Post: Making decisions can be difficult, and making a hard decision can up the stress even more. A new study suggests that when we have an especially hard decision to make, we're more likely to use the belief in fate as a coping mechanism. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that believing that outcomes are out of our control is a coping mechanism to help us live with our decisions. Researchers from Duke University conducted two experiments to analyze the relationship between decision making and belief in fate. Read the whole story: The Huffington Post
