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Happy People Steal More
Scientific American Mind: Who stole the office stapler? A study in April's Psychological Science argues it's more likely to have been your happiest colleague than your grumpiest. Observing that happier people are more mentally flexible, psychologists at Cornell University wondered whether they might be more morally flexible as well. To find out, the team showed 90 undergraduates either a cheerful video of a cartoon duck showering or a neutral screensaver. Read the whole story: Scientific American Mind
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Are You Okay? You Smell Like Cytokines.
The Huffington Post: Nurses and hospice workers say they can smell the final approach of death. Not with sudden death, but with the slow march toward the grave, the body's systems begin to shut down and metabolism changes, so that breath and skin and fluids give off a distinctive odor that signals the end is near. This is not surprising. In fact it's more perplexing that deadly diseases don't announce their presence earlier. From an evolutionary perspective, it would be more advantageous if we could all detect early warning signals, olfactory cues that the immune system is gearing up to ward off a new and threatening disease.
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Why We Are Wired to Connect
Scientific American: When we experience social pain — a snub, a cruel word — the feeling is as real as physical pain. That finding is among those in a new book, Social, and it is part of scientist Matthew Lieberman’s case that our need to connect is as fundamental as our need for food and water. He answered questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook. You argue that our need to connect socially is “powerful.” But just how powerful is it?
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Pessimists may be genetically predisposed to see the world darkly: new UBC study
National Post: Some people are genetically predisposed to seeing the world darkly, according to a new Canadian study that adds to a recent raft of research acknowledging biology’s role in shaping a person’s perspective, positive or negative. The study found a particular gene variant can cause some people to see emotional events — especially negative ones — more vividly than peers who don’t carry the gene. According to the lead author, University of British Columbia psychology professor Rebecca Todd, it’s the first study to find this genetic variation deeply affects how people see and experience their world. It was published in the current issue of Psychological Science.
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10 Things We’ve Learned About Negotiation
Smithsonian Magazine: While negotiating, it may not be such a good idea to look the other party straight in the eye, after all. A study published earlier this month in Psychological Science says that making eye contact may actually make people who disagree with you less likely to change their minds. Researchers found that the more time viewers spent looking at speakers’ eyes, the less likely they were to shift to the speakers’ point of view. Eye contact seemed to be effective only when a viewer already agreed with a speaker. Read the whole story: Smithsonian Magazine
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Study: Making Direct Eye Contact Is Not An Effective Way To Persuade
Forbes: Few popular beliefs are as unshakable as, “If you want to influence someone, always make direct eye contact.” But new research suggests that this bit of sturdy pop lore is hardly gospel – in fact, in many circumstances a direct gaze may result in the exact opposite effect. Researchers from Harvard, the University of British Columbia and the University of Freiberg used newly developed eye-tracking technology to test the claim during two experiments. ... According to Julia Minson of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, co-lead researcher of the studies, “The findings highlight the fact that eye contact can signal very different kinds of messages depending on the situation.
