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Following Your Bliss, Right Off the Cliff
The New York Times: So you want to be a writer. Or an artist. Or to open a cupcake shop. What you’ll hear, often, is that you should pursue your dream. Follow your passion. Quit your job and live the life you want. That advice should come with a bright yellow warning sticker: your dream may end in disaster. ... “There’s a whole host of what my colleague Shelley Taylor” — a psychology professor at U.C.L.A. —“calls positive illusions,” said Professor Fox. “We overestimate our ability to control outcomes that have some element of chance” and we “tend to overestimate the extent to which good things are going to happen, especially to us.” Read the whole story: The New York Times
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Can Neuroscience Explain Innovation?
Forbes: We continue our conversation with Janet Crawford, a pioneer in applying neuroscience to improve business performance. In today’s part, we discuss the interplay between human biology and innovation. To read . Can you give an example of how biology affects the innovation process?
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Does studying science make you a better person?
Pacific Standard: That’s the implication of newly published research, which finds people who study science — or who are even momentarily exposed to the idea of scientific research — are more likely to condemn unethical behavior and more inclined to help others. “Thinking about science leads individuals to endorse more stringent moral norms,” report psychologists Christine Ma-Kellams of Harvard University and Jim Blascovich of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Their research is published in the online journal PLOS One. The researchers describe four experiments, all conducted at UCSB, that back up their surprising conclusion.
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Sounds of Arguing Affect Sleeping Babies’ Brains
LiveScience: Hearing the sounds of arguments affects how a baby's brain processes emotional tones of a voice, a new study finds. The little ones' brains lit up in response to angry tones, even while they were asleep. Babies' minds are extremely malleable. The environments and events they experience shape their brains for good or for ill. Stress due to maltreatment or being raised in an institution can take a toll on a baby's development. But this study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, shows that even moderate stresses can affect brain function.
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You Can Smell Other People’s Emotions, and They’re Contagious
Forbes: Emotions are the primary driver of our behavior. Everything we experience in the world around us—no matter how small—generates an emotional response that motivates action. Sometimes emotions move us to act before we even have a chance to think rationally about them. Emotions are also contagious. The brain has a host of complex methods for detecting emotions in other people, and it uses this information to mirror their emotional state. Some of these social survival mechanisms operate beneath our conscious awareness. A new study published in the journal Psychological Science provides fascinating insight into one such mechanism. Read the whole story: Forbes
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Positive Emotions, Good Health Have Strong Link In Developing Countries, Study Finds
The Huffington Post: Is the concept of emotions having an effect on health a "First World" problem? According to a new study, no, it is not -- and in fact, the association may be even stronger in developing nations. A new study from the University of California, Irvine, published in the journal Psychological Science, shows that positive emotions affect the health of people around the world, and most significantly in countries with lower income.
