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How Your Online Image Affects Your Professional Life
You Beauty: While the professional networking site LinkedIn is now regarded as the second most-popular social networking site in the U.S., Facebook still stands strong at number one, with over 160 million users. Your Facebook profile can play an important role in your professional life, whether or not you realize it. And the first thing people see on Facebook—before they read about your dual degree or favorite rom-coms—is your profile picture. If you’re in the market for a job, it’s a no-brainer that you shouldn’t showcase your rowdy margarita night. But what about a more conservative pic with a group of your friends? Maybe not. Employers don’t necessarily want to know how friendly you are.
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Are Pet Owners Really Happier or Healthier?
Time: "While pets are undoubtedly good for some people, there is presently insufficient evidence to support the contention that pet owners are healthier or happier or that they live longer." Harold Herzog, professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, writing in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. Herzog, a pet owner and pet lover himself, says that to date, studies conducted to determine whether having a pet improves health and longevity have "produced a mishmash of conflicting results." He calls for more scientific study into the matter. Read the whole story: Time
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Psychology: We Play Video Games to Chase Our ‘Ideal Selves’
Time: What exactly is it about video games that holds so much drawing power? Last year, a staggering 500 million video games were sold throughout the world, and, despite some recent slippage earlier in May, the industry as a whole remains one of the biggest, most lucrative markets out there. Now, a new study set to be published in a coming issue of Psychological Science seeks to uncover exactly what it is about video games that attracts such a passionate and dedicated fan base.
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Study questions if pets make owners healthier
The Vancouver Sun: Pet owners have long been encouraged to think that they are happier, healthier and live longer than people without pets, but a new US study claims they might be barking up the wrong tree.
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The Role of Mirror Neurons in Human Behavior
U.S. News & World Report: We are all familiar with the phrase “monkey see, monkey do”—but have we actually thought about what it means? Over the last two decades, neuroscience research has been investigating whether this popular saying has a real basis in human behavior. Over twenty years ago, a team of scientists, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University of Parma, discovered special brain cells, called mirror neurons, in monkeys. These cells appeared to be activated both when the monkey did something itself and when the monkey simply watched another monkey do the same thing. The function of such mirror neurons in humans has since become a hot topic.
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Your memory is not as powerful as you think
MSNBC: A significant number of Americans believe that memory is more powerful, objective and reliable than it actually is, a new survey finds. Some memory myths are so pervasive that up to 83 percent of people believe them. The survey, published online today (Aug. 3) in the journal PLoS ONE, queried a nationally representative sample of 1,500 Americans about a variety of common beliefs about memory. The survey found that almost two-thirds of Americans believe that memory works like a video camera, accurately recording events for later review.
