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The Other Side of the Mirror
Forbes: I’ve posted previously about the power of mirroring – that gentle mimicry that acts as a kind of “social glue” in business relationships. Mirroring signals rapport, trust, and cohesion. Two people who like and agree with one another will often unknowingly place their bodies in mirror images of one another and even unconsciously move in synchrony. And this “limbic symmetry” strengthens their bond. When done with intent, mirroring can be a useful leadership technique in sales, negotiations, job interviews, collaboration and team building.
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Fatty foods enhance mood regardless of taste
The Independent: A new study sheds light on why we reach for fatty foods like burgers and fries when feeling blue - and it may have little to do with the pleasure principle. While exposed to sad or neutral music and images, researchers injected 12 non-obese, healthy subjects with fatty-acid solutions and saline infusions via gastric feeding tubes. When injected with the fat solution, the subjects reported feeling less sad than those who were administered with a saline infusion. Subjects also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans so that researchers could chart their brain activity during the experiments.
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Sept. 11 Revealed Psychologys Limits, Review Finds
The New York Times: The mental fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks has taught psychologists far more about their field’s limitations than about their potential to shape and predict behavior, a wide-ranging review has found. The report, a collection of articles due to be published next month in a special issue of the journal American Psychologist, relates a succession of humbling missteps after the attacks. Experts greatly overestimated the number of people in New York who would suffer lasting emotional distress. Therapists rushed in to soothe victims using methods that later proved to be harmful to some.
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Why women ‘opt out’ of the workforce
Yahoo India: Washington, July 29 (ANI): A new research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have explained why many Americans fail to see persistent gender barriers between man and women at work front. The research demonstrates that the common American assumption that behaviour is a product of personal choice fosters the belief that opportunities are equal and that gender barriers no longer exist in today's workplace. The study suggested that the assumption that women "opt out" of the workforce, or have the choice between career or family, promotes the belief that individuals are in control of their fates and are unconstrained by the environment.
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Rose-colored glasses may help love last
Chicago Tribune: If Cupid wanted to improve his game with science, he'd shoot first, then hand out rose-colored glasses with instructions attached: To be worn when viewing your relationship and your partner's personality or body. For best results, keep using well after "I do." Remove carefully at your own risk. Psychologists have long known that new love can be blind and new lovers delusional. Research has shown that newlyweds exaggerate their partner's good qualities, forget the bad ones, rate their own relationship with annoying superiority and so on. But newer research tantalizingly suggests that this myopia is good for more than driving your single friends crazy.
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Men and women perceive risks differently
Times of India: Though it is well known that women take fewer risks than men, now, according to a new research, the reality of who takes risks when is actually a bit more complicated. A lot of what psychologists know about risk-taking comes from lab studies where people are asked to choose between a guaranteed amount of money or a gamble for a larger amount. But that kind of decision isn't the same as deciding whether you're going to speed on the way home from work, wear a condom, or go bungee jumping. Research in the last 10 years or so has found that the way people choose to take risks in one domain doesn't necessarily hold in other domains.
