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Why We Compete
The Atlantic: It’s said that when chased by a bear, you don’t need to outrun the bear; you just need to outrun your friend. Similarly, to win a championship, a promotion, or a date, you need only to beat the immediate competition, whether a team, a colleague, or a fellow suitor. No wonder we constantly measure ourselves against our peers. In a survey of faculty, students, and staff at the Harvard School of Public Health, nearly half of the respondents said they’d prefer to live in a world where the average salary was $25,000 and they earned $50,000 than one where they earned $100,000 but the average was $200,000.
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Why Do People Lie When They Can Easily Get Caught?
TIME: On Wednesday, Steve Rannazzisi—a comedian who found fame on MTV’s Punk’d and has stars in the popular FXX show The League—admitted he had fabricated a story that he said was the basis for his success: barely escaping the tumbling south tower on September 11, 2001, while working a desk job at Merrill Lynch. ... Why would someone who was high-profile and easily traceable in this digital age, with no obvious reason to lie about where he was on 9/11, lie? There’s no clear answer, and one can only speculate as to what motivated Rannazzisi. But to the question of why people lie when they can get caught, researchers have some theories.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Mother-Infant Contingent Vocalizations in 11 Countries Marc H. Bornstein, Diane L. Putnick, Linda R. Cote, O. Maurice Haynes, and Joan T. D. Suwalsky Mother-infant interactions play an important role in child development, helping with children's emotional, social, cognitive, and language development. Despite the importance of this interaction, it remains unknown whether aspects of mother-infant interactions -- such as vocal turn taking -- are universal the world over.
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Aha! Close Your Eyes for Inspiration
Aha! Sometimes the solution to a tough problem comes suddenly, in a burst of insight. You may have been painstakingly hashing through the details for a new business plan for days, when suddenly a brilliant, creative solution strikes as you’re taking a shower or staring out the window. New research from an international team of psychological scientists suggests a link between our “Aha! moments” and what we’re looking at. A study led by Carola Salvi of Milano-Bicocca University concluded that inspiration may be more likely to strike when we close or eyes or simply stare into space.
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Is Modern Dating the Worst?
Science Friday: In 1967, 76 percent of women said they would marry someone they didn’t romantically love. This is a figure that shocked comedian Aziz Ansari while working on his book, Modern Romance. He teamed up with sociologist Eric Klinenberg to understand how romantic expectations and dating have evolved over the years, especially with the advent of mobile technology and online dating. (According to the Pew Research Center, for example, one in five adults in the United States between the ages of 25 and 34 have given online dating a try.) To understand the state of dating today, the two talked with a number of scientists. Read the whole story: Science Friday
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The Downside of Mindfulness
Pacific Standard: Close your eyes. Focus on your breath. Watch, without judgment, as thoughts and feelings arise in your mind, and gradually dissipate. If those instructions sound familiar to you, you are one of the many people—including myself—who have taken up mindfulness meditation. And for good reason: Recent research has found the practice produces a variety of benefits beyond simple stress reduction, including improved test scores, reduced reflexive racial bias, and even helping dieters avoid temptation. But it turns out that even this highly positive practice is not immune from producing unintended consequences.
