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The Danger of Even Thinking You’re Overweight
Pacific Standard: The last three decades have brought an alarming rise in childhood obesity. Much of society's attention has centered on kids who've already put on a few too many pounds, but that overlooks one important group of kids: teens who think they're more overweight than they actually are. Turns out, their misperceptions greatly increase the chances they'll be obese as young adults.
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The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things
Fast Company's Co. Exist Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn't make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource. There's a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong.
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No Easy, Reliable Way To Screen For Suicide
NPR: Even a careful psychiatric examination of the co-pilot involved in last week's Germanwings jetliner crash probably would not have revealed whether he intended to kill himself, researchers say. "As a field, we're not very good at accurately predicting who is at risk for suicidal behavior," says Matthew Nock, a psychology professor at Harvard. He says studies show that mental health professionals "perform no better than chance" when it comes to predicting which patients will attempt suicide. Read the whole story: NPR
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Happiness Gap May Favor Liberals
The New York Times: Conservatives are happier than liberals, or so decades of surveys that ask about life satisfaction would suggest. The existence of a so-called ideological happiness gap is so well established that recently social scientists have mostly tried to explain it. But a new series of studies questions the gap itself, raising the possibility that although conservatives may report greater happiness than liberals, they are no more likely to act in ways that indicate that they really are happier.
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Old (Commuting) Habits Die Hard
Convincing people to switch from driving their car to taking the bus to work isn’t easy. But when the environmental charity group WWF announced that it would be moving its United Kingdom headquarters to another town, psychological scientists Ian Walker, Gregory O. Thomas, and Bas Verplanken of the University of Bath saw a golden opportunity for studying the influence of habit on commuting behavior. Commuting the same way day after day, people don’t typically weigh the particular pros and cons of different modes of transit. Rather, people tend to carefully weigh their options when they first start using a particular route.
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Book Signings at the 2015 APS Annual Convention
Frans B. M. de Waal, APS Past President Michael Gazzaniga, APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Marsha M. Linehan, APS Fellow Gabriele Oettingen, and APS Fellow Steven Pinker, and will be signing copies of their newest books at the APS Annual Convention, May 21–24 in New York City. These eminent psychological scientists will also be speaking at the Convention. Register today. Frans B. M. de Waal Emory University The Bonobo and the Atheist The Age of Empathy Michael Gazzaniga University of California, Santa Barbara Tales From Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience Marsha M.
