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How Money Worries Can Scramble Your Thinking
NPR: There's no question that dealing with mortgages, car payments and other bills takes up time and energy. But having a tight budget may also zap our ability to think clearly, scientists Thursday in the journal Science. In a series of clever experiments involving farmers in India and shoppers in New Jersey, scientists found that people are worse at solving puzzles — similar to those on the IQ test — when they're first reminded of money problems. "Financial constraints capture a lot of your attention," says Eldar Shafir, a psychologist at Princeton University, who helped lead the study. "Then there's less bandwidth left to solve problems.
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Girls’ fear of math debunked, study suggests
CBC News: While girls tend to say they feel anxious about doing math, they are not actually much more anxious than their male counterparts during math classes or exams, according to new research by German and Canadian researchers. Researchers from Humboldt University Berlin, the University of Munich and McGill University in Montreal say they've identified a key failing in previous studies that said girls are far more apprehensive about doing math than their male peers. Previous studies asked students about generalized perceptions of mathematics anxiety rather than asking them directly about their anxiety while doing math.
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Food Is Tastier When Part of a Ritual
Scientific American: Food can taste better when you’re really hungry. Now a study reveals another condition that can enhance the flavor of a meal: when it’s part of a ritual. Scientists asked volunteers to eat some chocolate. They told one group to relax for a few minutes, then eat the chocolate in any way they wanted. But another group was given these instructions: “Without unwrapping the chocolate bar, break it in half. Unwrap half of the bar and eat it. Then, unwrap the other half and eat it.” Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Selfish U.S.?: Study says country becoming more self-centered
CBS: New research shows that as culture has evolved over the last two centuries — with increasing urbanization, greater reliance on technology, and widespread availability of formal education — so has human psychology. Listen to the whole story: CBS
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Young Adults Reminisce About Music From Before Their Time
Research suggests that young adults today are fond of and have an emotional connection to the music that was popular for their parents’ generation.
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Understanding trypophobia: Why some people fear holes
CBS: A growing number of people are reporting a fear of holes. The reaction is so severe that even seeing photos of holes can set off a panic attack. The condition is called trypophobia. According to the website Trypophobia.com, "Trypophobia is a weird kind of phobia and it can generally be considered as the fear of shapes. We are talking especially by the shapes created by nature." Until recently, it didn't garner much attention from scientists or doctors. But now, a study in the journal Psychological Science attempts to explain the fear.
