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Too Soon? Study Reveals ‘Sweet Spot’ in Joking About Tragedy
LiveScience: When is it okay to joke about a tragedy? New research shows that a comedian must carefully balance how bad and how distant an unfortunate event is to make a joke about it that won't leave an audience stone-faced or shouting, "Too soon!" Researchers from the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) at the University of Colorado Boulder conducted several studies to explore how psychological distance and severity impact humor about an unlucky turn of events. In the first study, participants in an online survey were asked to describe a personal experience that became either less funny or funnier as time passed, and then to rate its severity. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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The candidates’ message: I might be so-so, but the other guy is terrible
The Washington Post: Four stories are at the heart of any campaign. If you understand them, you know who controls the message — and with it, perhaps the election. These stories make up what campaign strategists call the “message grid,” which has four quadrants. The first two comprise the positive stories the candidates are telling about themselves; the other two feature the negative stories each candidate is telling about the other. In some elections, one quadrant of the grid dominates the conversation — for example, when the economy or a candidate is particularly strong or weak.
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Prejudice Can Cause Depression at the Societal, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal Levels
Although depression and prejudice traditionally fall into different areas of study and treatment, a new article suggests that many cases of depression may be caused by prejudice from the self or from another person.
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Secondary Analyses and Archiving of Social and Behavioral Datasets in Aging
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) recently issued two R03 grant announcements. R03 grants support small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. The announcements are soliciting applications for (1) secondary analysis of data on aging in the areas of psychology, behavioral genetics, economics, demography, or (2) archiving and dissemination of data sets. These two announcements have two separate funds of $1,000,000 each as well as separate reviews and due dates. R03 RFA AG13-004 Secondary Analyses and Archiving of Social and Behavioral Datasets in Aging (R03): Researchers can request up to $50K in direct cost per year for only one year.
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Improving Memory for Specific Events Can Alleviate Symptoms of Depression
Hear the word "party" and memories of your 8th birthday sleepover or the big bash you attended last New Year’s may come rushing to mind. But it’s exactly these kinds of memories, embedded in a specific place and time, that people with depression have difficulty recalling. Research has shown that people who suffer from, or are at risk of, depression have difficulty tapping into specific memories from their own past, an impairment that affects their ability to solve problems and leads them to focus on feelings of distress.
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Can We Learn To Forget Our Memories?
NPR: Around 10 years ago, Malcolm MacLeod got interested in forgetting. For most people, the tendency to forget is something we spend our time cursing. Where are my keys? What am I looking for in the refrigerator again? What is that woman's name? But MacLeod, who works as a memory researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, took a radically different view of forgetting. He wanted to know if it might be possible for people to do it better, to improve their ability to forget, specifically, their ability to intentionally forget their own personal memories.
