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Smiling May Reduce Stress
LiveScience: Feeling good often causes us to smile, but can smiling cause us to feel good? New research suggests it might. "Age old adages, such as 'grin and bear it' have suggested smiling to be not only an important nonverbal indicator of happiness but also wishfully promotes smiling as a panacea for life's stressful events," researcher Tara Kraft, with the University of Kansas, said in a statement. "We wanted to examine whether these adages had scientific merit; whether smiling could have real health-relevant benefits." Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Sourire est bon pour le coeur (Smiling is good for the heart)
Slate: Et si un sourire, même forcé, permettait de réduire son stress? Les docteurs Tara Kraft et Sarah Pressman de l'université du Kansas ont décidé de se pencher sur la question. Dans Psychological Science, elles expliquent leur étude. Les scientifiques ont recruté 169 étudiants sans leur expliquer le but réel de l’expérience, afin de ne pas fausser les résultats. En premier lieu, les chercheuses ont demandé aux personnes de mettre des baguettes dans la bouche afin de simuler une expression faciale précise.
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Why Do Older Adults Display More Positive Emotion? It Might Have to Do with What They’re Looking At
Research has shown that older adults display more positive emotions and are quicker to regulate out of negative emotional states than younger adults. Given the declines in cognitive functioning and physical health that tend to come with age, we might expect that age would be associated with worse moods, not better ones. So what explains older adults’ positive mood regulation?
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Disharmony in the Land of Nod
The Huffington Post: The most compelling personal memoirs -- Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, and others -- are not happy stories. They are recollections of childhood adversity, and rarely are they triumphant survivors' tales. The most honest of these remembrances are accounts of the lingering scars and damage done. And damage is done. Scientists have thoroughly documented the pernicious effects of traumatic childhood events, right down to the cellular level. The young brain is highly vulnerable to all sorts of stress, and study after study has shown that childhood troubles can skew the development of key neural networks involved in emotional stability.
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The yuck factor: The surprising power of disgust
New Scientist: DAVID PIZARRO can change the way you think, and all he needs is a small vial of liquid. You simply have to smell it. The psychologist spent many weeks tracking down the perfect aroma. It had to be just right. "Not too powerful," he explains. "And it had to smell of real farts." It's no joke. Pizarro needed a suitable fart spray for an experiment to investigate whether a whiff of something disgusting can influence people's judgements. His experiment, together with a growing body of research, has revealed the profound power of disgust, showing that this emotion is a much more potent trigger for our behaviour and choices than we ever thought.
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Olympics 2012: Superstition is the way some star athletes keep their winning edge
New York Daily News: U.S. women's judo champ Kayla Harrison wore lucky socks that were a gift from her grandmother when she won Olympic gold. British hockey player Laura Unsworth has banned a teammate from straightening her hair for fear it will cost them a medal. Swimming legend Michael Phelps removes his headphones and swings his arms three times as he's about to step on the starting block and race. The Olympians in London are a competitive bunch who will stop at nothing to give themselves an edge over their rivals, and that includes superstitions and rituals. Read the whole story: New York Daily News
