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Dating in a Digital World
Scientific American: Romantic relationships can begin anywhere. When Cupid's arrow strikes, you might be at church or at school, playing chess or softball, flirting with a friend of a friend at a party or minding your own business on the train. Sometimes, however, Cupid goes on vacation, or takes a long nap, or kicks back for a marathon of Lifetime original movies. Instead of waiting for the capricious arrow slinger to get back to work, people are increasingly joining online-dating sites to assert some control over their romantic lives. Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Una sonrisa para rebajar el estrés (A smile to lower stress)
ABC: Aunque la sonrisa es síntoma de que nos sentimos bien también puede ser una buena herramienta para mejorar nuestro humor cuando el estrés nos invade. Así lo asegura un estudio de la Universidad de Kansas, que se publicará próximamente en la revista «Psychological Science». Los psicólogos Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman han investigado los potenciales beneficios de sonreír y cómo los diferentes tipos de sonrisa influyen en la capacidad de cada uno para recuperar de episodios estresantes. Los investigadores reclutaron a 169 participantes universitarios para confirmar su hipótesis.
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How to De-Stress—Instantly
Cosmopolitan: Completely stressed out? Take a sec to smile. No, seriously. According to new research from the University of Kansas, grinning helps you relax when you're stressed. In the study, researchers split participants into three groups. Each group was trained to recreate a different facial expression by holding chopsticks in their mouths. One group held their sticks in a way that created a neutral expression, another used them to create a standard smile, and the last group used them to create a genuine smile. Read the whole story: Cosmopolitan
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Greater Working Memory Capacity Benefits Analytic, But Not Creative, Problem-Solving
Anyone who has tried to remember a ten-digit phone number or a nine-item grocery list knows that we can only hold so much information in mind at a given time. Our working memory capacity is decidedly finite - it reflects our ability to focus and control attention and strongly influences our ability to solve problems. In a new article in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Jennifer Wiley and Andrew Jarosz of the University of Illinois at Chicago explore the role of working memory capacity in both mathematical and creative problem solving.
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Would You Rather Win Silver Or Bronze? (Be Careful What You Wish For)
NPR: Both athletes were U.S. swimmers, both were dripping wet after finishing an Olympics final, and both had just won medals. The first said, "It's not my normal specialty. ... We went out there and raced tough – and just came up a little short." The second had a beaming face. He said, "[I] swam my own race. And knew I had a lane, and had an opportunity, and I went for it. It worked out, you know, it's just awesome that I get to go on the podium tonight. Honestly, I'm really proud of myself!" The disappointed athlete was Ryan Lochte, seconds after the 4x100m freestyle relay at the London 2012 Olympics. The guy who was thrilled?
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Simply Smiling Can Actually Reduce Stress
Smithsonian Magazine: It sounds like the most useless advice imaginable: Just put on a happy face. Conventional wisdom is that smiling is an effect of feeling happy, rather than the other way around. Simply smiling in stressful situations can’t possibly make you feel any better, right? Wrong. A fascinating new study by University of Kansas psychologists that will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science indicates that, in some circumstances, smiling can actually reduce stress and help us feel better.
