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Is gossip bad for you? New study finds health benefits
CBS News: Do you gossip? Even if the answer is yes, you're not likely to admit it. Gossip is generally frowned upon for its potential to spread harmful rumors or labeled as idle chatter. But a new study suggests gossip might be good for your social and psychological health. "Gossip gets a bad rap, but we're finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order," said UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, coauthor of the study published in this month's online issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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Are Religious People Better Adjusted Psychologically?
Psychological research has found that religious people feel great about themselves, with a tendency toward higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment than non-believers. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is only true in countries that put a high value on religion. The researchers got their data from eDarling, a European dating site that is affiliated with eHarmony. Like eHarmony, eDarling uses a long questionnaire to match clients with potential dates.
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Why We Get Happier with Age
Yahoo: When you imagine a happy adult, the first picture that pops to mind might be a 25-year-old basking in the glow of youth, health, and beauty. Yet research suggests that a beaming 65-year-old might be a more accurate image. In study after study, older adults report having more positive emotions and fewer negative ones than younger adults do. At first blush, that might seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, the older we get, the more losses and disappointments we’ve racked up, and the more likely we are to have a chronic disease or disabling condition. Read the whole story: Yahoo
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New Research on the Antidepressant-Versus-Placebo Debate
TIME: In the 1990s, everyone was “Listening to Prozac,” after bestselling author Peter Kramer described sparkling personality transformations in patients who took the titular antidepressant drug. Then came the backlash: by the early 2000s, studies showed that Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, weren’t exactly miracle pills, but were instead associated with suicide, especially in kids and teens. Another whiplash-inducing turn came in 2008, when a review of the research found that the drugs were actually no more effective than sugar pills, except in cases of the most severe depression. Read the full story: TIME
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Feeling Powerful Makes You Think You Are Taller Than You Are
ABC News: Feeling powerful today? Then you probably think you are taller than you really are. And if you feel a tad powerless, you probably feel like the runt of the litter. In a provocative new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., participants in three experiments who were made to feel powerful estimated their own physical height significantly higher than it really was. And conversely, those made to feel less powerful thought they were shorter in stature than they actually were. Read the full story: ABC News
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A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond
The New York Times: IN 1905, at age 55, Sir William Osler, the most influential physician of his era, decided to retire from the medical faculty of Johns Hopkins. In a farewell speech, Osler talked about the link between age and accomplishment: The “effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of 25 and 40 — these 15 golden years of plenty.” In comparison, he noted, “men above 40 years of age” are useless.
