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We Gossip About 52 Minutes A Day. That May Not Be As Toxic As It Sounds
Almost everyone gossips. And a new study finds that people spend about 52 minutes per day, on average, talking to someone about someone else who is not present. But here's the surprise: Despite the assumption that most gossip is trash talk, the study finds that the vast majority of gossip is nonjudgmental chitchat. "We actually found that the overwhelming majority of gossip was neutral," says study author Megan Robbins, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, who studies how people's social interactions are related to their health and well-being.
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Reducing Climate Change by Making It Less Abstract
There is no longer any doubt: the world is getting warmer, and humans are partially to blame. Unless we make significant changes at both the individual and societal level in the coming years, the consequences could be catastrophic. However, such changes are inherently difficult to enact because they cut directly against human nature. Humans are naturally prone to making short-term decisions (for instance, taking the plane rather than the train) as opposed to pursuing longer-term collective interests. In other words, they often prefer benefits in the concrete “here and now” to those that occur in the abstract future. But how can this tendency be overcome?
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Are women really moving up in the workplace?
The #MeToo movement has thrown a spotlight on gender discrimination issues in the workplace. But is office culture really changing? It depends on whom you ask. Only 20 percent of women agreed things have gotten better for women in their companies in the last five years, according to a new ASCEND-Morning Consult poll. Meanwhile, men were significantly more sanguine about progress: 33 percent said they’ve seen positive change in the last five years. “We were actually quite surprised,” Katherine Phillips, a Columbia Business School professor who analyzed the poll’s results for Ascend and Morning Consult, told “Morning Joe” co-host and Know Your Value founder Mika Brzezinski.
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Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer
If you’re like many people, you may have decided that you want to spend less time staring at your phone. It’s a good idea: an increasing body of evidence suggests that the time we spend on our smartphones is interfering with our sleep, self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity and problem-solving and decision-making skills. But there is another reason for us to rethink our relationships with our devices. By chronically raising levels of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, our phones may be threatening our health and shortening our lives.
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Have smartphones really destroyed a generation? We don’t know.
Teens in the United States are coming of age at a time when digital technology is truly ubiquitous, where smartphones are our “constant companions.” These youth are also, according to national surveys, increasingly in crisis. Here are some of the most troubling statistics. Between 2009 and 2017, the number of high schoolers who contemplated suicide increased 25 percent. The number of teens diagnosed with clinical depression grew 37 percent between 2005 and 2014. It could be that more teens are willing to admit they’re struggling and are seeking help. But deaths by suicide among teens have increased as well.
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The Surprising Boost You Get From Strangers
We were five minutes into the worst turbulence I’d ever experienced—approaching Boston’s Logan International Airport in a severe winter storm—when I turned to the woman next to me and said: “Hey, would you mind chatting with me for a few minutes? I’m really nervous.” We hadn’t spoken much during the flight, other than the usual pleasantries. But my seatmate seemed friendly. And I suddenly felt desperate for a human connection. “Sure, my name is Sue,” the woman replied, smiling warmly. “What brings you to Boston?” I started to explain that I was on a business trip.
