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Responsive Partners Show Two Kinds of Empathy
When stress sets in, many of us turn to a partner to help us manage, relying on the partner to provide a sounding board or shoulder to cry on. A new study on close relationships suggests that your odds of actually feeling better are much improved if your partner provides both of those things. The research, conducted by psychologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara reveals that simply understanding your partner’s suffering isn’t sufficient to be helpful in a stressful situation; you’ve got to actually care that they’re suffering in the first place.
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Facebook Reactions, the Totally Redesigned Like Button, Is Here
Wired: YOUR NEWS FEED is about to get a lot more expressive. After months of user testing in a handful of countries, Facebook today is releasing “Reactions” to the rest of the world. The feature isn’t so much a new tool as it is an extension of an existing one; by long-pressing—or, on a computer, hovering—over the “like” button, users can now access five additional animated emoji with which to express themselves. Each emotive icon is named for the reaction it’s meant to convey. “Like” you already know—say hello to “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry”. ...
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Everything Is Crumbling
Slate: Nearly 20 years ago, psychologists Roy Baumeister and Dianne Tice, a married couple at Case Western Reserve University, devised a foundational experiment on self-control. “Chocolate chip cookies were baked in the room in a small oven,” they wrote in a paper that has been cited more than 3,000 times. “As a result, the laboratory was filled with the delicious aroma of fresh chocolate and baking.” In the history of psychology, there has never been a more important chocolate-y aroma. Here’s how that experiment worked. Baumeister and Tice stacked their fresh-baked cookies on a plate, beside a bowl of red and white radishes, and brought in a parade of student volunteers.
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The Psychological Case for Instagramming Your Food
New York Magazine: The most important thing about a good food picture, as any amateur food photographer can tell you, is natural light. It’s why you can find particularly determined patrons of the food-photography arts looking like lost waiters — carrying plates of food to nearby windows just to take a picture. If there is no natural light, there is always the option of flash. And don’t forget about angles and composition. Capturing a full Sunday-brunch spread is near impossible to do while sitting down, so you might as well stand up, maybe even on your chair to shoot from above.
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The Kryptonite of Smart Decisions? Overconfidence
Research shows that people in general are overconfident, but entrepreneurs appear to be particularly prone to cockiness. About half of new companies fail within five years, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite the imposing failure rate for new businesses, entrepreneurs are often quite confident that their ventures are going to succeed. One survey of 3,000 entrepreneurs found that 81% believed that their chance of success was 70% or higher; and a whopping 33% estimated their chance of success to be 100%. New research from psychological scientists Daylian Cain (Yale University), Don A.
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Do I Look Fat? Men Ask This Question, Too
The Wall Street Journal: Movies and TV shows full of svelte celebrities. Magazines and websites pushing weight loss and exercise. It is tough being a man these days. Just-published research, from one of the largest studies on male body image, shows how much men worry about being thin and muscular: Not quite as much as women agonize about their bodies. But still a lot. And it affects their relationships in surprising ways. A partner may become resentful that her man slimmed down without her—or jealous of all the new attention he is getting. She may worry he will find someone else.
