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The perfect gift
The Boston Globe: The high season of gifts is now upon us, and it is time to face a few uncomfortable truths: You do not know what most of the people on your list will actually enjoy. The majority of your gifts will be something of a failure. In fact, your whole concept of what makes a gift thoughtful — of what will be appreciated — is almost certainly wrong. There is, however, good news: You can do better, and it’s not that hard. First, though, consider the evidence of our gifting flops. When polled, almost half of all Americans predict they will be disappointed enough to return a holiday gift, and perhaps several.
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Atmospheric Disturbances: On Michael Gazzaniga
The Nation: We live in the age of the fMRI machine, dazzled and bamboozled by pictures of brains “lighting up” in living Technicolor. Before these neuroscientific glory days, the mysteries of the mind had to be approached by rather less alluring methods: postmortem examination of the brains of psychiatric patients, animal experiments of legendary cruelty and intelligence testing after pioneering brain surgeries, to name but a few. During the knife-happy decades of the mid-twentieth century, surgical treatments for seizure disorders generated especially startling insights into human brain function.
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It’s Flu Season — Watch Your Prejudices
Huffington Post: I tried not to breathe too much on the elevator this morning. I was trying to avoid the germs of a fellow who clearly had the flu -- or at least a really nasty cold. There seems to be a lot of sickness going around right now, and I'm just being prudent. I know it would have been rude to cover my face or turn my back to this guy, so I just held my breath for the 10-story ride. That's my behavioral immune system kicking in. Behavioral immune system is just a fancy way of summarizing what the mind and body have long known, that one of the most powerful tools we have for staying well is to watch out for sick people, and then give them wide berth.
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Delayed Gratification Study: It Also Predicts Credit Scores
International Business Times: The Stanford marshmallow delayed gratification test is one of the most influential behavior studies in modern history. Conducted by Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel in 1972, it has proven to be a solid predicator of success in life and is used by elite preschools to screen their young candidates. Mischel's experiment measured if children could sacrifice eating a marshmallow immediately in order to receive two marshmallows 15 minutes later. Years later, those who resisted the temptation (and received two marshmallows) went on to perform better in on their SAT tests.
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A Sign That Doctors Care More for Their Patients Than Themselves?
The Atlantic: Here's proof that doctors care more about their patients' safety than their own. A study has found that doctors tended to ignore signs asking them to wash their hands for the sake of their own health; When they were reminded that not washing put their patients' health at risk, they were far more willing to oblige. Whatever was going through the doctors' minds, an appeal to patient safety got their attention much better than an appeal to their personal safety. Soap use rose by over 45 percent. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina were interested in what type of message would be most effective at increasing doctors' hand washing.
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The chewing-gum edge
The Globe and Mail: “Good news for students and worrying parents as researchers discover a quick and easy method to boost final exam scores,” says Psych Central. “In a new study, researchers determined [that] chewing gum for five minutes before taking a test improves test scores. However, students should use the initial boost judiciously as the benefits extend for only the first 15 to 20 minutes of the testing. St. Lawrence University psychologist Dr. Serge Onyper conducted a study that showed that students who chewed gum for five minutes before taking a test did better on the test than non-gum-chewing students. Read the whole story: The Globe and Mail
