psychology

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'Fast' in Fast Food Takes Over Your Life

Short attention spans even affect leisure activities: researchers

(Newser) - Americans’ exposure to the “instant gratification” of fast food makes them more impatient for fulfillment in other aspects of life, even the low-key pleasure of an afternoon stroll. Research subjects exposed to fast food logos complete tasks more quickly than a control group, even if there is no time...

Europe Closes In on Mock Mars Trip

Psychological experiment to test effects of isolation

(Newser) - The European Space Agency today introduced the four finalists vying for the questionable privilege of being locked inside a cramped fake spaceship for 17 months. Dubbed Mars 500, the project aims to study the psychological stresses of a journey to the Red Planet. “You need to be a little...

Fake Game Show Players Shock 'Victims' in Chilling Documentary

Recreation of '60s experiment tests power of TV

(Newser) - Most people are happy to dish out horrendous pain to others if they're told to by a game show host, found a chilling French documentary recreating a famous 1960s psychology experiment. The makers of fake Zone Xtreme told participants they were on a game show pilot, and found that 81%...

Reconciliation Will Make Senate Less Human
 Reconciliation Will Make Senate Less Human
DAVID BROOKS
Mar 16, 2010 4:50 AM CDT

Reconciliation Will Make Senate Less Human

Partisan reconciliation will turn Senate into House, predicts David Brooks

(Newser) - Using reconciliation to push health care through will turn the Senate into a crude, partisan arena much like the House, argues David Brooks. Once a place where alliances were formed between individual lawmakers, the Senate used to reflect the human sympathy seen in one-on-one relationships; a party-line vote will reduce...

Why Darkness Breeds Shifty Behavior

Study: People are more devious when lighting is dim

(Newser) - When it comes to the psychology of devious behavior, adults aren't much different from toddlers who cover their eyes with their hands to hide: We think that if we can't see, nobody can see us. So while there's nothing surprising about the fact that most crime occurs in the dark,...

Move Over, Tiger: Every Man's a Sex Addict
Move Over, Tiger: Every Man's a Sex Addict
OPINION
Feb 25, 2010 5:00 AM CST

Move Over, Tiger: Every Man's a Sex Addict

Having a male libido isn't a medical condition, psychiatrist writes

(Newser) - Sex addiction is just another term for a condition that affects all men at some point in their lives, and it shouldn't be treated like a medical condition, writes Dr. T. Byram Karasu. Unlike addiction to cigarettes or cocaine, "sex addiction" is a result of the biological urge to...

Army Shrinks&mdash;Minus 5&mdash; Deployed to Afghanistan
 Army Shrinks—Minus 5—
 Deployed to Afghanistan 
Fort Hood survivors
Dec 5, 2009 6:45 AM CST

Army Shrinks—Minus 5— Deployed to Afghanistan

Psych specialists lost five in shooting by fellow psychiatrist

(Newser) - The unit of psychiatric specialists who were among those fired on by rogue psychiatrist Nadal Malik Hasan Nov. 5th, seeing five comrades killed and 17 wounded, left for Afghanistan yesterday, right on schedule, reports the Washington Post. "This promises to be the most challenging year of our lives, though...

Loneliness Is Communicable

 Loneliness Is Communicable 
STUDY SAYS
Dec 1, 2009 12:13 PM CST

Loneliness Is Communicable

Feel bad, friends feel bad—but only for 3 degrees of separation

(Newser) - Lonelyhearts of the world unite—your malaise may not be the fault of your particular situation, but rather that of contagious ill-feeling. A new study finds that loneliness is infectious—lonely neighbors that interact regularly with those next-door pass on increased loneliness. So “you can use your friends to...

Why Women Have Sex
 Why Women Have Sex 
Oct 6, 2009 4:50 PM CDT

Why Women Have Sex

Psychologist discusses female sexuality, and what men can do to get ahead

(Newser) - Psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss, authors of the 2007 study “Why Humans Have Sex,” have completed a second go-round, this time focused on women only. They come up with 237 reasons, and though they're not enumerated in the article, Time asks Buss for some highlights:
  • Besides sexual
...

Couples Therapist's Solution to Marital Fight? Knife Hubby

NYC psychologist must have forgotten own advice

(Newser) - A Manhattan couples therapist—who once told the New York Times the biggest problem between men and women is communication—is accused of knifing her husband in an argument. Joyce Poster-Lederman—or, as the Post calls her, “the frustrated female Freudian”—allegedly blew up during a fight at...

How Thin People Make Other People Fat

New study shows we mimic habits of those whose bodies we aspire to

(Newser) - Existing research suggests those trying to control their food intake should avoid dining with hefty companions with heaping plates. Not quite, says a new study. While the "I'll have what she's having" effect was confirmed in this experiment with college-age women, it was much more pronounced if the person...

TV Noise Hurts Parent-Kid Bond
 TV Noise Hurts Parent-Kid Bond 
Sep 16, 2009 8:35 AM CDT

TV Noise Hurts Parent-Kid Bond

Having TV on reduces quantity and quality of parent-child interactions

(Newser) - Having a television on reduces parent-child interaction and may hold back the development of young children—even if nobody's watching it, according to a new study. Researchers studied children ages 1 to 3 playing with their parents with and without an adult's show like Jeopardy playing in the background and...

Study: Talking to Pretty Women Makes Men Stupid

Trying to impress women can take up all the male brain's power, experiment finds

(Newser) - Men literally lose their minds when talking to women they find attractive, a new study finds. A group of Dutch psychologists—inspired to carry out the experiment after one of them forgot his address while talking to a pretty woman—tested the memory skills of 40 heterosexual volunteers before and...

Love Boosts Creativity, Lust Improves Logic: Study

Tests find that logic puzzles stump the romantic, while the lustful lack creative thinking

(Newser) - The lovestruck enjoy a surge in creative powers while those who are merely randy are sharper logicians, a new study finds. Dutch researchers asked students to imagine either a romantic walk with a loved one or a one-night stand with a casual acquaintance before giving them a set of problems...

First US Internet Addiction Rehab Center Opens

For $14,500, reStart offers therapy, socialization

(Newser) - The first US Internet addiction clinic has opened in Fall City, Wash. The Heavensfield Retreat Center offers “reStart,” a 45-day in-patient rehab program for Internet, video game, and texting addictions, LiveScience reports. Clients undergo talk therapy and social skills training, as well as feeding goats, raising chickens, and...

Why Such Rage at Obesity? Start With 'Self-Loathing'

(Newser) - If so many people are fat in this country, why is there so much venom against the overweight? Part of it can be chalked up to "self-loathing," write Kate Dailey and Abby Ellin in Newsweek. We're conditioned to consider extra pounds unattractive, and we get ticked off when...

Ya-Ya Sisterhoods Stab You in the Back
 Ya-Ya Sisterhoods 
 Stab You in the Back 
interview
Aug 26, 2009 2:09 PM CDT

Ya-Ya Sisterhoods Stab You in the Back

Author discusses the trials of adult female friendship

(Newser) - According to today’s “Sex and the City ethos,” friends are there when romance falters. But in truth, female friendships “are just as complicated as marriages,” author Lucinda Rosenfeld tells Salon. That’s particularly true when it comes to envy, a theme of Rosenfeld’s new...

Need to Think Hard? Hold a Big Clipboard

Holding heavy objects makes us bear down, study suggests

(Newser) - Holding heavier objects could affect your thoughts and how you deal with problems. A University of Amsterdam researcher broke subjects into two groups, giving half a 1.5-pound clipboard and the rest a 2.3-pound clipboard. He then asked them several questions and discovered that the mere 0.8-pound difference...

Common Psychology Myths
 Common Psychology Myths 
OPINION
Aug 25, 2009 9:35 PM CDT

Common Psychology Myths

Armchair therapists need to shut up

(Newser) - Everyone likes to pretend they know things about psychology. Unfortunately, most of what you hear is total crap, a psychology student writes for Cracked. Some top offenders:
  • Let Your Anger Out, You’ll Feel Better: Actually, you’ll just want to be more angry. “Lashing out to control your
...

Forget Comfort Food: We Shun It in Turmoil

Studies suggest we don't seek solace in the familiar

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom has it that when we face big changes, we look to the familiar to get us through—whether it’s comfort food or music we’ve loved for years. But new studies suggest the opposite is true, that “change begets change,” in the words of one...

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