Did you make a New Year's resolution to be a better person in 2011? Not so easy, is it? If only there was some simple action you could take that would naturally inspire selfless behavior. Newly published research identifies just such a morality-boosting maneuver. All you have to do, it seems, is get high. As in, riding on an "up" escalator. Or sitting on an elevated perch. A research team led by psychologist Lawrence Sanna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reports the experience of being physically higher influences people to act in pro-social ways. Writing in the ... Read More
Secret of Peak Performance: Indispensability
January 3, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Necessity may or may not be the mother of invention, but it appears to be a highly effective motivator — even for the best of the best. That’s the conclusion of a new study that looks at data from swimming competitions at the 2008 Olympics. It finds these world-class athletes turned in better performances during relays than in their individual competition heats. But there was a catch: This team effect was only found when they were the second, third or fourth person in a four-person relay. A sense of “perceived indispensability” — the understanding that their performance had to ... Read More
Uncertainty Heightens Romantic Attraction
December 28, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
With the ultimate date night fast approaching, men and women alike are attempting to decipher the seemingly random rules of romantic attraction. What combination of factors impels one person to think of another as potential mate material? Newly published research suggests one potent element in the mix is mystery. “Keeping people in the dark about how much we like them will increase how much they think about us and will pique their interest,” a research team reports in the journal Psychological Science. University of Virginia psychologists Erin Witchurch and Timothy Wilson, and ... Read More
The Deep Pain of Awkward Silences
December 17, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
It's the moment everyone dreads at holiday social gatherings. You're enjoying a free-flowing, spontaneous conversation with a group of friends, colleagues or family members, until you inject what you think is a clever, or at least interesting, remark. The result is an awkward, almost unbearable silence, which lasts until someone jumps in to fill the verbal void with something — anything. Why are those few soundless seconds so incredibly uncomfortable? Newly published research suggests they elicit primal fears, activating anxiety-provoking feelings of incompatibility and ... Read More
Among Vets, Higher Rank Predicts Better Health
December 8, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
As anyone who has served in the military can tell you, there are many advantages to earning a higher rank. Better pay. More autonomy. Greater respect. And then there’s that most important long-term benefit: better health. Research recently published in the journal Armed Forces and Society finds “a persistent association between rank in the U.S. armed forces and self-rated health” among veterans. “Officers are less likely than are enlisted men to report fair or poor health, even after controlling for a variety of socioeconomic characteristics,” according to the study, ... Read More