Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Even Great Apes Get the Midlife Blues

Sad orangutan

We’ve all been there. The trees we enjoyed climbing as kids no longer beckon quite so beguilingly. The fruits and nuts that were such delicious treats have largely lost their appeal. If we’re honest with ourselves, we are forced to admit: We’re in something of a mid-life crisis. Yes, getting older can feel oppressive to an orangutan. We can now add the middle-age blues to the list of experiences we mistakenly thought were exclusive to humans. In a paper just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international research team reports the well-being of ... Read More

Corridors of the Mind

Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi

ARCHITECTS HAVE BEEN talking for years about “biophilic” design, “evidence based” design, design informed by the work of psychologists. But last May, at the profession’s annual convention, John Zeisel and fellow panelists were trying to explain neuroscience to a packed ballroom. The late-afternoon session pushed well past the end of the day; questions just kept coming. It was a scene, Zeisel marveled—all this interest in neuroscience—that would not have taken place just a few years earlier. Zeisel is a sociologist and architect who has researched the design of facilities ... Read More

Social Networks Degrade Political Thinking

Plenty of research suggests having a strong, supportive social network has a positive impact on one’s health and well-being. But with an election approaching, it’s worth noting that this sort of interconnectedness apparently has a dark side. It seems to make us less-sophisticated thinkers, at least in the realm of politics and policy. That’s the conclusion of a study recently published in the journal Political Psychology. Researchers Elif Erisen and Cengiz Erisen conclude close-knit networks of friends and acquaintances apparently create “social bubbles,” which can limit “how ... Read More

Climbing Everest Also Requires Emotional Stamina

Metaphorically speaking, we all have mountains to climb, and some of us manage to ascend to a higher plateau than others. What psychological traits help people push their way to their peak? A new study of actual mountain climbers—specifically, adventurous people who attempted to climb Mount Everest—suggests one promising path is to manage your anxiety and savor small victories. In the spring of 2008, a team of researchers led by psychologist Jim Cartreine of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (elevation 141 feet) surveyed 71 people at the South Base ... Read More

Free Your Mind: Experience Awe, Have More Time

awenotext

I don’t tend to budget a lot of time for trolling YouTube. But the other day, I cashed in four minutes and twenty-three seconds to watch a video my husband sent me: a short film in which the Scottish cycling wunderkind Danny MacAskill pedals around San Francisco, performing acrobatic feats that make you consider the urban landscape in a whole new way. I’m your typical time-crunched working mother, my day jammed with day-care pickups and drop-offs, writing, meal prep, chasing an energetic 2-year-old boy. Squeezing in the bare necessities of my personal happiness—a daily swim, a real ... Read More

Eastern Philosophy Eases Death Anxiety

Two guys walk into a bar. The bartender greets them with the sad news that a mutual acquaintance—a man of their age and social class—recently keeled over after suffering a massive heart attack. Slightly shaken, they sit down and order drinks. But do they do so with a wistful smile, or a sullen grimace? Do they spend their evening sharing plans for the future, or trading snarky remarks until their unease morphs into anger targeted at some group they don’t like? The answer, according to newly published research, may depend upon whether the watering hole is in Shanghai or Cheyenne. It ... Read More

Caring for Aging Parents Will Age You

File:Whistlers_Mother_high_res

Via MedicalExpress: Just in time for the largest generation in American history to retire, Case Western University researchers have provided pursuasive evidence that providing long-term care to elderly relatives is bad for you. The study of 110 families found  increased tendencies toward arthritis, back trouble, hypertension, chronic fatigue and depression among family members charged with an aging relatives' care. About half the people studied were children caring for their parents. Half held down full-time jobs while taking responsibility for an aging parent. Nearly two-thirds of the ... Read More

The Evolution of Fairness

Drying fish

In the upper Fraser Canyon, about 250 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, a rocky gorge cuts its way through the interior plateau of British Columbia. Gordon Orians, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Washington, and I have come here to see evidence of the emergence of inequality in the archaeological record of fishing at a place called Keatley Creek. Gordon is my science adviser and co-producer on a multimedia project in which we're investigating the evolution of the human sense of fairness, from its biological roots among the earliest social living animals through its ... Read More

Why You’re Voting That Way

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(Designed by Column Five)

As the election campaign heats up and attitudes harden, it’s worth remembering that our deeply held political beliefs—the ones that seem so self-evidently true—are a somewhat malleable, largely accidental product of our genetic makeup and early life experiences. Researchers are far from certain why one person becomes a liberal and another a conservative, but they have come up with some intriguing findings. For more Graphic Content, click here. ... Read More

‘Power Gloat’ Ready to Take the Field

Back in 2010 we told you about how “power poses”—open, expansive positions of the body—actually made test subjects feel more powerful, leading them to be more self-confident and presumably more successful. At the time we pointed to even earlier research that the process of raising our arms upward resulted in more positive thoughts, which again presumably is a milepost on the track to success. Now, thanks to CNN’s Rose Hoare, we've been reminded of an excellent example of such “embodied cognition”: Usain Bolt. His so-called lightning pose, with one arm pointing to the ... Read More