Learning! Roundup: Act Your (Pretend, Much Younger) Age, Gun Convenience, Gender-Neutral Pronouns Work, and More!

A roundup of research and science from the past week, including the fact that it's good for your health to act younger than you really are!
Photo by Joyce Adams.

Act Your (Pretend, Much Younger) Age

It turns out that after the age of 25, you are increasingly likely to think of yourself as younger than you actually are, and that's a good thing! Feeling like you're younger than you are is correlated with living longer. (Of course, remember that's correlation, not causation! It could be that healthier people think of themselves as younger. But still, it's fun to feel younger than you are, right?)

Gun Convenience

Violence in the home is already known to be more likely to turn deadly if there is a gun present, but now it's also shown that having guns easily and legally available nearby has the same effect. So basically, if it's easy to get a gun in your hands while you're still mad at your partner, you are more likely to kill them.

Gender-Neutral Pronouns... Work???

Four years ago, the Swedes decided to introduce a new gender-neutral pronoun, instead of just using "they" as a singular pronoun. Guess what??? It actually helped reduce sexist tendencies, like equating "people" with "men" or more traditional gender roles. Of course, there's no evidence that this was caused by the new pronoun and couldn't happen if the use of the singular "they" takes off as well. It just shows that having a gender-neutral way to refer to people actually matters.

Consequences of Lying

When you tell a lie to someone else, even a smaller, white lie, your brain becomes worse at identifying their thoughts and feelings. This can get in the way of your empathy and lead to further dishonest or dehumanizing activity. Yikes!

High-Res Brains

The highest-resolution scan of a brain has been completed, and made available for you to look at! It took them 100 hours to make it and researchers can look at objects as small as 0.1mm if they so desire. Brains!

Transgender Women's Fertility

For a while, there have been concerns about what might happen to a transgendered person's fertility after going on hormone suppression therapy. There's still a lot to learn, but a new case study has emerged showing that, at the very least, a trans woman could be on hormone replacement drugs for six months, discontinue use, and still produce sperm. It's a start!


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