Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Forget and Forgive

Forgiving is hard, right? Some people seem to be able to very easily get past being hurt but it's a big ol' thing for me to turn off the part of my brain that relives the pain over and over again.

Well heeeeeerrrrrrrrre comes SCIENCE with some answers!!!

Apparently there are two kinds of forgiveness: decisional and emotional. Like the names say, in the former you decide to forgive someone and in the latter you try to release the negative emotions related to the perpetrator of your pain and even usher in positive ones.

Here's the cool part: people who opt for emotional forgiveness tend to forget the details of how they were harmed. They'll still remember the gist of it, but those details that might otherwise recycle themselves over and over in your brain get fuzzy around the edges.

And guess what makes it easier to forgive someone??? Yeah, FORGETTING all those dang details.

So really, the saying should be, "forget and forgive."

(If you're wondering how the heck to even do emotional forgiveness, in the study the participants were instructed “wish that the offender experiences something positive or healing and to focus their thoughts and feelings on empathy," so apparently that's it.)


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You Can Stop Blaming Your Smart Phone, We Ruined Our Lives All On Our Own

(I get way too much satisfaction out of defending social media and screen time than could possibly be healthy. But here we are.)

I just listened to the latest episode of Science Vs, a wonderful podcast that takes controversial topics and, you know, looks at the science around them.

This one was about screen time. You know, the thing that is ruining kids' attention spans, hurting our eyes, turning brains into mush, and making us depressed and lonely. It's the BIG BAD of our current existence. (Much like the written word, telephones, and refrigerators were in their day.)

Except... it's not. Yes, the studies finding potential relationships between screen time and depression (etc) get all the clickbaity headlines, but the research is actually mixed and mostly shows minimal effect, easily mitigated by other things factors like sleep and nutrition and loving parental involvement. (I won't give all the evidence here, that's what the podcast is for and there's a transcript with citations if you want it.)

This is what I'm here to say:
 
MAYBE instead of blaming something like a SMART PHONE for the fact that we are INCREASINGLY MISERABLE in our collective experience of humanity, we might want to LOOK AROUND and realize that we are living in a SELF-GENERATED DYSTOPIA thanks to late-stage capitalism, COLONIALISM, impending environmental destruction, and a WHITE SUPREMACIST PATRIARCHY that pits us all against each other, creates a rigid ladder and calls it success but only lets a few people climb it, and is literally burning the future of our species.

If anything's going to suck the life out of your heart with a disposable twisty straw that somehow also injects lead into your bones, it's that. We don't need a device to ruin our lives, no matter how addictive its creators designed it to be. We were doing that just fine all on our own, THANK YOU.


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Really important "what if"s

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if a giant banana was circling the earth at the distance of the international space station? Me neither. But someone did, because people's brains are amazing.


Other completely unimportant but wonderful questions answered: what if the moon was a disco ball? What if the planets were as close as the moon?


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Smart as a Sperm Whale

Photo by BioDivLibrary on Foter.com

 
New reality show: are you smarter than a sperm whale?
 
I don't know that I am. While I'm over here swiping on Tinder, which is the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results), these glorious creatures very quickly learned to change their defensive strategy after humans started hunting them.
 
You see, sperm whales are hunted by orcas and would group into tight circles to defend themselves. But once humans decided to get in our boats and kill the ocean, that grouping just made them easier to catch. Instead, they would simply swim upwind, making it nearly impossible for the wind-powered ships to catch them.
 
Friends, every time we learn something new about animals it becomes more clear that they are way smarter than we've ever given them credit for. 

(I also just learned that plants scream when we cut them, just at a frequency we can't hear. I am horrified.)


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Getting Defensive


It makes so much sense! If I think to the times I have engaged with (sometimes very stupid) cover-ups or denials for wrongdoing, I think they were often connected to people with whom I felt uncertain about my standing.

What's interesting is that this research shows that people will feel the implicit guilt over whatever they have done either way, but only those who have had reassurance will admit to their guilt explicitly.

This applies to making your wrong right as well. Unsurprisingly, those who are unwilling to admit their guilt are also less likely to take steps to repair the harm they caused.


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Learning! Roundup: Kids Know Animals Are Better Than People and Cheese is Healthy

An animated gif video clip of a man sitting on a couch saying, with great intensity, "I eat all the cheese!"
Giphy

+ Children don't prioritize human lives over animals. Most people, aside, perhaps, from many vegans, would probably say that a human life was ultimately more valuable/worth saving than an animal. Even when you stack up 100 doggy lives over one human life, most adults would opt to save the human. Not kids, though! With kids, even if it's one human vs. one dog, most pick the dog.

What do those kids know????

+ I have never accepted the notion that cheese is not good for me to eat. And now some new studies says that cheese is a benign, and maybe even helpful, element in a diet! Of course, these studies are purely looking at the impact of cheese on weight gain which is not necessarily a measure of health, so it probably doesn't matter anyways. Eat that cheese!!!

+ If you're trying to increase equity in your workplace, a new method has emerged: simply make your "shortlist" of potential candidates longer. In these studies, they had people shortlist three candidates for a CEO position (or three to star in a new action film) and then asked some of them to double it and give three more. The group with more candidates had more diversity.

What this reveals to me is that we start with our default assumptions and biases, and then, with the teensiest amount of effort, will look beyond that scope. We just need an itty-bitty push.


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Learning! Roundup: Researching Death, Happy Families, and Potty Mouths

An old black and white photo from the New York Public Library Archives, showing two Black nurses, wearing the old uniform dresses and caps, one with a cape, standing facing one another. They are smiling, as if in conversation, and holding vials for injections.
New York Public Library

How to Research Death

I learned more about how longevity and fitness-based research is developed from this article than I did about the value of exercise (although I did learn that doing HIIT-style workouts is better for your longevity and overall quality of life by a pretty small margin, although that margin might mean a lot when you're dying). Apparently, scientists studying longevity like to use elderly participants because they are more likely to die which will make it easier to identify if, you know, the interventions are making a difference.

It's a bit morbid and a lot logical.

The Recipe for a Happy Family

Being happy with your partner and kids, if you go that route in life, may depend on psychological flexibility. This includes traits like being open to new experiences (good or bad), connecting to the present moment, and maintaining "deeper values" despite other stressors in life. Honestly, these seem like a recipe for increased satisfaction in life, in general.

(Also, I read the full list of traits of psychological flexibility in the article, and went, oh crap, I may not be psychologically flexible.)

Potty Mouths



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Turns Out I'm Past My Prime (Cognitively Speaking)

A photo of a few pineapples wearing party hats, one is tipped over and there is confetti.
Pineapple Supply Co.

Turns out that my last birthday was a big milestone and I didn't even know it: I was exiting my cognitive peak.

A new study shows that our brains reach their "cognitive peak" at age 35. Downhill from there.

What would I have done differently, had I known I was in my peak year last year? Honestly, probably not much, except that I would have also made a lot of jokes about how I was the smartest I would ever be. (So my friends are probably grateful I didn't know!)

Other fun research:


If you want to feel good about yourself and build efficacy, you should do the hardest thing first. Contrary to popular belief, we do worse when we start with something easy and build our way up to the hard thing.


Bad news for me: depression and social anxiety symptoms are associated with use of dating apps in women. (Insert teeth-gritting/brace yourself emoji here.) This is correlation, not causation, but I can certainly tell you that I don't feel like my best self after a round of swiping.


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Kids Know Grown Ups Don't Always Get it Right

A photo of a boy sitting at a table doing homework.
Photo by Santi Vedri

I love love looooove this! A research study about grown ups, designed and run by children! (With the help of some adult researchers, of course.)

The kids asked questions like "What have adults done to make you feel happy/upset?" and "Is there something you think adults get wrong and why?"

The main result? That adults think they should know everything but kids know that they don't and they don't care.

They also know that adults were the ones who invented social media and gave it to them, and then they are also the ones who always complain about it.

They also revealed that they think they have to be perfect, and maybe that's why they seek a lot of validation.


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Learning! Roundup: Did you know that plants have COGNITION???

Remember these??? It's been awhile! But there has been some cool research that's come out recently and I still want to share it with you:

A photo of a bunch of funnel-shaped beakers with grass or plants in them that appear to be frozen.
Photo by Chuttersnap

When people think about their mortality, it makes them more likely to make donations they perceive as leaving a legacy or somehow transcending death.

Growing up with an elderly person at home actually increases negative views towards older people, especially if the elderly person in the home has serious health needs.

+ If you think religious people hate science, you might be American, because apparently religious Americans are unique in the world for their skepticism towards science.

+ HEY-O! Plants might actually have COGNITION!!! There is evidence that plants can do things like communicate, remember things, recognize kin, and even count, which are all considered markers of cognition. (This is not really a surprise, but it's also kind of wild to see discussed by a scientist. I can't wait until we start learning about the personalities of plants!)


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Learning! Roundup: This is Your Brain on Absurdist Art (also, oil-soaking sponges, loneliness, and more!)

A photo of an abstract painted mural that shows the lower half of a woman's face with clouds and fans around it.
Photo by Mr TT.

When Nothing Makes Sense


Have you ever seen the movie Mulholland Drive? Or looked at some absurdist painting that just didn't make any sense? Turns out that under the meaning maintenance model, taking in art like this causes a sensation similar to physical pain in our minds, but then ultimately results in perking up the meaning-maker part of our brain, making greater sense of the world and affirming our identity.

Oil Sponge


I remember in elementary school, our teacher had us do an exercise where we imagined we were in charge of cleaning up an oil spill. How would we do it? One student suggested a giant sponge of some kind. Of course, we were kids and a magical oil-sucking sponge hadn't been invented... UNTIL NOW! Researchers have now developed a large, porous sponge that can suck up oil off of water. I am just going to imagine that my classmate went on a life trajectory that led him to be a member of that team.

Lonely Days


A new global study of loneliness has been done, showing that people are lonelier if they are younger, male, and live in countries that are higher in individualism. There are, of course, some confounding factors, and this study directly contradicts another one that came out recently saying that women were more likely to feel lonely, but there you have it!

Be a Memory Athlete


First of all, did you know memory athletes are REAL THINGS? It's true. People train, practice, and compete at memorizing stuff. They aren't special - or at least, they aren't cognitively special or different from the rest of us. They ARE special in that they devote their time to mastering memory-encoding techniques that any of us could learn and do on a daily basis.

Machine Diagnosis


A new machine learning study analyzed social media posts about COVID symptoms on Chinese social media site Weibo (similar to Twitter). It was able to predict diagnosis rates in regions up to 14 days ahead of official statistics.

Asymptomatic Commons


Remember how COVID confirmed what many people suspected: that cruise ships are travelling incubators of disease? Well, a new study of a group of people stuck on a cruise ship showed that a whopping 80% of those who were infected with COVID had no symptoms at all.




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Learning! Roundup: It's Possible to Love Your Job TOO Much (also, hope-filled recoveries, moral machines, and more!)

A photo of a wall with the words "Live, Work, Create" stenciled on the side
Photo by Jon Tyson.

Don't Love Your Job Too Much


Companies love it when their employees love their jobs because then they work wayyyyy more. It turns out, however, that they are also more likely to be territorial, hoarding work-related knowledge, and even behave unethically. All so that they can advance in the sweet job they love so very much.

Hope


If you are trying to recover from a mental illness, hope is a key factor. A new study shows that hope is a strong predictor of recovery from common anxiety-based disorders, and that hope increases in therapy.

Moral Machines


In our continued efforts towards the machine uprising, when computers become or great and all-knowing overlords, we have now successfully taught them morals! By feeding a computer books and articles, scientists have now been able to help a computer program make moral judgements of right and wrong. And of course, these judgements vary slightly depending on what eras or societies the readings come from.

Smart Folks Can't Take the Heat


If you do realllllly well at tasks where you're just trying to do your best and absolutely choke under pressure, maybe you're smarter than average! Turns out that people with higher intelligence perform better in low-pressure situations, but when they are under intense pressure, those with lower intelligence shine. So for the smartypants among us, process-based goals and a focus on "doing your best" really does make a difference.

Live For Today, Plan For Forever


My grandpa used to say you should live as if you're going to die tomorrow and plan as if you're going to live forever. Turns out that this ability, to live in the moment while planning ahead, is a magical key to mental well-being. So no problem! Just strike that perfect balance of presence and planning.


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Learning! Roundup: When You Lose Your Religion, You May Not Lose the Whole Thing (also, conscientious psychopaths, guessing people's age, and more!)

A photo of a bunch of tiny Virgin Mary statues lined up on shelves to purchase.
Photo by thom masat.

Losing My Religion (But Only a Little)


People who were once religious and now are not carry some "residue" of their religion with them through the rest of life. The good news is that this generally takes the form of some pretty positive behaviours, like volunteerism or caring about a group's success over an individual's.

Conscientious Psychopaths


Despite psychopaths being associated with violent or criminal behaviour, there's actually a good number who are "successful" at life (defining success as not committing crimes or being violent, I guess?). The thing that sets them apart is higher conscientiousness. This allows the more positive traits of psychopathology (like their dang charm) to shine and help them go places in life.

Guessing Age


Where do you look when you try to guess someone's age? Apparently, you'll probably spend most of your time looking around their mouth and neck. Not that staring at someone to guess their age is something that really needs to be done very often. Or at all.

Bodies Online


There has been a lot of research showing how women's bodies are depicted online, but not much looking at what is out there for men. A new study shows that men face the same kinds of images as women on Instagram influencer posts, with most being lean, muscular, white men.

The Gamers Are Alright


A 6-year longitudinal study shows that 90% of gamers are not addicted and are totally fine, even if it seems like they play a lot. Within that 90% are a group who started the study showing "moderate" symptoms of problematic gaming that never got worse, so even if it seems like someone is getting a bit too into their games, chances are they will be fine!

Toxic Masculinity Strikes Again


Since feelings in and of themselves are perceived as being gendered, apparently, men can't even be happy without having their sexuality questioned. Men who are happier are more likely to be perceived as gay, whereas women have a greater range of emotional expressions available to them without threatening their sexual identity.


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Learning! Roundup: Where Does Your Mind Go When You Sleep? (also, sad vegetarians, going great, and more!)

A black and white photo of a woman sleeping on a bed with a big, cozy duvet!
Photo by Kinga Cichewicz.

Only in Dreams


Thanks to some very fancy technology, we have direct evidence for the very first time that our brains are replaying the events of the day while we sleep. This seems to be what makes sleeping help with the creation of memories.

Sad Vegetarians


As a vegetarian and a person who cares about the environment, I don't love this one: looks like people who don't eat meat are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and even a desire to self-harm. It's just a correlation, so who knows, maybe depressed and anxious people are just more likely to see the world for what it is and be okay denying ourselves something than happy folks.

Going Green


A new economic study suggests that now is the perfect time to invest in a green stimulus package: spending on things like clean energy infrastructure will actually have greater economic returns, and bonus, help divert climate change. Oh please, can we do this???

Cover-Ups


If you're going to cover up some wrongdoing, it may go better if you are covering for someone else. People seem to be more lenient towards those who display loyalty by covering up for someone else in their in-group than those who cover up their own mistakes.

Universal Basic Income


COVID lockdowns have inspired people to reconsider the notion of universal basic income. In Finland, a test run and two-year study has had a timely release, showing that those who received the basic income were overall more satisfied with their lives and had less mental strain than the control group.


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Learning! Roundup: We May Be Always Online, But We Don't Want Everyone to Know It (also, drunk animals, smart teens, and more!)

A photo of a black woman standing in a crowd at some kind of event - maybe a club - she is holding a drink in one hand and her phone in another
Photo by Tobias Nii Kwatei Quartey

Always Online


You know how many apps have these indicators that show everyone whether or not you are online? WELL! If you've ever changed your behaviour because of these status indicators, you're not alone. From changing the app settings to hide our online status to going on just to check if someone else is online to going online and then off very quickly, most of us let these indicators drive how we relate online. Interestingly, it's most common that we do all this for the sake of one person who we are trying to avoid or check up on.

Drunk Animals


Ever wonder which animals can hold their liquor? Honestly, I haven't, but I am now tickled to have this information. Apparently, animals who consume fruit as a significant part of their diets are more likely to successfully break down alcohol enzymes without getting tipsy.

Smartypants Teens


Most people have a tendency to think they are smarter than they actually are, but here's a fun twist: teenagers who rate their own intelligence as higher are not only more likely to be narcissistic, but are more likely to be happy with their lives. Interestingly, there is a gender difference: teen boys have a stronger relationship between their self-rated intelligence, narcissism, and life satisfaction. Honestly, I'm not surprised that the girls were less likely to have this inflated view and happiness to go with it - we're not trained to see ourselves as smart and bound for greatness to the same level as boys!

Hearing Voices


Two-thirds of authors can actually hear their characters speak in their heads - some can actually enter into a dialogue with those characters.

Bias in Media


If a mega-corporation gets caught doing something inappropriate, like breaking environmental regulations or corruption, that's news, right? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it depends on whether or not they have a vested interest in the media company doing the reporting. A new analysis of 1,054 instances of corporate social irresponsibility shows that media outlets use their own interest, including advertising spending, to decide whether or not they cover these events.

Selfish Memories


We all like to think of ourselves as kind and generous people. So our memories help us out with that. Turns out that selfish people actually remember themselves as being more benevolent than they actually are, which helps them feel better about themselves as people.


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Learning! Roundup: Hiding From Your Feelings Works, But Not the Way You Might Hope (and more!)

A photo of a woman standing alone in a forest wearing a floral dress with a blindfold over her eyes.
Photo by Moshen Shenavari.

The Feels


One thing my counsellor tells me is that I can't pick and choose my feelings: if I want to turn off the negative ones, I'll have to turn off the positive ones as well. A new study sort of confirms her claim. Turns out that people who turn off emotional responses to negative stimuli have a more notable reduction in positive emotions than negative ones. Plus, while they think they are experiencing less negative emotion, their bodies are actually still having the same response as ever. So basically, by trying to turn off the negative, you turn off your positive and mask the negative!

Suppressed Stress


Here's another one on suppressed feelings, this one for parents to add to the list of things they shouldn't be doing: suppressing stress! A new study has shown that when parents try to hide their stress, their children not only pick up on it, but they take that stress on physiologically. The parents who were trying to suppress their stress also engaged less with their child and vice versa.

Cheer Yourself Up


For most people, their current mood will influence the activity they choose to do next: if they are feeling down, they are more likely to choose an activity that cheers them up and if they are feeling overly positive, they will choose something to bring them down to a more balanced place. However, people with depression and chronic low mood have a reduced or even absent ability to regulate mood in this way. Honestly, this explains why I have such a hard time making myself get up and DO something when I am feeling in a funk.

Zoom Eye Contact


Making eye contact in real life is a nice part of human interaction (at least until it becomes a creepy part of human interaction). Now that we're only looking at faces over Zoom calls, it turns out that our bodies react similarly to eye contact over video chat as it does in person! One effect: the smile muscles in our faces are activated while the frown muscles relax a bit. That's nice.

Eye Tracking Secrets


It's pretty common these days for researchers to use eye-tracking for studies. Where once it took a pretty large and awkward device, eye movements can now easily be tracked using the cameras built into all our devices. Well, it turns out that a person's eye movements and what they spend more time looking at (something that is generally considered to be subconscious) can reveal a lot about you: gender, age, race, personality traits, drug consumption habits, skills, fears, sexual preferences, and more. MORE! Wild.

Diversity and Innovation


An analysis of American PhD recipients shows that those from under-represented groups, such as people of colour, are more likely to have innovative research discoveries. However, their innovations are less likely to be accepted by the "establishment" and lead to fewer job opportunities in academia.


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Learning! Roundup: If You Can't BE an Optimist, Marry One! (Also, astronauts have big brains, the real Mulan, and more!)

A photo of a black door with a plaque on the front that says "be optimistic"
Photo by Nathan Dumlao.

Marry an Optimist


I have shared research in the past about how optimists are healthier and live longer than those who struggle to see the bright side of things. If you are one of those people, take heart! You just have to marry an optimist and their positive outlook will actually improve your health!

Astronauts Have Bigger Brains


Literally, after an astronaut is in space for a long time, their brains increase in volume. Unfortunately, this just creates more intracranial pressure and actually makes their eyesight worse.

The Real Mulan


It's possible that the legend of Mulan is inspired by real Xianbei women who were travelling warriors. Cool!

Teachers Are Still Human


As much as we might like to think (or hope) that teachers are somehow "better people" than the rest of us (a tempting belief, since, you know, they hold our children's fragile minds in their hands), teachers are just as likely to hold unconscious racial bias as anyone. Turns out that just because they wanted to teach kids doesn't mean that they are immune to the white supremacist society we live in.

Late-Night Feelings


Night owls already have a rough go of things in this society, what with the fact that their sleep schedule completely contradicts how society has established work and life should happen. Well, science just made it a little worse for them: people who are night owls have worse emotional regulation and assertiveness than early risers or even the "regular" people who don't fall into either extreme.


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Learning! Roundup: It's Cool (or at least healthy) to Be Kind to Yourself! (And More!)

A woman standing in a sunny field with tall grass, arms open and looking up to the sky. She seems to be at home with herself and full of peace and joy.
Photo by Olia Nayda.

It's Cool To Be Kind (To Yourself)


Guys! Our counsellors were right all along! People who are more compassionate and kind towards themselves rate higher for health-promoting behaviours. Meanwhile, no connection to healthy activities for folks who overly criticize themselves and treat exercise as a punishment for letting themselves have one moment of happiness. (For example.)

Okay, okay, it's a correlation, so all we know right now is that there is a relationship between self-compassion and healthy behaviours. But I am still getting excited about it.

Trusting the Gut


During medical emergencies (like, oh, I don't know, a global pandemic), people are more likely to listen to information that includes personal experience than simple facts, even when they contradict each other. When in doubt, it seems, we will follow the anecdotes first.

The Advantage of Being Well-Liked


Turns our Willy Loman was right, being well-liked matters. (That's a Death of a Salesman reference, for the non-theatre-nerds among us.) A new study shows that kids who are popular are less susceptible to illness than those who are less popular, even though they come into contact with more children (and should be exposed to more germs).

The "Aha!" Drug


For some folks, getting a creative breakthrough or insight (that aha! moment when it all comes together) activates the same reward centre in the brain as delicious food, drugs, and sex. Makes sense, then, that some of us go on to get addicted to MAKING THINGS.

Haters Gonna Hate


We tend to think that online trolls are simply small people who are unhappy with their own lives and taking it out on others. A new study, however, shows that a better predictor of hateful behaviour online is psychopathy. So that's fun?


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Learning! Roundup: Will COVID Help Us Save Ourselves from Climate Change? (Also, Abstinence, Ageing, and Selfies!)

A close up photo of a sign at a protest that says "The climate is changing, so should we! Act now!"
Photo by Markus Spiske.

COVID and Climate Change


We are in the midst of a huge global experiment right now: with so much human activity slowed or even stopped, will we get more time to fight climate change? Are we seeing how capable we are of making significant changes to our lifestyles? Or are we simply spending all the money that would have gone to green projects to keep our economies afloat now? This article dives into the different perspectives.

Abstinence Pledges


Another study has been added to the huge pile of research showing that abstinence-only education, where you teach teens that they shouldn't have sex instead of teaching them about birth control and STI's and consent doesn't work. The kids who take abstinence pledges still have the same amount of sex as their counterparts AND they are less likely to use condoms or other forms of protection.

Healthy Ageing


It looks like diet and exercise can have a powerful impact on keeping your brain healthy as you age... if you have the right genes. Otherwise, I guess don't worry about it?

Selfie Time


I don't know about you, but I'm seeing my face on screens WAY MORE these days than I usually do! From all the video conferences to the fact that I feel compelled to take and share more content online, I'm getting more and more used to what my face looks like on screen. Luckily, new research shows that taking selfies isn't bad for your self-esteem (which I guess was a concern), but that editing them is.

Autistic and Social Buddies


Neurotypical people tend to think of those on the autism spectrum as more awkward and less warm to be around and might write them off quickly as people to socialize readily with, but new research confirms what those on the autism spectrum have probably known all along: they make great social partners, we just need to give them a chance.


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Learning! Roundup: It's Smart to Be Helpful, Say Thank You, Helping Sad Friends, and More!

A photo of two men in an underground walkway with a table with food. It looks like they are there to distribute food to folks in need.
Photo by Victoria Kubiaki.

It's Smart to Be Helpful


Here is a new measure of intelligence: how much a person is willing to help someone else out. Okay, that would be a SLIGHT misinterpretation of these findings, but a new study shows that people who are more intelligent are more likely to be helpful, collaborative, and otherwise prosocial. It's a correlation that makes me feel hopeful for the world, and so I am holding onto it!

Say Thanks, Not Sorry


For a while, some friends and I have been trying to replace our apologies with gratitude, saying "thanks for listening" instead of "sorry for talking so much," for example. We have found that it makes all of us feel better about the conversation. Well, now science has shown that, in customer service settings, it is, in fact, better to say thank you than sorry. When there has been a service failure, it's better to address it by thanking the customer for (for example) sticking around than to apologize.

How to Help Sad Friends


Given how many people are going through ROUGH TIMES right now, this research is especially useful: it's more helpful to validate someone's negative feelings than criticize, correct, or try to reframe them. If someone is stressed or down, instead of trying to help them see the bright side, all you need to do is give them some space to talk through their feelings. (This is literally what I pay my counsellor $120 a pop to do for me.)

Persistent Germs


In vet's clinics (where diligent disinfecting practices are supposedly in place), only about half of the surfaces were actually disinfected. So it's a lot more work than you might think to keep those germs away! Now is a time to be as diligent as possible, of course, without panicking.

PARTIICIPATE IN SCIENCE!


There is a study on right now about the impact of COVID-19 on people's mental health and lives. The first part of it is simply a survey of your understanding of the illness and how it has impacted your well-being. After that you have the option of joining the next phase and doing a daily journal study. You can HELP SCIENCE right now!


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