Posts by Neil Petersen
What’s the Evidence for Blueberries as a Brain Food?
Blueberries have a stellar reputation, as far as foods go. Numerous articles claim that eating blueberries can enhance your cognitive abilities. Scientific American, for example, has talked about Your Brain on Blueberries, saying that blueberries are one food that will “enhance your memory.” So is there scientific evidence behind the hype? To some extent, yes.…
Read More
Looking at the Big Picture Increases Happiness
Sometimes in life, being happy means looking at the big picture and not getting stuck on the details. Recently, a team of researchers tested that idea in a very literal way. Psychologists talk about global processing and local processing in perception. When you see an object, for example, do you consider the object as a…
Read More
Gossip as a Workplace Coping Mechanism
We typically think of gossip as something frivolous. But “idle gossip” might not be so idle. Gossip can be a social bonding mechanism, and workplace gossip in particular might help people cope with the stresses of the job. In a recent study, researchers looked at how gossiping helps people deal with precarious employment situations. The…
Read More
When a First Impression Misleads
To some extent, we all judge based on first impressions. But that doesn’t mean we judge accurately. A new study from researchers at University of Bologna suggests that our initial judgments about whether someone is trustworthy can influence our ability to read their emotions. Psychologists have known that we tend to make snap judgments about…
Read More
When Does Hoarding Start?
Hoarding disorder is a condition in which people compulsively acquire possessions that they then find themselves unable to discard. Hoarding can harm people’s health, their relationship with others, and their everyday functioning, and it often goes hand-in-hand with other mental health conditions like depression. Hoarding is a condition that effects people in the long-term, but…
Read More
A Daily Gratitude Exercise
Psychologists increasingly believe gratitude to be a powerful emotion that can boost happiness and wellbeing. Gratitude is interesting not only because of its links to happiness but because it’s something we intentionally cultivate in our lives. One way of doing so is through gratitude exercises. Recently, psychology researchers in Brazil tested the effects of a…
Read More
More Compassionate People Can Prefer Harsher Punishments
A compassionate disposition and a desire to see someone get their “just deserts” might not seem to go together. But a new study suggests that people who are more compassionate also prefer to see harsher punishments doled out when someone perpetrates an injustice against others. As part of the study, published in Journal of Personality…
Read More
Meditation Can Improve Ability to Cope Flexibly
Don’t we all just want to have better coping skills? Coping skills have to do with how we handle stressful situations, and they seem to be an important part of mental health. One aspect of how we cope is what psychologists call coping flexibility. This is pretty much what it sounds like: the ability to…
Read More
Synesthesia and Aging
The cross-sensory associations of synesthesia are still something of a mystery. We know that some people link letters with colors, or sounds with tactile sensations, but the broader implications of having synesthesia are less clear. Synesthesia has been found to correlate with certain psychological and neurological traits that it doesn’t otherwise have an obvious connection…
Read More
Are People With Social Anxiety Afraid of Positive Feedback?
The way we typically think about it, social anxiety involves a fear of being evaluated negatively by other people. Which is true. But an interesting line of research suggests that people with social anxiety might also fear being evaluated positively by other people. In a recent experiment, researchers had people with and without social anxiety…
Read More