Posts by Neil Petersen

Who says you have to be a person to have a personality? A new study from researchers University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program has identified specific personality traits that tend to stay the same in individual cows over time. The point of departure for this research was previous work showing that individual cows often…

An international team of public health researchers has found a promising new method of improving mental health among older adults: handing out free bus passes. In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the researchers investigated differences in mental health and daily life between older adults who were eligible to receive…

Yeah, I get it, you don’t want to brag. But it turns out that sharing good news you get might be the key to happiness. More exactly, it looks like sharing good news might prolong the feelings of happiness you get from that news. You don’t need to take my word – just ask the…

Of all the things that keep you awake at night, no doubt being murdered by Vikings from Iceland is near the top of your list. Not to worry. A new study published in Evolution & Human Behavior has some insights that will be useful in protecting yourself from this fate. The study is titled Family…

Your choice in usernames could impact how people perceive your online persona. In particular, some usernames seem to be inherently more trustworthy than others, even when additional information about the person behind the username is available. That’s according to a study published last month in Frontiers in Psychology, which explored how eBay sellers’ username choices…

Are narcissists born or made? As with most psychological traits, the answer is probably: both, to some extent (although we’re not sure what extent). Under evidence for “made,” though, you can add the results of a recent study published in Journal for Personality and Social Psychology. The study found evidence that certain life changes in…

A few nerves before a big test can help you focus. A bad case of the jitters, though, becomes counterproductive – it makes it harder to concentrate, and it’s just downright unpleasant. Of course, some people are more prone to test anxiety than others. One of the differences psychology researchers have suggested between people high…

Do you ever play social situations over in your head, thinking about embarrassing moments or wishing you’d done things differently? Psychologists refer to this repetitive replaying of anxiety-provoking social situations as post-event processing. Everyone engages in post-event processing to some extent, but this after-the fact rumination on social events is especially problematic for people with…

Can mindfulness exercises by themselves help with symptoms of anxiety and depression? The answer is yes, according to a new meta-review of 18 studies on the topic. In the meta-review, researchers looked to see whether mindfulness exercises in and of themselves have therapeutic potential. Mindfulness exercises are often researched as one part of a broader…