Positive Psychology
What It Means to Feed Someone on a First Date
For those who find first dates confusing, not to worry. We have science to help us figure out what’s going on! What does it mean, for example, when you’re on a dinner date and the other person starts feeding you? Hint: either they think you’ve done an unacceptably bad job of feeding yourself, or they…
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Who Grows the Most From Trauma?
Being able to take a bad situation and turn it into something good is a valuable skill from a mental health standpoint. Perhaps there’s no greater test of this skill than being confronted with a situation that’s not just bad, but traumatic. Different people seem to respond to trauma in different ways. One aspect of…
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Parents’ Warm Encouragement Can Help Shy Toddlers
How can parents help shy toddlers become more at ease in social situations? A new study suggests that a combination of warmth and gentle prompting to engage socially might be the answer. The study involved 55 toddlers between 21 and 24 months of age who were temperamentally disposed toward shy behavior. In the study, these…
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Gratitude Might Be a Foundation for Ethical Behavior
Many psychologists believe that gratitude is an especially powerful emotion. People who are more grateful tend to be happier, with higher emotional intelligence. They may also be more ethical, according to a new study. In a paper titled The Grateful Don’t Cheat: Gratitude as a Fount of Virtue, researchers from Northeastern University and Pennsylvania State…
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Meditation Apps Can Improve Attention, Memory
It’s sometimes said that our modern tech-driven, smartphone-oriented culture is making us all more distractible and less mindful. So how do meditation apps fit into that criticism? After all, they’re an example of people using technology with the goal of becoming less scattered and more mindful. A recent study led by researchers from University of…
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Awe and Self-Transcendence
It’s interesting how many of our everyday concerns look petty when viewed from outer space. Experiences that inspire awe in us can shift our perspective and lead us to look beyond what’s immediately in front of us. The idea that awe changes us was the basis for a recent psychology study in which researchers asked…
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Courage Is Key for Entrepreneurs
You need a lot of things to start a business. A good idea, the skills to turn that idea into reality, and some cold, hard cash. Increasingly, psychologists who study entrepreneurship believe you need the right mindset too. They talk about having the “psychological capital” to succeed in a new venture. Psychological capital, or PsyCap…
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Social Media Might Kind of Affect Life Satisfaction in Teens
Maybe you’ve heard that social media usage is linked to lower life satisfaction. But what does that mean? There are multiple ways social media and life satisfaction could be “linked”: People with higher life satisfaction use social media less than people with lower life satisfaction People tend to use social media more when they become…
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What’s Behind the Mona Lisa’s Crooked Smile?
For centuries, people have puzzled over the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic expression. In recent years, psychology researchers have joined in with their own theories, even debating fundamental questions such as whether Mona Lisa’s facial expression indicates happiness or sadness. The latest contribution to the “Mona Lisa studies” branch of psychology comes from a paper titled Unraveling…
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Genes May Contribute to Sense of Fairness
Do you have a strong, automatic reaction when you encounter a situation that’s unfair? Everyone has a sense of what’s fair and what’s not, but that sense seems to be more pronounced in some people than others. And a new study suggests one possible reason: genes. In the study, researchers in China ran an experiment…
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