Positive Psychology
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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Psychedelic Encounters With “Higher Powers” Have Lasting Spiritual Effects
When someone says they’re “ready to meet their maker,” they don’t usually mean they’re about to drop acid, but encounters with “higher powers” are in fact a common effect of psychedelic drugs. A new study shows the extent to which these encounters can lead to lasting spiritual and psychological changes. The study is the result…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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News Flash: The News Is Making You Less Happy
Breaking news, this just in! According to reports we’re getting, uh, it seems that the news might be messing with your mental health. And by reports, I mean a study just published in the British Journal of Psychology. The study, titled Is the News Making Us Unhappy? The Influence on Daily News Exposure on Emotional…
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3 Quick Positive Thinking Exercises
It’s easy enough to say that the key to happiness is being able to focus on the good things in life. But how to actually do that? There may not be a simple answer, but researchers from Harvard Medical School have identified three quick exercises that will help. In different ways, these exercises seem to…
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Optimism Predicts Healthy Aging
If you expect that the future holds good things, you might be right. It’s a common idea that optimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and psychology research has tended to back up a link between positive expectations and positive outcomes. The latest example comes from a study by researchers at Harvard, looking at the role…
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Awe, the Unknown and Science
Think of an experience you’ve had that inspires awe – seeing the night sky or a stunning landscape, for example. Part of that feeling is probably a sense of wonder at the vastness, the complexity and the mystery of the universe we live in. On some level, feeling awe is about appreciating how small we…
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