Wednesday, January 04, 2006
while i was out...
i've been busy writing, but unfortunately not for my blog. so here are a few things from december:
hot and exciting studies in the psychology realm:did the doug bandow story get a little more attention than the armstrong williams one (williams secretly received 240k from bush to strongly advocate no child left behind)? perhaps it's just the world i live in, but it seems so despite many parallels. their defense was similar - "it was something i believed in anyway". the main difference, i suppose, is that williams' payoff was once my money and bandow's was not.
i'm a over halfway into jared diamond's collapse. the book, so far, is rather disappointing (as others have noted) i have not yet seen the words "private" and "property" strung together - very odd indeed for a book on the fall of societies. so far the main lesson is:
two new and awesome blogs: cato unbound and happiness and public policy.
a really kick-ass post over at cafe hayek on humans' predisposition to look towards a higher authority (e.g., God - or the state). as if you all don't already read it daily. thanks to tenacious jdt for that link.
hot and exciting studies in the psychology realm:
- there's a neurological differences between liking and craving sweets. this may hold interesting application to those with drug or eating abnormalities (i.e., liking cocaine may be governed by different neurons than craving it). however, recent evidence also suggests that overeating is often encouraged by social cues rather than cravings. does that mean the rise in compulsive eating support groups is bad? maybe not - it's better to be overweight anyway.
- neural substrates behind the brave lover dueling for his lady's honor: it's all about oxytocin. oxytocin is a hormone thought to be involved with trust, love, breastfeeding, and now with a reduced sense of fear. so, perhaps all we need is a little love to combat those pernicious ad campaigns. (see a previous post on oxytocin and risky decision making)
- the coeval nature of happiness and success exists (PDF). here's an article about the article if you don't have adobe or journal access. will also posted on it.
- self-help books will ruin your life (rather, rewarding poor performance in kids, and creating an unrealistically positive self-image and outlook for you, will):
You cannot have a life plan predicated on the belief that everything is equally achievable to you — especially if that same message has been sold indiscriminately to all comers. In the grand scheme of things, knowing one's limitations may be even more important than knowing one's talents. - could romantic love prevent stroke damage? in separate studies, an increase in nerve growth factor (NGF) has been linked to both the onset of romantic love and reduced damage for stroke victims. thanks to debi for the love/NGF link.
- neural correlates of monogamous relationships found, at least in prairie mice. patterns get "worn" into the brain, and after a while other females don't produce the same neural responses in male brains - i.e., in a monogamous relationship, other females become less something, perhaps we can term it "attractive."
other items:
- deforestation --> cannibalism
update: just fixing a ^$&% link.
Labels: links, neuroscience, well being
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