Researchers wonder why the human race is so clever. Some believe that cooking food (in the last few hundred thousand years) improved nutrition so much that a big leap forward was taken. A cooked potato is much more nutritious than a raw one. Maybe it was the discovery of agriculture that nourished our intelligence. Or,...
Various studies have attempted to establish what happens when two people look at one another in the eye. If we feel we are being observed a process is triggered that increases our self-awareness, improves our memory, makes us more altruistic and more honest. Our interpretation of outside events is more personal and inclusive. Someone’s gaze...
To be successful in life one should have goals, plan ahead and avoid getting distracted. Many researchers believe that this is a strategy that can backfire. First of all, it is easy to get your goals wrong. The most common error seems to be that we confuse what we really want with what various circumstances...
Some children find it easy to study and get good grades at school while other children find it easy to have lots of friends and have what psychologists call social skills. A trait that is strongly associated with good academic results and social skills is the quality of the kindergarten that children go to as...
It was thought that the ‘desire’ and ‘attention’ sequence was one-way: if you desire something then you focus your attention on that thing. Now we learn that it is two-way. If you focus your attention on something that is potentially desirable, but that in that moment you do not desire, the desire to have/do that...
In today’s hectic world we often feel we don’t have the time to do everything we want. Studies show that this is not due to a true lack of time. Irrespective of the number of things we actually have to, do the feeling arises from an emotional conflict connected with these activities which makes us...
A study involving 775 people aged 18-91 years concludes that difficulties in establishing social ties is a risk for physical health just as smoking, hypertension, lack of physical exercise or obesity are. We knew about the association with mental health (depression and anxiety). Difficulty in social relations was examined in 4 ways: difficulty in offering...
Some of our most important decisions are based on intuitions. Can I trust this guy? Did he do it on purpose or not? Shall I hire this chap or the other one? A study was conducted to understand the extent to which voice and way of speaking condition an audience, over and above what is...
A study involving over two million families of different cultural extraction, in 14 countries says that couples that live with the mother of the husband but particularly of the wife have fewer children respect to when grandma does not live at home. The opposite would have seemed more likely for a number of reasons. An...
Until a few years ago it was believed that cerebral development was almost completed in the first years of life. Recent studies show that many brain areas develop throughout adolescence and even after. We know that the outside environment is crucial for brain development. If, in the initial months and years of life a child...
