BBC News – Today – When time flies

By a surreptitious switching of stopwatches, the study at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota was able to make those taking part in the experiment believe that a task had lasted 10 minutes, while in reality it lasted either five or 20.

“In controlled circumstances we could manipulate people’s feelings of time quite easily,” says Professor Aaron Sackett, who led the research.

HOW TO MAKE TIME FLY
Remove time cues – clocks and watches
Drink tea, coffee or other stimulants
Allow yourself to become absorbed in what you are doing

They found that people who were made to believe time had flown reported enjoying the task more, and those who believed time had dragged reported the opposite.

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

Findings – People Share News Online That Inspires Awe, Researchers Find – NYTimes.com

“Emotion in general leads to transmission, and awe is quite a strong emotion,” he said. “If I’ve just read this story that changes the way I understand the world and myself, I want to talk to others about what it means. I want to proselytize and share the feeling of awe. If you read the article and feel the same emotion, it will bring us closer together.” (Go to nytimes.com/tierneylab to discuss your motives for e-mailing articles.)

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

Mind Hacks: We go with the flow

When they were presented [with physical exercise instructions] in an easy-to-read print font (Arial), readers assumed that the exercise would take 8.2 minutes to complete; but when they were presented in a difficult-to-read print font, readers assumed it would take nearly twice as long, a full 15.1 minutes (Song & Schwarz, 2008b). They also thought that the exercise would flow quite naturally when the font was easy to read, but feared that it would drag on when it was difficult to read.

Via Valerie Hajdik

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

» The Psychology of Passive Barriers: Why Your Friends Don’t Save Money, Eat Healthier, or Clean Their Garages | Get Rich Slowly

Passive barriers are subtle factors that prevent you from changing your behavior. Unlike “active” barriers, passive barriers describe the lack of something, making them more challenging to identify. But once you do, you can immediately take action to change your behavior.

You can apply barriers to prevent yourself from spending money, cook and eat healthier, exercise more, stay in touch with your friends and family, and virtually any other behavior. You can do this with small changes or big ones. The important factor is to take action today.

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

Everybody’s An Expert : The New Yorker

Human beings who spend their lives studying the state of the world, in other words, are poorer forecasters than dart-throwing monkeys, who would have distributed their picks evenly over the three choices.

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

How can you love people when you need people? « An appropriate response

“The heart in love remains soft and sensitive. But when you’re hell-bent on getting this or the other thing, you become ruthless, hard, and insensitive. How can you love people when you need people? You can only use them. If I need you to make me happy, I’ve got to use you, I’ve got to manipulate you, I’ve got to find ways and means of winning you. I cannot let you be free.”

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

5 Ways to Misery

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

Depression may help prevent you from getting beat up or killed

…rank theory proposes that depression is an adaptive response to losing rank and conceiving of oneself as a loser. The adaptive function of the depression, according to rank theory, is to facilitate losing and to promote accommodation to the fact that one has lost. In other words, the depressive state evolved to promote the acceptance of the subordinate role and the loss of resources which can only be secured by holding higher rank in the dominance hierarchy. The function of this depressive adaptation is to prevent the loser in a status conflict from suffering further injury and to preserve the stability and competitive efficiency of the group by maintaining social homeostasis.

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

Ten Psychology Studies from 2009 Worth Knowing About – David Disalvo – Brainspin – True/Slant

6. If you’re preparing for a specific challenge, make sure you prep for that challenge and not just ones like it.  A study published in the journal Cognitive Science found that chess players who practice specific moves in preparation for a match—as opposed to practicing general chess skills—not only performed better in the match, but actually performed better than they were expected to given their general skill level.  In other words, specialization trumped general problem solving and made the players better than anyone thought they were.

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous

Steel ladies / Female Single Combat Club)

Iron ladies of the 19th century. Via zuleikhajami on LJ.

Posted via web from crasch’s posterous