How A Person’s Face Signals Intention To Cheat On You

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Face shape is linked to sex drive in men and women and also how likely a man is to cheat on his partner.

People with shorter and wider faces have a higher sex drive, new research finds.

Men with wider, shorter faces are also more likely to report intending to cheat on their partner.

For the research, almost 500 people were asked about their sexual orientation, their relationships and whether they would consider being unfaithful to their partner.

It is the latest in a line of studies that have linked face shape to various psychological characteristics.

Men with square, wide faces are seen as more attractive as short-term partners, as well as more dominant, the research has shown.

The study’s authors write:

“…they are also perceived by naïve observers as being more socially dominant, untrustworthy, and aggressive compared to men with lower width-to-height ratios.”

The square, wide face has also been linked to financial success, prejudice, unethical behaviour and even psychopathic tendencies.

So, it is a fairly confusing cocktail of positive and negative characteristics (depending on your preferences, of course).

The theory is that it comes down to the hormones men are exposed to during development:

“Researchers have argued that the observed links between the FWHR and men’s dominant and aggressive attitudes and behavior may be a product of androgen exposure during critical periods of development.

In support of this, sex differences in facial structure arise with the onset of puberty, ostensibly reflecting increased testosterone in males relative to females.”

Hormonal exposure during development also seems to affects women’s sex drive.

Like men, women with shorter, wider faces had a higher sex drive, this study found, although they expressed no greater intention to cheat on their partner.

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The study was published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior (Arnocky et al., 2017).

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September 30, 2017 at 11:20AM

Why Do Many College Students Ignore Learning Strategies?

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Many college students don’t use self-regulated learning strategies (SRL), despite knowing they exist, according to a new study from Austria published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology. The findings suggest that students may benefit from being offered specific training on how and when to use these strategies.

SRL strategies help students maximize their academic potential and are considered essential for academic success by educational researchers.

“SRL refers to evaluating, planning, and executing your own learning,” said Nora Foerst of the University of Vienna. “SRL includes many different learning strategies, such as planning your approach, structuring your learning content, rewarding yourself after accomplishing a goal or making realistic demands to avoid frustration.”

The first year in university is often a difficult one. Living away from home, managing finances, and balancing socializing with classwork are all new challenges. Another important transition is learning how to plan and organize one’s own studying, including dealing with various types of exams, from multiple-choice tests to essays.

Quite often, new college students work out their own strategies for learning, often through trial and error. However, strategies to prepare for one type of test or assignment may not work for another, and students may find themselves underprepared and struggling.

Even post-graduate students must face new challenges, such as writing a master’s thesis, that might require different learning techniques.

Earlier studies have shown that many students know about common SRL strategies. However, researchers are less sure how often these techniques are actually used, whether students know how to use them effectively and whether they can identify which techniques are most appropriate in specific learning situations.

These unanswered questions prompter Foerst and her colleagues to survey students enrolled in Bachelor’s or Master’s programs in Psychology or Economics at the University of Vienna on their learning strategy knowledge and actions.

For the study, the researchers surveyed the students to determine if they knew about beneficial SRL strategies for specific learning situations. They also assessed whether the students put the techniques into practice, and if not, why not?

As expected, most students could correctly identify several SRL strategies. However, fewer students actually applied them in their own studies. In fact, as many as one-third of the students who correctly identified a technique as beneficial admitted that they didn’t use it in their own learning.

Students in both psychology and economics programs showed a similar disconnection between knowledge and action. Psychology students were slightly better at identifying the strategies, likely because their curriculum included information about SRL techniques.

The researchers found that students have a variety of reasons for not using these learning strategies: Many students felt they didn’t have enough time to use the strategies or were unable to apply them effectively. Some failed to see the benefits of the strategies for specific tasks, or believed that using them would be too much work.

How might universities increase the number of students that benefit from self-regulated learning strategies?

“We want this study, and future studies, to encourage universities to provide more SRL training for their students,” Foerst said. “Specifically, it appears that students need hands-on training to learn how and when to apply SRL strategies for specific learning situations. In addition, they need help to understand that the techniques could save them time and enhance their learning outcomes.”

Source: Frontiers in Psychology

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September 30, 2017 at 09:35AM

Mixed Messages Can Undermine Behavior Change

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Self-improvement recommendations to lose weight, quit smoking, or eat more fruits and vegetables can fall on deaf ears if the message is mixed, according to new research.

When recommending multiple behavior changes, it’s more effective if the messages are framed along similar lines, according to a new paper from Dr. Dolores Albarracin, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.

In other words, two actions or two inactions are more effective than a mix of positive and negative instructions.

“What we found is that it’s better to combine them in a homogeneous way,” said Albarracin. “If you tell people to engage in two behaviors and the behaviors are a mix of actions and inactions, it’s likely that recipients will adhere less. It’s easier to frame the recommendations along the same axis of action or inaction. You don’t want to work against yourself or at cross-purposes with your message.”

Trying to get people to increase both their intake of fruits and their volume of exercise “goes together better in that both are increases in recommended action and may be remembered and executed more effectively,” Albarracin said.

“Telling someone to increase exercise while decreasing their fat intake isn’t nearly as effective, as shown in behavioral and clinical outcomes,” she said. “It’s better to say ‘Increase exercise and increase the amount of vegetables you eat’ than ‘Increase exercise and decrease fat intake.'”

The paper, published in the journal Health Psychology Review, is a meta-analysis of 150 research reports of interventions promoting multiple behavior changes and measuring change at the most immediate follow-up.

The findings provide important insights on how to best combine recommendations when interventions target clusters of health behaviors, Albarracin said.

“The problem of how many behaviors we can combine is important, but equally critical is how to combine them,” she said. “Previously, there wasn’t much guidance on what the optimal combination is. There wasn’t any sort of logic to it. This paper gives you a fairly robust answer because it looks at the literature as a whole.”

She notes the findings are relevant to health care organizations, health care marketing and any type of organization that is trying to change employee behavior.

“In terms of organizational behavior, if you’re trying to train people to execute a few different behaviors, it would be better to frame it this way rather than mix and match,” Albarracin said. “If you’re trying to create employee health programs, for example, think of it as one package. You don’t want to overload people with information, but you also don’t want to have a message that’s at cross-purposes with itself.”

Source: University of Illinois
 
Photo: Self-improvement messages to lose weight, quit smoking or eat more fruits and vegetables can fall on deaf ears if the intervention message is mixed, says new research from U. of I. psychology professor Dolores Albarracin. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer.

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September 30, 2017 at 08:53AM

Kid Fears in Adults: The Dark and Other Phobias

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Anyone who’s ever been a kid, which means all of us with the possible exception of ageless celebrities like Cher, remembers their childhood fears. What was it for you? Maybe you were afraid of your closet, thunderstorms, or the neighbor down the street who was so old he might still owe Fred Flinstone a few bucks? For me, I distinctly remember going to the circus as a small child and bursting into tears when approached by a clown. He wasn’t exactly Stephen King’s “It,” but my fear still made sense. When we’re little and already wary of strangers, why would we giggle with delight at the strangest looking stranger we’ve ever seen?

Often, childhood fears go the way of our favorite blankies. But surprisingly often, childhood fears stick around well into adulthood—maybe you got bitten by a dog or stung by a bee and have freaked out at the sight of them ever since. Or maybe your fear has evolved, but fundamentally stayed the same. For example, a childhood fear of monsters may have morphed into a fear of burglars (how many locks are on your door?). A fear of strangers may have turned into social anxiety. Or a fear of doctors and dentists may have, well, stayed a fear of doctors and dentists.

In an excellent example, listener Oliver wrote in to say he’s an adult who’s been afraid of the dark all his life. As a kid, his parents told him to get over it, which of course is never helpful, and now his fear has continued into adulthood. For Oliver, fear of the dark means lousy sleep quality from sleeping with the light on and not being able to drive at night without feeling terrified.

So what should you do if, like Oliver, you have a lingering childhood phobia, or one that sprung up on your adult life like a boogeyman jumping out of a closet?

First, know you’re in good company. Nearly 10% of people will, at some point in life, have a phobia that gets in the way of living their life. This means way more than just making your partner kill the spider in the bathtub. This means not being able to take a job that requires using an elevator to get to your office or not being able to travel by plane, which means never seeing a Hawaiian sunset in person.

So if you’ve been foiled by a phobia, know these 4 things to finally face your fears.

 

»Continue reading on QuickAndDirtyTips.com

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September 30, 2017 at 08:13AM

Acupuncture Shown to Ease Period Pain

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Research from Australia and New Zealand has found that acupuncture significantly reduces period pain intensity, duration, and symptoms over time, with improvements being sustained up to a year after treatment.

Primary dysmenorrhea (period pain) is the most common gynecological complaint in menstruating women, with up to four in five women suffering at some stage during their reproductive years.

The study involved 74 women between the ages of 18 and 45 with suspected or confirmed primary dysmenorrhea and no known cause of secondary dysmenorrhea from Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand.

Over half the women receiving acupuncture had a least a 50 percent reduction in their severity of period pain over the three months of treatment.

The study, published in the international journal PLOS ONE, also shows a connection between both the treatment timing and frequency, with high frequency of treatment providing greater improvements in health-related quality of life, such as vitality, social function, and bodily pain.

A reduction in pain relief medication when using manual acupuncture compared to electro-acupuncture was also found.

Women in the trial kept a menstrual diary and were given individualized acupuncture treatments after being randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: High frequency manual acupuncture, low frequency manual acupuncture, high frequency electro acupuncture and low frequency electro acupuncture.

Twelve treatments were performed over three menstrual cycles, either once a week (low frequency groups) or three times in the week prior to their period (high frequency groups). All groups received a treatment in the first 48 hours of their period.

According to Dr. Mike Armour, a postdoctoral research fellow with the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) in Australia, who led the study, the results are promising. Further larger trials may lead to the development of evidence-based guidelines for acupuncture in the treatment of period pain and its associated symptoms, he added.

“Pragmatic trials of acupuncture have shown a reduction in pain intensity and an improvement in quality of life in women with period pain, however evidence has been limited for how changing the ‘dosage’ of acupuncture might affect the outcome,” he said.

“Our pilot study found that using manual stimulation of the needles, rather than an electrical pulse, commonly used in many Chinese studies for period pain, resulted in reduced need for pain-relieving medication and improvement in secondary symptoms, such as headaches and nausea,” he explained. “The latter was unexpected and will be explored further in future, larger trials.”

Source: National Institute of Complementary Medicine

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September 30, 2017 at 08:03AM

Transcending as a driver of development. - PubMed

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September 30, 2017 at 07:59AM

Loss of Smell Can Predict Cognitive Decline in Elderly

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A long-term study of nearly 3,000 adults, aged 57 to 85, found that those who could not identify at least four out of five common odors were more than twice as likely to develop dementia within five years.

Although 78 percent of those tested were normal — correctly identifying at least four out of five scents — about 14 percent could name just three out of five, five percent could identify only two scents, two percent could name just one, and one percent of the study subjects were not able to identify a single smell, according to researchers.

Five years after the initial test, almost all of the study subjects who were unable to name a single scent had been diagnosed with dementia. Nearly 80 percent of those who provided only one or two correct answers also had dementia, the study found.

“These results show that the sense of smell is closely connected with brain function and health,” said the study’s lead author, Jayant M. Pinto, M.D., a professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and ENT specialist who studies the genetics and treatment of olfactory and sinus disease.

“We think smell ability specifically, but also sensory function more broadly, may be an important early sign, marking people at greater risk for dementia.”

“We need to understand the underlying mechanisms, so we can understand neurodegenerative disease and hopefully develop new treatments and preventative interventions,” he continued.

“Loss of the sense of smell is a strong signal that something has gone wrong and significant damage has been done,” Pinto added. “This simple smell test could provide a quick and inexpensive way to identify those who are already at high risk.”

The new study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, follows a related 2014 study, in which olfactory dysfunction was associated with increased risk of death within five years. In that study, loss of the sense of smell was a better predictor of death than a diagnosis of heart failure, cancer, or lung disease.

For both studies, the researchers used “Sniffin’Sticks,” which look like a felt-tip pen, but instead of ink, they are infused with distinct scents.

Study subjects smell each item and are asked to identify that odor, one at a time, from a set of four choices. The five odors, in order of increasing difficulty, were peppermint, fish, orange, rose, and leather.

Test results showed that:

• 78.1 percent of those examined had a normal sense of smell;
• 48.7 percent correctly identified five out of five odors and 29.4 percent identified four out of five;
• 18.7 percent, considered “hyposmic,” got two or three out of five correct;
• The remaining 3.2 percent, labelled “anosmic,” could identify just one of the five scents (2.2 percent), or none (one percent).

The olfactory nerve is the only cranial nerve directly exposed to the environment. The cells that detect smells connect directly with the olfactory bulb at the base of the brain, potentially exposing the central nervous system to environmental hazards such as pollution or pathogens, researchers explain.

Olfactory deficits are often an early sign of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. They get worse with disease progression, the researchers noted.

Losing the ability to smell can have a substantial impact on lifestyle and wellbeing, said Pinto.

“Smells influence nutrition and mental health,” Pinto said. “People who can’t smell face everyday problems, such as knowing whether food is spoiled, detecting smoke during a fire, or assessing the need for a shower after a workout. Being unable to smell is closely associated with depression as people don’t get as much pleasure in life.”

“This evolutionarily ancient special sense may signal a key mechanism that also underlies human cognition,” noted study co-author Martha K. McClintock, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.

She noted that the olfactory system also has stem cells which self-regenerate, so “a decrease in the ability to smell may signal a decrease in the brain’s ability to rebuild key components that are declining with age, leading to the pathological changes of many different dementias.”

“Our test simply marks someone for closer attention,” Pinto added. “Much more work would need to be done to make it a clinical test. But it could help find people who are at risk. Then we could enroll them in early-stage prevention trials.”

“Of all human senses,” Pinto added, “smell is the most undervalued and underappreciated — until it’s gone.”

Source: University of Chicago Medical Center
 
Photo: For both studies, the researchers used a well-validated tool, known as ‘Sniffin’Sticks.’ Credit: Rob Kozloff, for the University of Chicago Medicine.

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September 30, 2017 at 07:07AM