The lovely Dorothy Rowe on why those little white lies are putting us all at risk in New Scientist:
Lying gives us the temporary delusion that our personal and social worlds are intact, that we are loved, that we are safe, and above all, that we are not likely to overwhelmed by the uncertainty inherent in living in a world we can never truly know.
Source: New Scientist
Will Nicola Jones succumb to ‘The Power of Hypnosis’? Watch the video and find out!
I am about to have my left leg paralysed, my arm taken over by an alien force and, quite possibly, be made blind. I confess I’m a bit nervous. But also, strangely, I hope it all works.These insults to my body will not be inflicted with a scalpel, but instead induced using hypnosis. ….continue reading
Source: New Scientist
Judging a book by its cover may be unwise, but online profiles are fair game, new research suggests. University students considered likeable by people that met them in real life have been found to make a similar impression on people who view their Facebook profiles.
“People who were expressive in tone of voice and facial expression were also socially expressive on Facebook. They posted a lot of pictures, they posted photo albums, they seemed to have a lot of conversations with people,” says Max Weisbuch, a psychologist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts who led the study. link to continue
reading
Source:New Scientist; Journal reference: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (DOI: 10.1016/j.esp.2008.12.009)
Claire Wilson interviews psychiatrist Simon Wessely for The New Scientist. Psychiatrist Simon Wessely explores diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome, and has suggested that some diseases can be exacerbated by our mindset.Â
How might most of us experience the effects of the mind on the body?
In an average week you probably experience numerous examples of how what’s going on around you affects your subjective health. Most people instinctively know that when bad things happen, they affect your body. You can’t sleep, you feel anxious, you’ve got butterflies in your stomach… you feel awful.
When does that turn into an illness?
Such symptoms only become a problem when people get trapped in excessively narrow explanations for illness – when they exclude any broader consideration of the many reasons why we feel the way we do. This is where the internet can do real harm. And sometimes people fall into the hands of charlatans who give them bogus explanations.
Source: New Scientist
