Children take to rituals fast
Although rituals such as shaking hands or saying, “bless you” after a sneeze don't make practical sense, these arbitrary social conventions give people a sense of belonging in a particular social group. And according to a new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin, even preschool children are quick to conform to ritualistic behaviour. “Attention to social cues and contextual information guides children's imitation, a key component of the development and transmission of cultural knowledge,” says Cristine legare, an assistant professor in psychology and co-author of the study.
Wide-Faced Men Make Others Act Selfishly
Two assistant professors of management at the University of California, Riverside and several other researchers have previously shown that men with wider faces are more aggressive, less trustworthy and more prone to engaging in deception. Now, in a just-published paper, they have shown, in a series of four studies, that individuals behave more selfishly when interacting with men with wider faces and this selfish behaviour elicits selfish behaviour in others. “This clearly shows that this behaviour is also socially driven, not just biologically driven,” said Michael P Haselhuhn, an Assistant Professor of Management at UC Riverside's School of Business Administration, who is the lead author of the paper.
Can’t SleepIJ Quit Smoking
As the NHS prepares to launch Stoptober 2013, new research published in Psychology, Health & Medicine has found another reason to quit smoking — giving up smoking improves sleep. Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death and while the numerous health problems directly caused by smoking are well documented, less is known about the effects of smoking on sleep. The study is the first to look at sleep difficulty by smoking status in a large population-based, nationally representative sample. They found that 11.9 per cent of current smokers have trouble falling asleep, 10.6 per cent wake in the night and 9.5 per cent wake too early in the morning. The figures for non-smokers were much lower and the study found that those who had given up smoking saw improvements in their sleep.
Beta-amyloid causes alzheimer’s
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown how a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, begins destroying synapses before it clumps into plaques that lead to nerve cell death. Key features of Alzheimer's are wholesale loss of synapses — contact points via which nerve cells relay signals to one another — and a parallel deterioration in brain function, notably in the ability to remember. “Alzheimer's disease starts to manifest long before plaque formation becomes evident,” said Carla Shatz, PhD, professor of neurobiology.
‘Back to school’ anxiety pangs
Many parents may have noticed their children seemed on edge during their first week of school. They may have been agitated, withdrawn or more focused on themselves, rather than what was going on around them. Such behaviours are classic symptoms of high anxiety, says Université de Montréal researcher Richard Tremblay. He says the anxiety young students feel as they return to school is often related to the uncertainties they feel about their new teacher and classroom environment, the kids they'll interact with and whether their bullies will hunt them down during recess.