Category: Psychology

Four different tests, utilizing varying methods, find that narcissists don’t engage in counterfactual thinking, leading to over-inflated confidence.
Counterfactual thinking is when we consider what happened, and what we could’ve done differently in a given situation.
The study found that narcissists have a hard time considering that they could be wrong, and don’t learn from their mistakes.
However, narcissists often advance quickly in hierarchical organizations thanks to their confidence, and ability to take credit for success and blame failure on others.
The main conclusion is that organizations should keep narcissists in check, because allowing them to make decisions can be damaging to the organization over time.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on July 24, 2020

apa.org

18-year-long study of 3,294 American adults (avg age 45) shows that persistent work towards achieving goals reduces depression, anxiety and panic disorders.
Participants were interviewed about their approach towards challenges, and diagnosed for mental disorders.
The findings of this study suggest that maintaining optimism and resilience, and working towards goals can improve mental health over time.
On the other hand, people who don’t have any goals and become cynical can pay high mental health costs for their negative attitude.
Interestingly, self-mastery (feeling in control of our life) didn’t have an effect on the participants’ mental health.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on July 24, 2020

New study from behavioral economics provides an interesting insight - important public information, as well as marketing messages, should have round numbers.
When the number isn’t round (91.27% instead of just 90%), people start thinking too much about it, and usually conclude that it’s not good.
This was tested with six different datasets on over 1,500 people, and the main conclusion is that people are rubbed negatively by non-round numbers.
The reason for this is unknown, people just don’t seem to like too specific numbers, it was surprising even for the study authors, and it is related to attribute framing.
It’s the study of whether people perceive an attribute positively or negatively depending on how it’s framed.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on July 9, 2020

Study shows that programming knowledge is stored in the same area of the brain as speech.
Using fMRIs, researchers analysed which parts of the brain are activated during programming.
The results essentially show that programming is like talking - the same regions that are active when processing natural language are active during programming.
In the study, professional programmers were asked to repeatedly write some code and check other chunks of code for mistakes.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on June 10, 2020

nature.com

The way we react to psilocybin seems to be connected to the glutamate system (the neuronal fast-signaling system in our brain that uses the glutamate neurotransmitter).
Analysis of data collected from 48 participants (26 in the placebo group) links positive experiences of ego dissolution to low levels of glutamate in the hippocampus.
Negative ego dissolution and increased feelings of anxiety were linked to higher levels of glutamate in the mFPC (medial prefrontal cortex).
All of this means that psilocybin directly influences the glutamate system, and those changes correspond with changes in behaviour during the psychedelic state.
These findings go beyond our neuroscientific knowledge, but they still form a necessary foundation for future clinical trials of psilocybin’s therapeutic effects.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on June 3, 2020

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