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Showing posts from 2015

10 Psychological Effects of Nonsexual Touch

A simple (nonsexual) touch can increase compliance, helping behaviour, attraction, and signal power. To get around in the world, we mainly rely on our eyes and ears. Touch is a sense that’s often forgotten. But touch is also vital in the way we understand and experience the world. Even the lightest touch on the upper arm can influence the way we think. To prove it, here are 10 psychological effects which show just how powerful nonsexual touch can be. 1. Touch for money A well-timed touch can encourage other people to return a lost item. In one experiment, users of a phone booth who were touched were more likely to return a lost dime to an experimenter ( Kleinke, 1977) . The action was no more than a light touch on the arm. People will do more than that though; people will give a bigger tip to a waitress who has touched them ( Crusco & Wetzel, 1984 ). (Stop giggling at the back there!) 2. Touch for help People are also more likely to provide help w

13 Ultimate Facts About Your Brain

Did you know that your brain needs to make an effort when you laugh at a joke and 12 percent of our dreams are in black and white? Let’s have a look at some amazing facts about the human brain:  1. It’s not true that we only use 10% of their brains. Each part of the brain has a purpose. 2. Have a headache? It’s not your brain that hurts. There aren’t any pain receptors in your brain. 3. Your brain is the organ with the most amount of fat in your body – about 60 percent. 4. Wonder why you don’t act out your dreams? Your brain creates a hormone to stop you from doing this. 5. Most people have 4-7 dreams each night, 50% is forgotten five minutes after you wake up. 6. You are not dreaming if you snore. 7. They call it beauty sleep for a reason. This is when your brain files away all your memories during the day. 8. You can’t tickle yourself and laugh because your brain knows it’s your own touch – as opposed to someone else tickling you. 9. It takes

6 scary Brainwashing Techniques

By   Paul K Pickett,    Lesia Pickett   |  July 03, 2014 The world is full of shady self-help gurus and workplace seminars telling us how we can turn our lives around just by using the right words ("Don't say the cheese is 'spoiled' -- say it's 'aged'!"), as if language is a form of magic that can alter reality. But here's the thing: The human brain is an odd, glitchy machine that is influenced in all sorts of weird ways you never thought of. This is why politicians and salespeople can trick you into going along with them, just by toying with the words they use. Science is just now catching up to them, and has found that ... #6. Repeating Your Opinion Makes People Believe It, No Matter How Stupid It Is Michael Blann/Digital Vision/Getty Images This is one that, sadly, you could have guessed if you follow politics or talk radio: Say it enough, and people will believe it. For example, how many of you think Al Gore claims to have invented t

Fernando Pessoa

“To be great, be whole; Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you. Be whole in everything. Put all you are Into the smallest thing you do. So, in each lake, the moon shines with splendor Because it blooms up above.”  ―  Fernando Pessoa ,  Poems of Fernando Pessoa

Why you need to stop waiting for life to get better

“How much of human life is lost in waiting?” – Ralph Waldo Emerson So much of our lives are spent waiting. We wait in lines, we wait for the perfect person, we can’t wait for our dreams to come true, we look forward to the day when we have a better body and a better life, we look for ways to make our  goals  become reality someday soon. We wait. That good life is coming, and we’ll be there soon. But what if we stopped waiting, stopped trying to make dreams and goals come true, stopped wishing and anticipating? What if that good life is already here, and the only way to live it is to stop looking forward and notice what we already have? Why to stop waiting for life to get better If you are waiting for good things to happen — or are actively trying to make something good come true — take a pause. Look at where you are right now, in life and physically in this moment. Where are you? Is it already great? If so, why are you looking towards the future, when you’re already the

Speaking multiple languages can give you multiple personalities

The idea that language affects the way we look at the world is hardly new. But could your personality actually  change  depending on which language you're speaking? That's the idea put forward by a new psychological study. This study straddles the line between fascinating and utterly bonkers. Psychologists at Hong Kong Polytechnic University discovered that native Chinese students who were also fluent in English seemingly became "more assertive, extroverted, and open to new experiences" when using their second language. The researchers argue those are all traits more typical of English speakers than Cantonese, suggesting a link between language and personality traits. This apparent link was strengthened further depending on who they were speaking to. If the students spoke English to a Caucasian interviewer as opposed to a Chinese interviewer, these "English-speaking" personality traits became even more pronounced. Based on all this, the researc

Being Weird Makes Us Sexier, Science Says

Have you ever felt like you’re too strange or different for anyone to like you or take you seriously? Of course you have: you’re only human. But, just as we’ve seen in the movies, nonconformists are sexy. They’re alluring, they like obscure things, and they don’t play by the rules. It’s why Claire fell for John Bender in “The Breakfast Club” and why Landon fell for Jamie in “A Walk To Remember.” Giphy Now, an awesome  new scientific study  has proven that marching to the beat of your own drum doesn’t just make you a more fulfilled person on the inside — it also gives you more game in the dating world. Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia asked 115 undergraduate students to read the online profiles of 20 people and then rate them on their attractiveness and decide if they’d date them IRL. The catch is, researchers manipulated each of the profiles to either imply conformity with statements like “She is quite happy to go along with what others are doing,” or

I promise to myself

Unsure

That moment when you are not sure 

X- The Keeper of Sheep, Fernando Pessoa

I  I never kept sheep,  But it is as if I did keep them  My soul is that of a shepherd,  It knows the sun and the winds.  And walks hand in hand through seasons  To follow and to hear.  All the peace of Nature without people  Comes to sit beside me.  But I get sad like a sunset  In our imagination,  When the cold falls on the plains  And we feel the night coming  Like a butterfly through a window.  But my sadness is calming  Because it is natural and just  And is that should be in the soul  When it knows it already exists  And the hands pick flowers without the soul noticing it.