Group items tagged

Richer, fatter, living longer, more indebted, drunker, better connected, politically disillusioned: there's no metric that can describe whether we are happier or living better lives after 13 years of Labour. But there are plenty to show how we have changed during a period of fulsome spending, borrowing and technological transformation;

From virtual gaming to social media and smartphones, we are surrounded by online technology - and it's proving unhealthily addictive

Contributed by Joshua Sherk

For example, the researchers tracked which students responded to questions posed to the class as a whole, not one particular student. At the beginning of the semester, female students were much less likely than male students (9 percent vs. 23 percent) to respond to such questions, regardless of the gender of the instructor. But as the course progressed, female students became much more likely to respond to such questions posed by female instructors (46 percent of female students were responding) than to male instructors (only 7 percent of female students were responding). Likewise, a larger percentage of male students answered questions posed by female instructors (42 percent of men) than by male instructors (only 26 percent of men). Notably, however, the impact of having a female instructor vs. a male instructor was much greater for women. The researchers tracked other measures as well. At the beginning of the courses, there were not notable differences in whether female students approached female instructors (12 percent did) or male instructors (13 percent did) with questions after class. But as the course progressed, the percentage of female students approaching female instructors stayed constant, while the number approaching male instructors dropped -- all the way to zero.

When it comes to inducing a deep, self-hypnotic trance, a common misconception is that there is a magical, fool-proof method. In reality many people fail the self-hypnosis. And, the reason is, they tend to focus on the method first, and when this doesn't work, there is a strong temptation to give up and let out an exasperated exhale. In order to master self-hypnosis, you need to first focus on mastering yourself, and only then use an induction method to get you into a trance. Read the complete article here to understand this process and conquer the self hypnosis technique.

Is free will an illusion? Some leading scientists think so. For instance, in 2002 the psychologist Daniel Wegner wrote, "It seems we are agents. It seems we cause what we do… It is sobering and ultimately accurate to call all this an illusion."

The psychology of vengeance explains much about the state of the world and suggests the war on terror can never succeed, says Metin Basoglu