Fewer and fewer couples are tying the knot. According to Pew Research Center, marriage rates have steadily declined in recent years. Today, just half of all Americans are married, compared with 58% in 1980. What’s to blame for this 8% drop? There are likely several factors involved, and fear of…
A materialist is someone whose life is centered around acquiring more goods. Materialists correlate their happiness with their possessions. They claim that these products are the key source of their life fulfillment and a representation of their success in life. The question, “Would owning more things make me happier?” is…
As human beings, we are drawn to material things. We each have items that we collect that show others who we are and what we value. For me, it’s books. I have books in almost every room in my home. It’s obvious that they matter to me, based on the…
A serious injury can happen at any moment, and the impact on your life can be more than just physical. For example, motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of traumatic brain injuries, and most of us, at some point, get in or drive a car to go to work,…
Matt opens the fridge for a beer after a long day. He has an overwhelming desire for the good feeling that the first sip brings him. It’s an urge that doesn’t assist Matt down the road, as it is harmful to his well-being and the relationships that mean the most…
The majority of us aren’t too comfortable with our emotions, which can be accredited to being raised in a society scared to show our feelings. We aren’t properly instructed on the biology of emotions and the brain. And as much as we’re told that we should monitor and regulate our…
Did you know that adults have between 60,000 and 80,000 thoughts each and every day? Out of these 80,000, a majority of these thoughts are repetitive and a large amount of them are negative. Based on this information, two concerns come to mind: Where do these thoughts come from? What…
Most of us could probably agree that social media can damage self-esteem—especially in women. Think about it: every magazine has a slender woman on the cover and a story within about how she lost the weight—and how you can, too. Additionally, TV shows and movies cast female leads that make…
A recent study says emotional or traumatic events can create false memories, despite the widespread belief that traumatic events are more vivid and, therefore, reliable. The latter belief is called flashbulb memory, which says that emotional events cause us to completely capture the context of the event and our reaction…
Jealousy changes with time—we envy what is to come more than we envy what has already happened. This, according to researchers at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In the first phase of their study, researchers asked 620 participants to imagine a close friend living out the participant’s…
Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience say your insomnia might stem from emotional distress. The team asked participants to relive shameful moments from their past, while receiving an MRI scan of their brain activity. Researchers found that good sleepers neutralized those…
When we feel ashamed of our secrets, we’re more likely to think about them over and over again. We can better cope by shifting away from shame and toward guilt. A Columbia University study asked 1,000 participants questions about their secrets, including how much shame and guilt they associated with…
