Taste sensation: Ads engaging all senses more effective

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Corporations spend billions of dollars each year on food advertising - Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, and McDonald’s each spent more than $1 billion in advertising in 2007. A new study suggests those advertisers are missing out if their ads only mention taste and ignore our other senses.

Naturally, most food ads mention the taste of the food being marketed. But researchers Ryan S. Elder and Aradhna Krishna (both of the University of Michigan) explain that taste is generated from multiple senses (smell, texture, sight, and sound) and ads mentioning these senses will have a significant impact on taste over ads mentioning taste alone.

The researchers demonstrate that tapping into our other senses can actually increase consumers’ taste perceptions. In the experiments, participants were randomly assigned to view one of two ads. One ad was designed to appeal to multiple senses (for example, a tagline for a chewing gum read “stimulate your senses”), while the other ad mentioned taste alone (”long-lasting flavor”). After sampling the gum, the participants listed thoughts they had regarding the item and then rated the overall taste.

The multiple-sense ad led to more positive sensory thoughts, which then led to higher taste perception than the single-sense ad. The differences in thoughts were shown to drive the differences in taste. The results were repeated with potato chips and popcorn.

So how can you use this? The researchers believe their research can help advertisers reword ad copy to lead to significant differences in taste. “These results are of great value not only to food advertisers, but also to restaurants, as the descriptions contained within menus can actually alter the taste experience,” they say. “Further, companies can implement the findings into product packaging information to alter the taste of products consumed in the home. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, ensuring positive consumption experiences is critical to success.”

Now, what would happen if this was applied to healthful eating?

Hot or not? Men agree on attractiveness, women don’t

Hot or not? Men agree on the answer. Women don’t.

There is much more consensus among men about whom they find attractive than there is among women, according to a new study by Wake Forest University psychologist Dustin Wood and Claudia Brumbaugh of Queens College.

“Men agree a lot more about who they find attractive and unattractive than women agree about who they find attractive and unattractive,” says Wood, assistant professor of psychology. “This study shows we can quantify the extent to which men agree about which women are attractive and vice versa.”

More than 4,000 participants in the study rated photographs of men and women (ages 18-25) for attractiveness on a 10-point scale ranging from “not at all” to “very.” In exchange for their participation, raters were told what characteristics they found attractive compared with the average person. The raters ranged in age from 18 to more than 70.

Before the participants judged the photographs for attractiveness, the members of the research team rated the images for how seductive, confident, thin, sensitive, stylish, curvaceous (women), muscular (men), traditional, masculine/feminine, classy, well-groomed, or upbeat the people looked.

Breaking out these factors helped the researchers figure out what common characteristics appealed most to women and men.

Men’s judgments of women’s attractiveness were based primarily around physical features and they rated highly those who looked thin and seductive. Most of the men in the study also rated photographs of women who looked confident as more attractive.

As a group, the women rating men showed some preference for thin, muscular subjects, but disagreed on how attractive many men in the study were. Some women gave high attractiveness ratings to the men other women said were not attractive at all.

“As far as we know, this is the first study to investigate whether there are differences in the level of consensus male and female raters have in their attractiveness judgments,” Wood says. “These differences have implications for the different experiences and strategies that could be expected for men and women in the dating marketplace.”

For example, women may encounter less competition from other women for the men they find attractive, he says. Men may need to invest more time and energy in attracting and then guarding their mates from other potential suitors, given that the mates they judge attractive are likely to be found attractive by many other men.

Wood says the study results have implications for eating disorders and how expectations regarding attractiveness affect behavior.

“The study helps explain why women experience stronger norms than men to obtain or maintain certain physical characteristics,” he says. “Women who are trying to impress men are likely to be found much more attractive if they meet certain physical standards, and much less if they don’t. Although men are rated as more attractive by women when they meet these physical appearance standards too, their overall judged attractiveness isn’t as tightly linked to their physical features.”

The age of the participants also played a role in attractiveness ratings. Older participants were more likely to find people attractive if they were smiling.

Positive ads aren’t always the most effective

Ads that feature positive emotions, like happiness, are not always the best way to reach consumers, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Authors Loraine Lau-Gesk of the University of California, Irvine, and Joan Meyers-Levy of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, investigated consumer attitudes toward emotional ads. They discovered that people’s responses are affected by factors such as the amount of mental energy or attention they are able to devote to the ads as well as the physical layout of the advertising.

“Although under some circumstances consumers may respond more favorably to ads that feature positive rather than negative emotions, this is not always the case,” the authors explain. “Instead, how favorably consumers respond to ads depends on whether the amount of mental resources they devote to the ad is comparable to the amount of such resources that are needed to optimally appreciate and understand key aspects of the ad.”

When consumers are interested in an ad, they are better able to devote mental resources to thinking about it. Therefore advertising aimed at interested consumers can tap into more complicated emotions, such as bittersweet nostalgia, anxiety, and guilt.

“Ads that convey positive emotions by depicting uplifting events, outcomes, or people will not always enhance persuasion more than ads that feature downhearted or agitated emotions,” the authors write. “While more upbeat ads may be more persuasive among consumers who lack much interest in and expend few mental resources considering the ad, this may not hold true for more interested and involved consumers who invest considerable mental resources thinking about the ad or its product.”

What you see depends on how you feel

A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience - suggesting that seeing the world through rose-colored glasses is more biological reality than metaphor.

“Good and bad moods literally change the way our visual cortex operates and how we see,” says Adam Anderson, professor of psychology. “Specifically, our study shows that when in a positive mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods result in tunnel vision.”

This can explain why when your mom asks you to get the salt from the cupboard, on the second shelf behind the pepper, and you don’t want to, you can’t find it no matter how hard you look. Then she comes over and says, “Here it is” and it was in front of you the whole time.

The research team used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine how our visual cortex processes sensory information when in good, bad, and neutral moods. They found that donning the rose-colored glasses of a good mood is less about the color and more about the expansiveness of the view.

The researchers first showed participants a series images designed to generate a good, bad or neutral mood. The participants were then shown a composite image, featuring a face in the center, surrounded by “place” images, such as a house. To focus their attention on the central image, subjects were asked to identify the gender of the person’s face. When in a bad mood, the subjects did not process the images of places in the surrounding background. However, when viewing the same images in a good mood, they actually took in more information — they saw the central image of the face as well as the surrounding pictures of houses. The discovery came from looking at specific parts of the brain — the parahippocampal “place area” — that are known to process places and how this area relates to primary visual cortical responses, the first part of the cortex related to vision.

“Under positive moods, people may process a greater number of objects in their environment, which sounds like a good thing, but it also can result in distraction,” says Taylor Schmitz, a graduate student of Anderson’s and lead author of the study. “Good moods enhance the literal size of the window through which we see the world. The upside of this is that we can see things from a more global, or integrative perspective. The downside is that this can lead to distraction on critical tasks that require narrow focus, such as operating dangerous machinery or airport screening of passenger baggage. Bad moods, on the other hand, may keep us more narrowly focused, preventing us from integrating information outside of our direct attentional focus.”

So the next time you’re looking for your keys or trying to make an informed decision, do it feeling great. You just might come up with some new possibilities that you wouldn’t think of otherwise.

Intervention reduces teen pregancy rates

A program aimed at reducing criminal behavior in juvenile justice teens has yielded a surprising side benefit. The program is also reducing the teens’ rate of pregnancy.

A study was conducted with 166 teen girls ages 13-17 with histories of criminal behavior who had been court-mandated to receive out-of-home treatment. The girls were randomly assigned to either receive the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) program, which involved one-on-one care in the homes of highly trained foster parents, or the services they would have received had they not participated in the study, which was usually treatment in a group care facility.

David Kerr, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Oregon State University, and Leslie Leve and Patricia Chamberlain of the Eugene-based Oregon Social Learning Center, conducted the research, which will be published in the April edition of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

“One of the most interesting aspects of this research is that the MTFC program was created to reduce crime, not pregnancy,” Kerr said. “It specifically targeted changing the girl’s environment: her home, her peers and her school experience. The focus was on giving her lots of supervision, support for responsible behavior, and consistent, non-harsh consequences for negative behavior. And this worked to reduce pregnancy rates.”

The results were dramatic, according to Kerr. About 26% of the girls assigned to receive the specialized Treatment Foster Care program became pregnant, compared to almost 47% of teens in group care.

“These girls are extremely compromised,” Kerr said. “They are not doing well. They have had a hard time in different areas, including criminal behavior, drugs and risky sexual activity. Many of them had already been pregnant before the time of the intervention.”

Kerr said while teen pregnancy rates have fallen in recent years, the United States still has one of the highest rates compared to other industrialized nations. And that rate is even higher among females in the foster care system. One survey of child welfare systems in three states found that nearly half of girls in the foster system reported a pregnancy by age 19.

The specialized foster care program places the teen in a highly supervised foster parent setting. The state-certified foster parent or parents have been given additional training on how to work with high-risk youth, and were provided with ongoing consultation, support and crisis intervention services from program supervisors.

According to Kerr, each girl and her caregiver were interviewed one and two years into the study. The greater reductions in teen pregnancy, as well as reductions in criminal activity and arrests and increases in school engagement, were found in the group that was assigned to receive the specialized Treatment Foster Care services.

Currently there are 51 of these specialized foster care programs in the US and Canada, 41 in Europe and 1 in New Zealand. New program sites are being trained and certified each year by Eugene-based TFC Consultants, Inc.

The standard group care approach to treating a juvenile justice case costs $7,000 less than using the specialized Treatment Foster Care in the short-term. However, Kerr said that an independent analysis of teen boys showed that the dramatic reductions in criminal activity among teens in the specialized program costs taxpayers and crime victims $78,000 less per teen in the long term.

“The figures aren’t available for girls yet, but delaying unintended pregnancies should add to that savings. But aside from the economics,” he said, “the real plus is helping a high-risk teen grow up some more before she takes on that important job of motherhood. That’s good for everyone.”

Tai chi improves pain in arthritis sufferers

The results of a new analysis have provided good evidence to suggest that Tai Chi is beneficial for arthritis. Specifically, it was shown to decrease pain with trends towards improving overall physical health, level of tension and satisfaction with health status.

Musculoskeletal pain, such as that experienced by people with arthritis, places a severe burden on the patient and community and is recognized as an international health priority. Exercise therapy including such as strengthening, stretching and aerobic programs, have been shown to be effective for arthritic pain. Tai Chi, is a form of exercise that is regularly practiced in China to improve overall health and well-being. It is usually preformed in a group but is also practiced individually at one’s leisure, which differs from traditional exercise therapy approaches used in the clinic.

Recently, a new study examined the effectiveness of Tai Chi in decreasing pain and disability and improving physical function and quality of life in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The study is published in the June issue of Arthritis Care & Research. Led by Amanda Hall of The George Institute in Sydney, Australia, researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. They analyzed seven eligible randomized controlled trials that used Tai Chi as the main intervention for patients with musculoskeletal pain. The results demonstrate that Tai Chi improves pain and disability in patients suffering arthritis.

The authors state, “The fact that Tai Chi is inexpensive, convenient, and enjoyable and conveys other psychological and social benefits supports the use this type of intervention for pain conditions such as arthritis.”

“It is of importance to note that the results reported in this systematic review are indicative of the effect of Tai Chi versus minimal intervention (usual health care or health education) or wait list control,” the authors note. Establishing the specific effects of Tai Chi would require a placebo-controlled trial, which has not yet been undertaken.

Exercise more, not less, to ease aching back

People with lower back pain are better off exercising more, not less, according to a University of Alberta study.

The study followed 240 men and women with chronic lower-back pain and showed that those who exercised four days a week had a better quality of life, 28% less pain and 36% less disability, while those who hit the gym only two or three days a week did not show the same level of change.

“While it could be assumed that someone with back pain should not be exercising frequently, our findings show that working with weights four days a week provides the greatest amount of pain relief and quality of life,” said Robert Kell, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus.

About 80% of North Americans suffer from lower back pain.

In the study, groups of 60 men and women with chronically sore lower backs each exercised with weights in two, three or four-day weekly programs, or not at all. Their progress was measured over 16 weeks.

The level of pain decreased by 28% in programs that included exercise four days a week, by 18% three days a week and by 14% two days a week. The quality of life, defined as general physical and mental well-being, rose by 28%, 22% and 16% respectively.

BPA found to leach from polycarbonate bottles into humans

Attention parents, athletes, and everyone using plastic bottles. Let the debate about the dangers of bisphenol A (BPA) and whether or not it leaches finally come to an end.

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles - the popular, hard-plastic used in drinking bottles and baby bottles - showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical BPA. Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans. The study is the first to show that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased the level of urinary BPA, and thus suggests that drinking containers made with BPA release the chemical into the liquid that people drink in sufficient amounts to increase the level of BPA excreted in human urine.

The study appears on the website of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and is freely available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/0900604/0900604.pdf.

In addition to polycarbonate bottles, which are refillable and a popular container among students, campers and others and are also used as baby bottles, BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. In bottles, polycarbonate can be identified by the recycling number 7. Numerous studies have shown that it acts as an endocrine-disruptor in animals, including early onset of sexual maturation, altered development and tissue organization of the mammary gland and decreased sperm production in offspring. It may be most harmful in the stages of early development.

“We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds. If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher. This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA’s endocrine-disrupting potential,” said Karin B. Michels, associate professor of epidemiology at HSPH and Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study.

The researchers, led by first author Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student in the department of epidemiology at HSPH, and Michels, recruited Harvard College students for the study in April 2008. The 77 participants began the study with a seven-day “washout” phase in which they drank all cold beverages from stainless steel bottles in order to minimize BPA exposure. Participants provided urine samples during the washout period. They were then given two polycarbonate bottles and asked to drink all cold beverages from the bottles during the next week; urine samples were also provided during that time.

The results showed that the participants’ urinary BPA concentrations increased 69% after drinking from the polycarbonate bottles. (The study authors noted that BPA concentrations in the college population were similar to those reported for the U.S. general population.) Previous studies had found that BPA could leach from polycarbonate bottles into their contents; this study is the first to show a corresponding increase in urinary BPA concentrations in humans.

One of the study’s strengths, the authors note, is that the students drank from the bottles in a normal use setting. Additionally, the students did not wash their bottles in dishwashers nor put hot liquids in them; heating has been shown to increase the leaching of BPA from polycarbonate, so BPA levels might have been higher had students drunk hot liquids from the bottles.

Canada banned the use of BPA in polycarbonate baby bottles in 2008 and some polycarbonate bottle manufacturers have voluntarily eliminated BPA from their products. With increasing evidence of the potential harmful effects of BPA in humans, the authors believe further research is needed on the effect of BPA on infants and on reproductive disorders and on breast cancer in adults.

“This study is coming at an important time because many states are deciding whether to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. While previous studies have demonstrated that BPA is linked to adverse health effects, this study fills in a missing piece of the puzzle—whether or not polycarbonate plastic bottles are an important contributor to the amount of BPA in the body,” said Carwile.

Why you may lose that loving feeling after tying the knot

Will the partner who supports your hopes and aspirations while you are dating also help you fulfill important responsibilities and obligations that come with marriage? The answer to that question could make a difference in how satisfied you are after tying the knot.

Dating couples whose dreams include marriage would do well to step back and reflect upon the type of support they’ll need from their partners when they cross the threshold, a new Northwestern University study suggests.

Believing a partner is there to help you grow into the person you aspire to be predicted higher relationship satisfaction for both dating and married couples. But the belief that your partner helps you live up to your responsibilities and uphold your commitments only predicted higher relationship satisfaction after marriage.

For dating couples, the relationship itself tends to revolve around whether things are moving forward. Happiness with a partner depends on whether the relationship will grow into something more, whether a partner will support the dreams the other eventually hopes to achieve.

For married couples, the feeling that their partners are helping them to advance their relationships and realize their ideal achievements is still important. But the relationships of married couples, now more interconnected both practically and psychologically, tend to revolve around upholding the commitment made to their partners. Unlike dating couples, married couples also put a high premium on their partners’ support of whatever they determine to be necessary obligations.

“In other words, the feelings of being loved and supported that people use to judge who makes a good girlfriend or boyfriend may not be completely trustworthy in deciding who makes a good husband or wife,” said Daniel Molden, assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern. “Those feelings may only partially capture the emotions that will determine your satisfaction with the person you marry.”

The findings, Molden said, could be important in explaining why so many marriages fall apart.

The studyincluded 92 heterosexual dating couples and 77 married couples. They completed a battery of questionnaires that included an assessment of how much they thought their partner understood and supported both the hopes and responsibilities they had set for themselves. To measure how different types of perceived support were related to happiness with the relationship, couples also completed well-validated measures of satisfaction, intimacy and trust.

Previous research overwhelmingly demonstrates an important connection between feelings about partner support and satisfaction with a relationship but does not reveal any differences for dating versus married couples.

By identifying different ways in which people feel supported by their partners, the new Northwestern study goes beyond past work to show that support for maintaining perceived responsibilities seems to be important for satisfaction only after marriage.

The study also showed that different types of perceived support predicted differences in people’s overall satisfaction with their lives.

“People planning to get married should think about not only how their partners support what they hope to achieve but also about how their partners support what they feel obligated to accomplish,” Molden said. “We could end up with both happier marriages and more satisfied people in general.”

How to reduce your energy costs and carbon footprint

In honor of Earth Day, I thought it would be great to share some different ways each and every one of us can help nurture our planet and promote a sustainable future for the next generation.

I have the privilege of working with many top engineers at Chemical Engineering Progress Magazine published by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In a recent issue on sustainability, Robert Sylvester, a consultant at DuPont Engineering Research and Technology, wrote a perspective on how he was able to reduce his energy costs by $2000 in one year and his carbon footprint by one-third.

While the article was written for chemical engineers, many of the simple changes can be applied by anyone. What is also nice is that the article goes beyond unplugging your electronics and turning off your lights, and explains the simple changes that make the largest difference - a great application of the 80/20 rule!

Because the article is copyrighted by CEP Magazine and posted here with permission, it can be found in its original form in the link below. Normally only AIChE members are able to access articles, so I thank CEP for allowing all of us to benefit from this information as well.

So celebrate our beautiful planet today and every day by doing what you can to promote a healthy and sustainable future for everyone.

Click here to read “A Personal Perspective on Sustainability Through Energy Efficiency”

3 things you need to use to protect and grow your money

No matter what financial state you are currently in - whether you are struggling to make ends meet or you are having one of the most financially abundant periods of your life - there are 3 simple things you need to continually apply to not only protect your money and investments, but also to grow them.

1. Your Psychology
This is the foundation of everything. If you don’t manage your emotional state and your beliefs about money, the economy, etc., you will not realize the opportunities available to you. It is in the moment you decide that no matter what, things will be okay because you are resourceful enough to handle any situation life hands you, that opportunities will begin to appear. Focus on your strengths, those qualities that make you you, the qualities that produce success in other areas of your life. When you come from a place of strength, instead of weakness and thinking about all the things you can’t control, you begin to create value for yourself and others. This is the value that will create opportunities and money.

2. Your Knowledge
There are unlimited strategies for creating money, from starting a business to real estate investing to internet marketing. Once you know your strengths, use your knowledge to find the right vehicle for you. However, even if you have the right vehicle, there is a science to achieving success. The fastest and easiest way to learn this science is by modeling someone who has already done it successfully. A mentor can save you the pain of learning things the hard way or reinventing the wheel. You can find mentors through networking, using the internet, or attending seminars, especially those which incorporate multiple experts. Check out the recent blog post Learn how to recession-proof your retirement and investments to see two events in May that will give you the knowledge you need to apply successful strategies for growing and protecting your finances.

3. Your Creativity
To create extraordinary results, you need to add creativity with the right psychology and the proper strategies. This is where your being resourceful, thinking innovatively, and coming up with new or different ways will help you reach your financial goals. For example, generate a list of ways you can increase your income, decrease your expenses, leverage your time/money and combine resources, update your strategy for the current conditions (especially in this quickly changing economy), etc. The more creative you are, the better you will position yourself.

Whether you want to create extraordinary results or just maintain what you have, the new economy demands you apply your skills and will put you to the test. I invite you to share your strategies in any of the three areas above for how you protect and/or grow your money.

Learn how to recession-proof your retirement and investments

If you watch the news, every day you’ll see reports about how the market has dropped, how many people have lost their jobs, and how we are entering another Depression. But few news sources are telling you about the opportunities - opportunities like in no other time in history.

Contrary to popular belief, we have what some are calling “the greatest financial opportunity in history.” You can choose to participate in this recession - or - you can choose to participate in your progression.

There are things you can do, strategies you can apply, ways you can position your portfolio, to not only keep your money, but to also create wealth.

Strategies for Conscious Living is all about sharing resources that you can use to consciously create your desired results. Two events are coming up in May to teach you strategies that you can apply immediately to not only recession-proof your investments, but to also take advantage of one of the many opportunities that may not occur in your lifetime again.

Dynamic Market Analysis System (DMAS)

The first resource we came across speaks for itself. Watch the video below:

I’ve been lucky enough to know Steve Linder since 2003. He is a man who walks his talk and applied his knowledge of developing trading systems to create the DMAS trading system. It wasn’t until only a few years ago that he began teaching this strategy to help others minimize their risk in trading stocks and to be in control of their financial lives. Just watch the testimonials from previous students on the DMAS site to find out the types of results they’ve created in such a short time. They prove - it’s never too late.

Only taught twice per year, the DMAS course is finally coming to the east coast May 2-3 in Orlando, FL. There is no better time than now to learn these trading strategies. If you wait until next year, or when the time is right for you, it will probably not present the same opportunities as when the time is right for the market.

Click the DMAS button below for details on the course and to register now. Spaces are limited and going fast.

Wealth Builders Summit - New York City

If you also want to immerse yourself in the best financial tools and strategies from some of the world’s most knowledgeable financial experts, then the second resource we found is for you.

In just two days in New York on May 16 & 17, you can learn about how to navigate through this “New Economy” using:

• 401k and options trading strategies from Aussie Rob Wilson
• Persuasion and influence strategies from Joel Bauer
• Creating opportunity strategies from Loral Langemeier
• Joint venture and marketing strategies from Ken McArthur
• Psychology strategies from Marshall Thurber
• Real estate investing strategies from David Lindahl
• Investment and retirement strategies from Ephren Taylor

And the best part? It’s only $97 to attend the whole weekend if you register by April 16! Normally these types of seminars cost in the thousands.

On April 17 the ticket price increases to $197.

Now what if even the $97 is a stretch for you right now? The summit has an amazing affiliate program that allows you to earn 50% commission on each ticket sold. So if you have 2 friends sign up, you get to attend the whole event for free. In addition, you can start earning another unlimited revenue stream by selling as many tickets as you want.

For further details, you can also sign up for the FREE “Wealth Builders Success Secrets” teleseminar series that starts on April 2nd. To sign up click here.

Opportunity is Knocking - What Will You Not Have if You Don’t Answer?

Take advantage of these incredible opportunities that are present NOW. There is no reason anyone should be participating in this recession. No matter what your income level or savings are, you have the resourcefulness to create the quality of life you need and desire. Start participating in your progression now.

UPDATE!

Important update - As if it couldn’t get any better, the Wealth Builders Summit in NYC is now offering a limited supply of complimentary tickets. You can lock in a free ticket now by using the code “DESTINY” to register yourself and your loved ones.

They are first come, first serve, so if you are serious about changing your own financial destiny this year and beyond, stake your claim now and get on and register. If you want change, then there is truly no excuse not to. See you at the summit!

Depressed people have trouble learning “good things in life”

While depression is often linked to negative thoughts and emotions, a new study suggests the real problem may be a failure to appreciate positive experiences.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that depressed and non-depressed people were about equal in their ability to learn negative information that was presented to them.

Laren Conklin

But depressed people weren’t nearly as successful at learning positive information as were their non-depressed counterparts.

“Since depression is characterized by negative thinking, it is easy to assume that depressed people learn the negative lessons of life better than non-depressed people – but that’s not true,” said Laren Conklin, co-author of the study and a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State.

The study appears in the March issue of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.

Researchers tested 34 college students, 17 of whom met criteria for clinical depression and 17 of whom were not depressed.

This study is one of the first to be able to link clinical levels of depression to how people form attitudes when they encounter new events or information, said Daniel Strunk, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State.

Strunk said the key to conducting this study was the use of a computer game paradigm co-developed at Ohio State in 2004 by Russell Fazio, a professor of psychology and co-author of this new study. Fazio and his collaborators, Natalie Shook, a PhD graduate of Ohio State now at Virginia Commonwealth University and J. Richard Eiser of the University of Sheffield (England) have used the game in many studies examining differences in the development of positive and negative attitudes.

The developers affectionately call the game “BeanFest.” It involves people encountering images of beans on the computer screen. The beans could be good or bad, depending on their shape and the number of speckles they had.

Good beans earned the players points, while bad beans took points away. The goal was to earn as many points as possible.

While the game may seem trivial to a naive audience, Strunk said it offers a unique and powerful way to measure how people learn new attitudes.

“Before, if researchers wanted to investigate how people formed new attitudes, it was very difficult to do,” Strunk said. If researchers asked about real-life issues, the problem is that prior learning and attitudes may impact how people respond to new information. But in this game, participants don’t have any prior knowledge or attitudes about the beans so researchers could learn how they formed their attitudes in a novel situation, without interference from past experiences.

In the game phase of this study, participants had to choose whether they would accept a bean when it appeared on the screen. If they accepted the bean, the points were added or deducted from their total. If they rejected the bean, they were still told how many points they would have earned or lost if they had accepted it.

Each of the 34 beans was shown three times during the game phase, giving the participants a good opportunity to learn which beans were good and which were bad.

Then, in the test phase, participants had to indicate whether beans they learned about in the game phase were “good” (choosing it would increase points) or “bad” (choosing it would decrease points). The researchers tallied how well participants did in correctly identifying positive and negative beans.

The non-depressed students correctly identified 61% of the negative beans, which was about the same as the depressed students, who correctly identified 66% of the “bad” beans.

But while the non-depressed students correctly identified 60% of the positive beans, depressed students correctly classified only 49% of these good beans. Non-depressed students identified the good beans better than the depressed students, who failed to identify good beans better than chance.

“The depressed people showed a bias against learning positive information although they had no trouble learning the negative,” Strunk said.

One of measures researchers used in the study classified whether the depressed participants were currently undergoing a mild, moderate or severe episode of depression. In the study, those undergoing a severe depressive episode did more poorly on correctly choosing positive beans than those with mild depression, further strengthening the results.

While more research is needed, Conklin and Strunk said this study suggests possible ways to improve treatment of depressed people.

“Depressed people may have a tendency to remember the negative experiences in a situation, but not remember the good things that happened,” Conklin said. “Therapists need to be aware of that.”

For example, a depressed person who is trying out a new exercise program may mention how it makes him feel sore and tired – but not consider the weight he has lost as a result of the exercise.

“Therapists might focus more on helping their depressed clients recognize and remember the positive aspects of their new experiences,” Strunk said.

Contrary to belief, romance can last in long-term relationships

Romance does not have to fizzle out in long-term relationships and progress into a companionship/friendship-type love, a new study has found. Romantic love can last a lifetime and lead to happier, healthier relationships.

“Many believe that romantic love is the same as passionate/obsessive love,” said lead researcher Bianca P. Acevedo, PhD, then at Stony Brook University (currently at University of California, Santa Barbara). “It isn’t. Romantic love has the intensity, engagement and sexual chemistry that passionate love has, minus the obsessive component. Passionate or obsessive love includes feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. This kind of love helps drive the shorter relationships but not the longer ones.”

Acevedo and co-researcher Arthur Aron, PhD, reviewed 25 studies with 6,070 individuals in short- and long-term relationships to find out whether romantic love is associated with more satisfaction. To determine this, they classified the relationships in each of the studies as romantic, passionate (romantic with obsession) or friendship-like love and categorized them as long- or short-term.

The researchers looked at 17 short-term relationship studies, which included 18- to 23-year-old college students who were single, dating or married, with the average relationship lasting less than four years. They also looked at 10 long-term relationship studies comprising middle-aged couples who were typically married 10 years or more. Two of the studies included both long- and short-term relationships in which it was possible to distinguish the two samples.

The review found that those who reported greater romantic love were more satisfied in both the short- and long-term relationships. Companion-like love was only moderately associated with satisfaction in both short- and long-term relationships. And those who reported greater passionate love in their relationships were more satisfied in the short term compared to the long term.

Couples who reported more satisfaction in their relationships also reported being happier and having higher self-esteem.

Feeling that a partner is “there for you” makes for a good relationship, Acevedo said, and facilitates feelings of romantic love. On the other hand, “feelings of insecurity are generally associated with lower satisfaction, and in some cases may spark conflict in the relationship. This can manifest into obsessive love,” she said.

This discovery may change people’s expectations of what they want in long-term relationships. According to the authors, companionship love, which is what many couples see as the natural progression of a successful relationship, may be an unnecessary compromise. “Couples should strive for love with all the trimmings,” Acevedo said. “And couples who’ve been together a long time and wish to get back their romantic edge should know it is an attainable goal that, like most good things in life, requires energy and devotion.”

Financial security, more than money alone, may be key to happiness

A study of the mental state of the modern American woman by a Princeton University psychologist has found a powerful link between concerns over financial security and satisfaction with one’s life.

In looking toward the future, women who concentrated much of their thinking on financial matters were much less likely to be happy with their lives, according to Talya Miron-Shatz, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. And, contrary to expectations, many of those with such worries had plenty of money by conventional standards, she said, suggesting that there is more at play in obtaining peace of mind than simply having cash.

“Even if you are making a hundred grand a year, if you are constantly worried that you are going to get fired, that you are going to lose your health insurance or that you are simply not sure you are going to ‘make it,’ you are not going to be happy,” Miron-Shatz said. Such concerns, she found, affected a wide variety of women at all income levels.

Conversely, those who didn’t fixate on finances like retirement savings, tuition for college or simply making ends meet, reported being the happiest of the group.

The study was published Feb. 25 in Judgment and Decision Making, a scholarly journal. Miron-Shatz is hoping the results might guide policy decisions, especially those being devised by President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress in the wake of today’s financial crisis. Her work would favor a focus on strategies that create social and financial “safety nets” over measures that would directly increase income.

To understand how income and concerns over financial security may relate to a person’s satisfaction with life, Miron-Shatz conducted two separate studies of a representative sample of nearly 1,000 American women of various ages and incomes. In one study, she showed that considerations of financial security were as important to the study subjects as their monetary assets.

She asked subjects in the second study to think about the future in an open-ended manner. Those who did so and mentioned financial concerns - retirement, college tuition, making ends meet, etc. - were less satisfied with their lives, she found, than those who did not raise such concerns. One of her participants said that when thinking of her future she wondered, “Will I be happy and financially stable?” The stability, Miron-Shatz says, is crucial. “It’s not about greed,” she added. “It’s about knowing whatever it is you have, be it your McMansion or your motor home, won’t be taken away from you.”

Discussions about wealth need to be expanded to include this notion of financial security, she said, and though valid and meaningful, this factor is “glaringly missing from economic discussions,” she said.

Psychologists have long sought to understand the connection between money and happiness.

Though the popular conception has been that “money can’t buy happiness,” studies have shown that wealth can play a role in enhancing happiness. Yet, wealth itself has been poorly defined in studies. And, contributing to this complicated relationship is what Princeton Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman has called the “satisfaction treadmill.” In pioneering studies of human happiness, Kahneman, the Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Psychology, has found that satisfaction does not necessarily increase in a corresponding amount with an improved financial status.

Patients with chronic pain may need more vitamin D

A new study by the Mayo Clinic shows a correlation between inadequate vitamin D levels and the amount of narcotic medication taken by patients who have chronic pain. This correlation is an important finding as researchers discover new ways to treat chronic pain. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic pain is the leading cause of disability in the United States. These patients often end up taking narcotic-type pain medication such as morphine, fentanyl or oxycodone.

This study found that patients who required narcotic pain medication, and who also had inadequate levels of vitamin D, were taking much higher doses of pain medication — nearly twice as much — as those who had adequate levels. Similarly, these patients self-reported worse physical functioning and worse overall health perception. In addition, a correlation was noted between increasing body mass index (a measure of obesity) and decreasing levels of vitamin D.

“This is an important finding as we continue to investigate the causes of chronic pain,” says Michael Turner, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study. “Vitamin D is known to promote both bone and muscle strength. Conversely, deficiency is an under-recognized source of diffuse pain and impaired neuromuscular functioning. By recognizing it, physicians can significantly improve their patients’ pain, function and quality of life.”

Researchers retrospectively studied 267 chronic pain patients admitted to the Mayo Comprehensive Pain Rehabilitation Center in Rochester from February to December 2006. Vitamin D levels at the time of admission were compared to other parameters such as the amount and duration of narcotic pain medication usage; self-reported levels of pain, emotional distress, physical functioning and health perception; and demographic information such as gender, age, diagnosis and body mass index.

This study has important implications for both chronic pain patients and physicians. “Though preliminary, these results suggest that patients who suffer from chronic, diffuse pain and are on narcotics should consider getting their vitamin D levels checked. Inadequate levels may play a role in creating or sustaining their pain,” says Dr. Turner.

“Physicians who care for patients with chronic, diffuse pain that seems musculoskeletal — and involves many areas of tenderness to palpation — should strongly consider checking a vitamin D level,” he says. “For example, many patients who have been labeled with fibromyalgia are, in fact, suffering from symptomatic vitamin D inadequacy. Vigilance is especially required when risk factors are present such as obesity, darker pigmented skin or limited exposure to sunlight.”

Assessment and treatment are relatively simple and inexpensive. Levels can be assessed by a simple blood test (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]). Under the guidance of a physician, an appropriate repletion regimen can then be devised. Because it is a natural substance and not a drug, vitamin D is readily available and inexpensive.

In addition to the benefits of strong muscles and bones, emerging research demonstrates that vitamin D plays important roles in the immune system, helps fight inflammation and helps fights certain types of cancer.

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of “the needs of the patient come first.” More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year.

Kids learn to handle emotional responses

A University of Illinois researcher has demonstrated successful strategies that children can use to handle the emotional ups and downs that go with being a brother or a sister.

These tactics not only require less parental involvement in getting their children’s negative emotions under control, they also result in fewer negative actions directed at one sibling by another and provide measurable improved sibling relationship quality, said Laurie Kramer, a professor of applied family studies in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and the creator of the “More Fun with Sisters and Brothers” program.

“Sibling experiences can be unbearably frustrating for children,” Kramer said. “Kids often lack the vocabulary to describe what they’re experiencing, the strategies that would help them deal with the emotionality of sibling relationships, and calming techniques so they can de-escalate frustrating episodes and go on to effectively communicate with their brother or sister.”

A child’s ability to manage emotional experiences and behaviors is the foundation for engaging in other appropriate social behaviors, she said. “For example, productive conflict management is unlikely to occur if the child is experiencing high levels of frustration, anger, or other negative emotions that are not effectively regulated.”

And acquiring these social skills not only enhances the sibling relationship in childhood, it increases the chance of harmonious sibling relationships as adults. “Research shows that sibling relationships that are conflictive early in life are likely to remain so. Sibling bonds are usually our longest-lasting ties in our first family so we’d like them to be supportive alliances.”

The same skills that aid in good sibling relationships also prepare children to interact positively with parents and peers, she added.

Kramer’s program, “More Fun with Sisters and Brothers” helps children identify, monitor, and evaluate their emotions, gives them words and ways of talking about their feelings, and helps them distinguish between emotions they may find confusing — for example, they may label their frustration as anger or even lash out and say “I hate you,” she said.

“Most important, we help children understand when they’re so overwhelmed by their feelings that they need to calm themselves before reacting, and we teach them ways to do that. We call it ‘learning to chill.’ In scientific terms, it’s called regulating their emotions,” she added.

Kramer also measured “parental down regulation,” the work that parents do to manage their children’s emotions. “Brothers and sisters really know how to push each other’s buttons. That’s when you get, ‘Mom, he’s looking at me!” she said.

Kramer’s study examined the role of emotion regulation in improving sibling relationship quality in four- to eight-year-old siblings in 95 families.

Sibling interactions were observed in the children’s homes one week before the “More Fun with Sisters and Brothers” program began and after it was completed. Parents also answered questionnaires assessing their children’s relationship quality and their attempts to control their children’s emotional outbursts.

A control group of siblings who did not participate in the program was evaluated at the beginning of the study and after five weeks had elapsed. As expected, their parents reported no change in their children’s behavior.

Participants were taught emotional and social competencies through modeling, role-playing, performance feedback, and coaching in five one-hour training sessions. Puppets, videos, and life demonstrations were used to teach these positive sibling behaviors. Children then practiced these behaviors with their sibling and received immediate feedback and coaching.

“We then taught a method of instructional self-talk and self-control to be used when problems arose so kids could avoid impulsive responses, think about their goals in that situation and how they wanted to achieve those goals, respond calmly in emotionally charged situations, and explain their point of view and their needs to their sibling,” Kramer said.

Parents observed the training sessions through a video monitoring system. They were then given detailed instructions in helping children use the techniques at home and in other contexts. A final training session was held in each family’s home.

Sibling relationship quality had improved measurably following the program as children used more of the newly learned social and emotional competencies with their siblings, said Kramer. In addition, parents reported that they needed to intervene less to manage their children’s behavior. They also believed the quality of their children’s sibling relationship had improved.

“The program gave parents new tools for helping their kids handle disagreements. Parents were able to lead their children through a process of problem solving and conflict management. Children learned to approach conflicts as problems that could be solved. They learned to calm down, talk about what happened, and appreciate each other’s perspectives,” said Kramer.

“The study showed that targeting and teaching specific social skills can have a positive effect on the quality of sibling relationships,” she said.

‘Thinking like a trader’ may diminish emotional reaction and aversion to loss

The late 1990s saw the rise not only of the NASDAQ, the Dow, and the S & P 500, but also of amateur traders — individuals not formally trained to work in the unpredictable world of the stock market — to complement seasoned professionals. Beyond the differences in their credentials, a study led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and New York University suggests that taking the perspective of a professional trader may alter the emotional reaction to losing money and result in different choices.

The work examined correlations between loss-averse behavior and physiological arousal while subjects were asked to either focus on individual choices or take a portfolio perspective (”think like a trader”), which was hypothesized to reduce the emotional reaction to potential losses. The researchers combined methods from psychological and economic research, providing a detailed picture of how people make choices and how their perspective changes the mechanisms of decision-making.

Specifically, they asked subjects to complete a series of 140 choices between a risky gamble and a guaranteed amount of return. Subjects completed two sets of choices—one set using a strategy emphasizing each choice in isolation and one set using a strategy emphasizing each choice as one of many. Choices in isolation are analogous to those an amateur trader might make; choices made as one of many are akin to decisions a professional trader would implement because they simulate management of a diversified portfolio.

When making choices in isolation many of the subjects were loss averse. That is, they were more concerned about avoiding financial losses than in making financial gains. However, when subjects were asked to make choices using a strategy that emphasized these choices’ larger context as one of many decisions—such as the decisions one would make in managing a portfolio of investments—the vast majority of participants were less loss averse.

In an effort to examine emotional factors that may coincide with the behavioral expression of loss aversion, the researchers measured changes in subjects’ skin conductance due to increased sweating in response to learning the outcomes of their decisions. The results for choices made in isolation showed that subjects sweat significantly more, per dollar, to losses than gains. This “over-arousal” to losses was correlated with behavioral loss aversion, which suggests a specific role for emotions in choice. However, when subjects made decisions using the “portfolio” strategy mentioned above, the over-arousal effect disappeared — average levels of sweating per dollar were about the same for gains and losses.

The findings could be relevant to drawing distinctions between amateur and professional traders because the professionals are trafficking in portfolios and amateurs are not. Specifically, the findings support the conclusion that professionals have learned not just facts about investments, but also strategies for limiting the normal emotional response that might prevent amateurs from making the same decisions given the same information.

The research was conducted in the laboratory of NYU’s Elizabeth Phelps, one of the study’s co-authors.

“These results highlight how a simple shift in perspective can influence both the emotional reaction to a financial decision, and the decision itself,” commented Phelps, who is professor of psychology and neural science at NYU.

Peter Sokol-Hessner, the study’s lead author, added, “Though on average we may dislike losses more than we like gains, both in our behavior and in our physiological responses to them, it seems we have the power to change that.”

Co-author Colin Camerer, a Cal Tech professor of economics, added, “The role that emotions play in economic choices is not well understood. Showing that emotional reactions can be turned on ‘mute’ shows both that those emotions are genuine and that they can be controlled, which gives a fresh perspective on the role emotional control may play in the economy.”

Time is what we make of it

Ask anyone working on a project, and the biggest complaint one hears is “There’s not enough time.”

But instead of more time, maybe what they need is a change of perception.

“Research has shown that it’s not necessarily the time pressure, but it’s the perception of that time pressure that affects you,” says Michael DeDonno, a doctoral student in psychology at Case Western Reserve University. “If you feel you don’t have enough time to do something, it’s going to affect you.”

DeDonno recently studied 163 subjects performing the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a popular psychological assessment tool, to investigate the effect of perceived time pressure on a learning-based task. His study, the first to look at the relationship between perceived time pressure and IGT performance, was published in the December issue of Judgment and Decision Making.

He divided the study’s participants into two groups: an experimental group that was informed the time allotted to perform the task was insufficient and the control group which was told they had typically sufficient time to complete the task.

In the IGT, participants choose from among four decks of cards with the goal of making as much money as possible. Two of the decks are “good decks”, yielding a positive utility, and two are “bad decks”, with a negative utility.

The idea is to figure out which decks are good decks in the quickest amount of time to maximize profit over the course of the task.

Both groups were actually given sufficient time to complete the task, which involved 100 trials for each participant. However, each of the two groups was further broken down into subgroups, with one subgroup being given less time between card selections to think about the task.

But results show that participants who were advised the time was insufficient performed worse than those who were told they had enough time, regardless of the actual time allotted.

“If I told you that you didn’t have enough time, your performance was low regardless if you had ample time or not,” DeDonno says. “If you were told you had enough time, in both scenarios, they out performed those who were told they didn’t. ”

DeDonno says there are plenty of real-world benefits to understanding the effects of perceived time pressure on decision-making performance. He cited project team members who perceived a high degree of time pressure had lower job satisfaction. He also noted standardized tests, like the ACT or LSAT, have a high rate of test anxiety by test takers due mostly to time constraints.

He also wants to further the study to examine time perception with HMO physicians in relation to time spent with patients and diagnostic accuracy. Will a perception of time being insufficient by HMO physicians lead to inappropriate medications or an increase in diagnostic error?

While it remains to be determined why perceived time pressure can impair performance, DeDonno says that there are ways to combat it.

“Decision-making can be emotion based, keep your emotions in check. Have confidence in the amount of time you do have to do things. Try to focus on the task and not the time. We don’t control time, but we can control our perception. It’s amazing what you can do with a limited amount of time.

“Time is relevant. Just have the confidence with the time you’re given. I tell my students ‘Do the best you can in the time allotted. When it ends, it ends.’”

Buying experiences, not possessions, leads to greater happiness

Can money make us happy if we spend it on the right purchases? A new psychology study suggests that buying life experiences rather than material possessions leads to greater happiness for both the consumer and those around them. The study demonstrates that experiential purchases, such as a meal out or theater tickets, result in increased well-being because they satisfy higher order needs, specifically the need for social connectedness and vitality — a feeling of being alive.

“These findings support an extension of basic need theory, where purchases that increase psychological need satisfaction will produce the greatest well-being,” said Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University.

Participants in the study were asked to write reflections and answer questions about their recent purchases. Participants indicated that experiential purchases represented money better spent and greater happiness for both themselves and others. The results also indicate that experiences produce more happiness regardless of the amount spent or the income of the consumer.

Experiences also lead to longer-term satisfaction. “Purchased experiences provide memory capital,” Howell said. “We don’t tend to get bored of happy memories like we do with a material object.

“People still believe that more money will make them happy, even though 35 years of research has suggested the opposite,” Howell said. “Maybe this belief has held because money is making some people happy some of the time, at least when they spend it on life experiences.”

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