Long Distance Loyalty
The best way to get employees to show increased commitment to the workplace? Tell them to leave it, says a study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Stay-at-home workers who are connected to the office via Internet or telephone feel more trusted by their companies and less drained. They report that they plan to stay with the company longer than do their commuting counterparts.
Cool Your Jets
A study of children with two types of brain cancer showed that their dads were more than twice as likely to have used a hot tub, sauna, or electric blanket less than three months before conception. Want to add to the gene pool? Stay in the kiddie pool.
Tainted Love
He loves me, he loves me not. Yale researchers found that people who tend to see their mates as either all good or all bad lack self-esteem. They struggle with conflicting desires: to form close relationships yet avoid rejection at all costs. When these Jekyll-and-Hydes feel most vulnerable, they retreat into self-protection mode and withdraw their loving feelings.
11 Percent
Eleven percent of women and six percent of men have fallen asleep during sex.
Distinct Emotional Dialects
The mouth is the most expressive part of the face, and not just for the words that come out of it. But reactions in the eyes are harder to control. So while Americans, big on personal expression, look to the mouth to read each other, the relatively subdued Japanese rely more on those revealing orbs.
Tea Time
Warm the kettle and rejoice. Researchers from King's College London say that tea is more healthful than water. Not only does tea replace fluids in the body, it also contains antioxidants. (Don't worry about the caffeine—even a strong cuppa doesn't have enough to dehydrate.) Just stay away from cream and sugar, or the tea party's over.
Separation of Church and Spirit
Thy religiosity and thy spirituality shalt not be lumped as one. Traditional piety is distinct from personal spirituality, reports a study in the Journal of Personality. Though the two can overlap, each is tied to its own set of traits. Religiosity stems from traditionalism and collectivism, while spirituality has links to eccentricity and being prone to fantasy.
Better Not Ask
Questioning people about their future behavior can affect what they do. Asking about willingness to exercise or volunteer, for example, acts as a psychological prod to be good. But asking college students if they plan to use drugs in the near future has the opposite effect-interviewees use drugs more, a study shows. Coauthor Gavan Fitzsimons of Duke University is most worried about cases where questions aren't followed with chats about pros and cons. Checking on bad behavior without follow-up, he says, may give respondents with a positive predisposition to the vice a "license to sin." —Matthew Hutson
Pretty, Then Pink
Were Suri, Shiloh, and Apple destined to be girls? Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics reviewed data on the attractiveness of 2,972 men and women who were rated on a five-point scale and found that the fives had significantly more daughters: 56 percent for couples with one or two hotties versus 48 percent for the rest. Why the propensity for pink? Parental traits that serve one gender better than the other can influence the sex of the baby (though no one's sure exactly how). Because girls have historically relied on beauty for reproductive success, pretty parents have a better chance of passing along their genes through daughters. —Jessica Heasley
Angry Over Nothing
How can a few seemingly senseless shapes spark such passionate distaste? In a study conducted at the University of Arizona, psychologists found that viewers showed more wariness for abstract paintings after pondering their own demise. Team leader Mark Landau explains that people unconsciously impart order and meaning to life to distract themselves from fears of death and to assure themselves of their own significance. Abstract paintings presumably derail that process. The study also shows that people who prefer more structure in their lives are especially prone to dislike abstract art.
"I'd always wondered why people would feel so strongly about art that didn't appear to have meaning," Landau says. His advice to structure seekers? "You can find meaning by opening yourself to the world, seeking out novelty, not always pursuing simplicity and consistency and balance, but sometimes spontaneity and mystery." —Brandon Keim
Eyes of the Beholders:
What people at the Museum of Modern Art see in Miro's The Birth of the World
•“To me it’s just stuff thrown at a canvas. Isn’t that terrible? I know it’s supposed to be famous.” —Christine Goggin, Wilmington, North Carolina
•“Abstract artists leave it up to you. You are allowed to use your imagination. You make your own painting.” —Tomas Caro, New York City
•“The energy, it makes me feel strong.” —Francois Belair, Montreal, Canada
•“Life is chaotic and meaningless. It looks abstract at first, but it's not. Sometimes you find order in the chaos.” —Earl Walker, MoMA security guard
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