Telling small lies desensitises our brains to the associated negative emotions and may encourage us to tell bigger lies in future, reveals new UCL research funded by Wellcome and the Center for Advanced Hindsight. (more…)
Most parents will by now wonder how they can protect their children and direct them to child-safe websites. Fortunately a non-profit site, Quib.ly offers a forum where concerned parents, teachers and care-givers can seek out the advice of experts in the field of cyber technology as well as child development psychology. If you visit this site you may well find that your particular concern is shared by others. Experts in their respective fields will be able to steer you in the direction of child-safe websites and you will have the opportunity to share knowledge gained by parents in your position.
You will probably find that most contributors on Quib.ly will suggest that you engage with the child when he or she does web-surfing and then alert the child to sites that may be age-inappropriate, content inappropriate or predatory sites operating under the guise of child-friendly, or “cool”. Educate them to the risks of scam artists, pedophiles, and how to use intuitive and learned skills to avoid them. (more…)
New research indicates that American politicians are affected by the practice of fact-checking, thereby reducing the risk of misinformation and strengthening democratic accountability.
Fact-checkers such as PolitiFact and Factcheck.org scrutinise politicians in the US by examining the public statements given to and reported by news organisations.
This practice is born out of concern that traditional media rarely evaluates the accuracy of the politicians statements, resulting in political figures being frequently allowed to make misleading comments in the press without challenge. (more…)
Zen meditation has many health benefits, including a reduced sensitivity to pain. According to new research from the Université de Montréal, meditators do feel pain but they simply don’t dwell on it as much. These findings, published in the month’s issue of Pain, may have implications for chronic pain sufferers, such as those with arthritis, back pain or cancer.
“Our previous research found that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity. The aim of the current study was to determine how they are achieving this,” says senior author Pierre Rainville, researcher at the Université de Montréal and the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. “Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrated that although the meditators were aware of the pain, this sensation wasn’t processed in the part of their brains responsible for appraisal, reasoning or memory formation. We think that they feel the sensations, but cut the process short, refraining from interpretation or labelling of the stimuli as painful.” (more…)
