Yearly Archives: 2015

So what is a transcendent, psychophysiological moment of musical experience? Source: Frontiers | An integrative model of transcendent psychophysiological experiences in music | Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

Children in England are so unhappy with their lives that only South Korea ranks lower for childhood well-being, research from the Children’s Society has found. Source: England named 'second worst nation' for child happiness - Home News - UK - [...]

Teachers are to take the extraordinary step of calling for an independent Royal Commission to investigate why so many of Britain's children are unhappy.The unprecedented move by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers follows a welter of evidence highlighting the [...]

When two people stare into one another's eyes for a long period of time, both can experience disassociation symptoms and hallucinations. Source: Study shows staring into someone's eyes for a long time can cause hallucinations

The bad news doesn’t end there. Even when the new study found evidence for the existence of the original finding, the magnitude of the effect was much smaller — half the size of the original, on average. Source: We found [...]

The evolutionary explanations for human behaviour that grab the headlines can often be neat; really neat – like tightly-plotted narratives in which everything works out perfectly in the end, usually with a guy getting a girl, where everything happens for [...]

Researchers suggest that long-term happiness is more likely found more by joining a religious organization than volunteering or playing sports. Source: Want ‘sustained happiness’? Get religion, study suggests

YOGA has been in the news a lot recently. As colleagues have written, the establishment of International Yoga Day, celebrated for the first time last Sunday was a significant milestone for India's "soft power" and on balance, a personal success [...]

A review of more than 7000 patients has found listening to music before, during and after surgery reduces pain, anxiety and even the need for pain medication.Even patients who had music played to them while they were under general anaesthetic benefited - [...]

If you want to strike up a new relationship, simply smile. It works because people are much more attuned to positive emotions when forming new bonds than they are to negative ones such as anger, contempt or sadness. Don't try [...]