Mindfully Healing

This colour has a primitive effect on attraction, psychological research finds. Wearing the colour red makes both men and women more attractive to the opposite sex, studies find. When men wear it, red sends signals of status and dominance to others. When women wear it, the extra pull on men may have deeper, biological roots. The study’s authors write: “Our research demonstrates a parallel in the way that human and nonhuman male primates respond to red. In doing so, our findings confirm what many women have long suspected and claimed

Are you just shy or is it a social anxiety disorder? The classic sign of a social anxiety disorder is a strong fear of embarrassment or humiliation in social situations, research finds. Bear in mind that many people are apprehensive in unfamiliar social situations or with those they do not know. Social anxiety disorder is more than being shy. To be a social anxiety disorder, the fear should be so great that the social situation can only be born with considerable distress. Either that or social situations are often avoided

First study to find these changes in the brains of depressed people experiencing suicidal thoughts. People experiencing suicidal thoughts have a certain type of inflammation in their brain, new research finds. Microglial cells activate as part of the body’s inflammatory response. The researchers found that these immune cells were more active in depressed people who were also having suicidal thoughts. The study suggests that neuroinflammation could play an important role in suicidal thoughts and behaviour. It may also offer another route to treat this type of depression: through the use

The type of people most likely to be psychopaths, narcissists and manipulators. People who have a tendency to stay up late are more likely to exhibit anti-social personality traits, like narcissism and psychopathy. Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy — menacingly called ‘the Dark Triad’ — were all linked with the preference for late bedtimes in research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Jonason et al., 2013). Dr. Peter K. Jonason, explained: “Those who scored highly on the Dark Triad traits are, like many other predators such as lions and

The top two psychological causes of infidelity. Men and women cheat on their partners at about equal rates. According to various studies, somewhere between 40% and 76% of people cheat on their partners over the course of their relationship. The type of people most likely to cheat are those with ‘avoidant attachment styles’. In other words: these are people who find intimacy uncomfortable. They are the kind of people who want to avoid being too attached to one person. This could be because of poor parental relationships when they were

Brain scans of 49 criminals predicted how many crimes they had been convicted of. Psychopaths are not ‘aliens’, but people who make bad, short-sighted-decisions, argues a Harvard neuroscientist. They are everyday human beings whose brains are wired differently to the rest of us. Just how differently is revealed in a new study published in the journal Neuron. The study found that psychopaths: focus mostly on reward, and don’t think much about the consequences of their actions. This is quite different to most people whose natural response is to consider: what

There are 9 risk factors for dementia, which can all be reduced. One-in-three cases of dementia is a result of manageable lifestyle factors, a new report from 24 international experts concludes. There are nine risk factors identified by dementia experts: low levels of education, midlife hearing loss, physical inactivity, high blood pressure (hypertension), type 2 diabetes, obesity, smoking, depression, and social isolation. These risk factors account for 35% of dementia cases. In other words: changing or managing these factors will help fight off dementia. Addressing high blood pressure, obesity and

New study reveals the personality trait that is attractive to both sexes. When it comes to dating, both sexes prefer a non-conformist partner, a new study finds. Although most people know a rebellious man is sexy; the results upend the common assumption that men prefer women who play by the rules. Women in the study guessed that the personality trait of conformity would attract men, but it didn’t. The study’s authors write: “Women overestimated how attracted men would be to the conformist women. People think that men prefer conformist women,

How to tell if someone has a borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder is thought to affect between 1% and 6% of the population. It is more common in women than men. The most telling sign of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a long history of instability in personal relationships. This is partly caused by unstable and impulsive emotions. At one time people with borderline personality disorder can idolise someone else, and soon after they hate them. As a result those with a borderline personality disorder often have very intense