Mindfully Healing

From Texas to Tehran and from Dakar to Beijing, the results were the same. Women who are almost underweight are most attractive to men, a recent study finds. Dr Lobke Vaanholt, one of the study’s authors, said: “Although most people will not be surprised that extreme thinness was perceived as the most attractive body type, since this prevails so heavily in media, culture and fashion, the important advance is that now we have an evolutionary understanding of why this is the case.” For the research, people in 10 different countries

The eye movements that indicate whether someone is thinking of you as a friend or potential lover. People’s eyes scan our bodies differently depending on whether they want to date us or just be friends, new research finds. The study tracked the eye movements of 105 heterosexual young people as they looked at photos of strangers. Both men and women looked more at the head and chest of a person they were considering dating, the study found. In comparison, they looked more at someone’s legs and feet when they were

The study found links between signatures and the darker parts of narcissism, such as authoritativeness and exploitativeness. People with bigger signatures are more likely to be narcissists, new research finds. The conclusion comes from a study of the signatures of 500 chief financial officers. They found that the CFOs with the largest signatures were more likely to bend the truth. In this case by misreporting the company’s earnings or relaxing internal controls. Dr Charles Ham, one of the study’s authors, said: “In an ideal setting, you would be in direct

There will be a test, so I hope you are paying attention. When a person starts to blink more rapidly, it suggests their mind is wandering, research finds. Blinking sets up a tiny barrier against the outside world, allowing the brain to focus on something different. The researchers were inspired by neuroscientific findings that parts of the brain are less active when the mind wanders. Dr Daniel Smilek, the study’s first author, said: “And we thought, OK, if that’s the case, maybe we’d see that the body would start to