Tag Archives: study

The Consequences of Skipping Breakfast

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In a new study authors found that adults who skip breakfast are likely to miss out on important nutrients that are mostly found in breakfast foods.

The analysis looked at thirty-thousand Americans and found that skipping breakfast means they miss out on calcium, vitamin C, fiber and the vitamins and minerals found in fortified cereals. And that they are likely to be low on those for the entire day because of this skipped meal.

The US Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines now state that a lack of calcium, potassium, fiber and vitamin D are a “public health concern” for the general population of the US. Shortages of these nutrients are linked to health problems.

Most of the missed-breakfast research has been on the performance of school children in which missed breakfast can cause behavioral problems and difficulty focusing.

Most research related to breakfast has focused on the effects of the missed morning meal on children in school, which includes difficulty focusing and behavioral problems.

However, for adults, the problem with missed breakfast may be longer-term health concerns from lack of nutrients most present in breakfast foods.

Meta-Analysis Finds Correlation Between Narcissism and Aggression

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In a recent study, researchers did a meta-analysis of 437 other studies on narcissism and aggression. The meta-analysis looked at data from over 123,000 participants and found that narcissism is related to a 21% increase in aggressive behavior and an 18% increase in violent behavior.

Narcissism, simply defined is “entitled self-importance.”

Researchers stated that those who are highly narcissistic are especially aggressive when provoked but also aggressive otherwise. Participants with high levels of narcissism also demonstrated high levels of physical and verbal aggression, spreading gossip, bullying and even displacing aggression against innocents or strangers. They were seen to attack both in a hotblooded and coldblooded manner. Narcissism correlated with aggression in both males and females and in both Western and Eastern countries.

Researchers stated that people who think they are superior to others seem to have fewer qualms about attacking those they view as inferior. Research demonstrates that everyone is a little narcissistic but there are those with a much higher level of narcissism and that relates to their level of aggression. They also tend to be bad relationship partners, discriminate against others and are low in empathy.

Other studies have looked at a rise in narcissism. Some experts believe social media may be a factor. One study saw that people who posted a large number of selfies increased narcissistic traits by 25% in just four months. Another study found 85% of people are taking far more pictures of themselves than every before.

 

How Our Minds Warp Our Perception of Time on Vacation

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We’ve all heard the colloquialism “time flies when you are having fun,” but a new study has found that anticipation of a fun event also makes it feel like it is over too soon.

The researchers found that people view future positive events as both further away and shorter in duration when compared to negative or neutral events.

The study authors stated that these two elements have an unusual effect when people think about a positive event like a vacation. The interminable waiting compiled with the feeling that the event will be done too quickly makes them view the beginning and the end of the event as similarly far from the present.

Simply stated, in our minds the vacation has no duration, it is over instantaneously. Another affect this all has on the mind is it makes the mind believe the endpoints of positive and negative events are both distant from the present. Anticipating a negative event, like a work trip we don’t want to go on, reserves the effect, people feel like the negative event will happen immediately and last forever.

The Journal of Consumer Psychology will publish the paper online.

 

New Research Finds Interesting Correlations Between Lifelong Weight Gain and Mortality Rates

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According to new research, people who start adulthood with a body mass index (BMI) in the “normal” range and move later in life to being “overweight” but not “obese” to tend live the longest.

Those who stayed in the “normal” BMI range throughout life didn’t live as long as the latter category and those who started adulthood as “obese” and continued to add weight had the highest rate of death.

Researchers stated that the impact of weight gain on mortality is complex and depends on lots of factors like the amount of weight gain and where the subjects BMI started.

The primary message is that you want to start in a “normal” weight range and gain only a modest amount throughout life while avoiding “obesity.”

Results like these were also found in two generations of participants in a Framingham Heart Study, though the participants were mostly white. The review followed the medical histories of residents in one city and that of their children for several decades.

The study revealed troublesome trends for the younger generation who became overweight or obese sooner in life than their parents and are more likely to have an obesity-linked death.

 

Adults and Children Focus on Different Things in Photos

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As an adult if you were asked to look at a picture with a cat in the foreground and a wide mountain range in the background and remember the mountains later on if you saw them in a subsequent picture that would be no hard task for an adult.

However, in a new study by the Ohio State University when preschool kids were asked to perform the same visual-memory task it was found that they focus so much on the cat they won’t later be able to recognize the mountain range.

These results from the study suggest that young children’s attention is biased toward focusing on objects rather than scenes even when asked to focus on the scene rather than an object.

Researchers found that almost exclusively young children couldn’t ignore objects in photos irrelevant to the tasks they were asked to complete by looking at the photos.

The study was recently printed in the journal called “Child Development.”