mood

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Science Finds You Really Can Sleep Your Way to the Top

Study suggests good career things will come to those who make time for sex

(Newser) - Sex is good for you. Scientists tell us so, and continue to find ways in which it can positively impact our lives. Now a researcher at Oregon State University is reporting that "making a more intentional effort" to have a healthy sex life is an actual "issue of...

Taking Selfies Can Improve Your Mood
Taking Selfies Can
Improve Your Mood
Sep 25, 2016 10:11 AM CDT

Taking Selfies Can Improve Your Mood

Don't be so quick to judge the selfie-snappers

(Newser) - If you smile enough, and see yourself doing it, and share it with friends and family, you may actually make yourself happier, at least according to researchers at the University of California at Irvine reporting in the journal Psychology of Well-Being . The team tracked 41 college students' moods for a...

Tell-Tale Sign of Alzheimer's: Personality Changes

Many patients who go on to develop dementia first exhibit mood problems

(Newser) - Scientists who currently look at mild cognitive impairment as an early indicator of Alzheimer's might have another tell-tale sign: Moodiness or behavioral changes, which they say show up in people who develop full-blown dementia. Researchers at the University of Calgary are proposing that doctors begin to use a 34-question...

When It Comes to Mood Disorders, Girls May Be Like Mom

Mothers and daughters have similar brain circuitry

(Newser) - A woman with depression might have her mother's brain circuitry at least partly to blame, suggests a new study out of the University of California San Francisco . In the small but potentially groundbreaking study led by psychiatry professor Fumiko Hoeft, researchers discovered that the structure of the part of...

Why You Should Do Like the Norwegians This Winter

They beat the blues by actually enjoying the season: study

(Newser) - Starting to feel the winter blahs creep in? A new study offers a tip that could get you back to your usual cheery self: Do like the Norwegians. Stanford PhD student Kari Leibowitz spent almost a year in Tromsø, Norway—200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun...

Got the Blues? You're Less Likely to See This Color

Sad people less likely to identify colors on blue-yellow axis: study

(Newser) - Got the blues? You probably aren't seeing blues clearly. That's the takeaway from a new study that finds how a person views the color blue may actually depend on mood, reports Medical Daily . Not all colors were affected in the same way. Researchers at the University of Rochester...

Spanish Is the Happiest Language
 Spanish Is 
 the Happiest 
 Language 
study says
Feb 14, 2015 7:51 AM CST

Spanish Is the Happiest Language

Scientists' analysis of websites suggests as much

(Newser) - If you're in a foul mood, it might be time to learn Spanish. Languages, and the people who use them, tend to favor using positive words over negatives, researchers find, and they've learned that that's particularly true in Spanish. Experts at the University of Vermont and the...

The Way You Walk Can Change Your Mood
 The Way You Walk Can 
 Change Your Mood 
STUDY SAYS
Dec 9, 2014 8:22 AM CST

The Way You Walk Can Change Your Mood

Researchers find a bouncier gait can affect happiness

(Newser) - Being happy may very well put a little bounce in our step, but new research suggests that if we purposefully walk this way we may be able to actually elevate our mood. Reporting in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry , researchers say they enlisted a group of volunteers...

Scientists Reveal Equation for Happiness

Literally: They developed a mathematical formula to predict it

(Newser) - How happy will you be at a given point in time? Scientists have come up with an equation to answer the question, or as they call it in the journal PNAS , "a computational and neural model of momentary subjective well-being." Mathematicians can marvel at the actual formula here...

Miserable People Prefer Not to Be Cheered Up

You're only going to make them feel worse, say researchers

(Newser) - If your friend is feeling down, your first thought might be to tell her things aren't so bad—but that may not be helpful. People with low self-esteem get a much bigger boost from "negative validation" than from "positive reframing," suggests a study in the American...

Mondays: Not Any Worse Than Other Weekdays

Study finds moods basically the same, except on weekends

(Newser) - The idea of the dreaded Monday is quite a popular one—but it may not actually be true. A new study in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that people reported feeling basically the same on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Psychologists analyzed Gallup data from 340,000 Americans who...

Twitter Proves Everyone Gets Afternoon Blues

Sociologists analyze 500M tweets in global study

(Newser) - Do you frequently find yourself in a late-afternoon funk? You’re in good company: It’s a worldwide phenomenon, and Twitter proves it, researchers say. Despite different cultures, “we found a very similar pattern in India, Africa, Europe, the UK, Canada, North America, Australia,” says a sociology professor....

The Science of Mood: Fatty Foods May Make You Happier, Study Says
 It's True: Fatty Foods 
 Make You Happier 
study says
Aug 8, 2011 11:50 AM CDT

It's True: Fatty Foods Make You Happier

Chowing down when depressed may just be instinct

(Newser) - There’s a reason we gorge on chocolate bars or French fries when we’re down: Fatty foods actually do make us feel better, a study suggests. Scientists in Belgium had subjects look at images of sad people and listen to sad music while being fed through a tube, the...

Scientists Find 'Happiness Gene'

But they warn: Don't blame everything on biology

(Newser) - If you’re generally less than jubilant—or unfailingly cheerful—your biological makeup may play a role. Scientists have tracked down a gene whose variants appear to be linked to happiness, the Guardian reports. In a study of 2,500 Americans, those who had two long variants of the gene...

iPhone App Gauges Your Happiness

And finds that daydreaming is tied to bad moods

(Newser) - Turns out the all-powerful iPhone can also moonlight as your personal therapist, by way of the "Track Your Happiness" app. The app pings users at random times during the day, asking how they're feeling and what they're doing. Researchers looked at the responses of 2,250 adults and found...

Twitter Visualization Shows Detroit Is Never Happy

(Newser) - Some intrepid researchers at Harvard and Northeastern culled hundreds of millions of tweets over the past three years and analyzed the language to put together a handy YouTube visualization of people's moods across the country. Essentially, everyone's happiest when they wake up or are about to fall asleep and they're...

Outdoor Workouts Improve Mental Health

Exercise in fresh air boosts mood; for greater benefits, just add water

(Newser) - Moving your workout outdoors improves overall mental health, and the benefits kick in within the first 5 minutes, researchers say. To get the greatest mood boost from exercise in fresh air, work out near a body of water, British scientists advise. In an analysis of 10 studies involving 1,250...

Atkins Will Make You Thin —but Miserable

Study shows that low-carb diet causes bad moods

(Newser) - You may lose weight on the Atkins diet, but you’ll be a really crabby thin person, a new study finds. OK, few dieters have truly sunny dispositions, but Australian researchers have found that the problem’s especially bad for those on low-carb diets. In a recent study, they split...

Fast Thinking Makes People Happy

Rapid thoughts can make people feel happier

(Newser) - Happy people think fast thoughts, say researchers at Princeton and Harvard. They asked two groups to perform the same tasks—problem-solving, reading, and watching TV—at different speeds. Those forced to move along briskly felt more elated, creative, even powerful, Scientific American reports. The findings suggest a crossword puzzle or...

Sex Hormone Tied to Depression
Sex Hormone Tied to Depression
Mar 4, 2008 10:35 AM CST

Sex Hormone Tied to Depression

Mood tracks testosterone levels, study finds

(Newser) - Men with low levels of testosterone are more likely to be depressed, Australian researchers have found, and they recommend that those with abnormally low levels be treated with injections of the sex hormone. A study of men over the age of 70 revealed that those with the lowest testosterone levels...

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