'Chilled Out' People Have Higher Obesity, Depression Risk | LiveScience

Mind & Body: 'Chilled Out' People Have Higher Obesity, Depression Risk | LiveScience

People who seem to face stressful situations without blinking an eye may have an increased risk of health woes such as obesity and depression, according to a new study.

These results mean that when the body underreacts to stresses in life, it can be just as bad for your health as overreacting, said study researcher Doug Carroll, a professor in the School of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham in England.

Over-responding to stressors can increase the risk of hypertension and atherosclerosis, but under-responding to stressors may be associated with obesity, depression, poor immune functioning and poor overall health, Carroll said.

The finding doesn't necessarily apply to all people with relaxed personalities, Carroll said.
"It's important to distinguish between two things: First, the outward appearance of 'being chilled' and what your biology is actually doing, [and] second, between the resting biological state and how that biology reacts to stress," Carroll told MyHealthNewsDaily.

"Obese individuals tend to have high resting heart rates, but low or blunted heart-rate reactions to stress," he said.

Researchers analyzed health data collected from 1,300 people during a 14-year period.

When participants were asked to complete a short stress test, those who did not have large heart rate or blood pressure changes were more likely to become depressed and obese over the next five years, compared with those whose heart rates and blood pressures increased in response to stress, the study said.

The people whose heart rates weren't affected by the stress test were also more likely to say they were in poor health than people whose heart rate and blood pressure increased during the test, according to the study.

Past research has linked low blood pressure with depression. A 2000 study of more than a thousand people in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that low blood pressure was a risk factor for, and not a consequence of, depression.

And a 2006 study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health found that people with low blood pressure are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression than people with normal blood pressure levels.

Carroll and his colleagues are now looking at the effects of a blunted reaction to stress in other studies. Next, they hope to look at the relationship between cognitive ability (reasoning and speed of reaction) and reactions to stress, because people who have high reactions to stress may have better cognitive abilities than those who have low reactions, he said.

The study was published online Dec. 15 in the journal Biological Psychology.

Pass it on: People who have low reactions to stress have an increased risk of depression and obesity.

Stress gets under our skin

Stress gets under our skin / UCLA Newsroom

UCLA researchers identify brain pathways linking social stress and inflammation
By Mark Wheeler August 06, 2010

Everyone experiences social stress, whether it is nervousness over a job interview, difficulty meeting people at parties, or angst over giving a speech. In a new report, UCLA researchers have discovered that how your brain responds to social stressors can influence the body's immune system in ways that may negatively affect health.

Lead author George Slavich, a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and senior author Shelley Taylor, a UCLA professor of psychology, show that individuals who exhibit greater neural sensitivity to social rejection also exhibit greater increases in inflammatory activity to social stress.

And although such increases can be adaptive, chronic inflammation can increase the risk of a variety of disorders, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and depression.

The study appears in the current online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It turns out, there are important differences in how people interpret and respond to social situations," Slavich said. "For example, some people see giving a speech in front of an audience as a welcome challenge; others see it as threatening and distressing. In this study, we sought to examine the neural bases for these differences in response and to understand how these differences relate to biological processes that can affect human health and well-being."

The researchers recruited 124 individuals — 54 men and 70 women — and put them into two awkward social situations. First, in the lab, the volunteers completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), which involves preparing and delivering an impromptu speech and performing difficult mental arithmetic, both in front of a socially rejecting panel of raters wearing white lab coats. Mouth swabs were taken before and after the public-speaking tasks to test for changes in two key biomarkers of inflammatory activity — a receptor for tumor necrosis factor-α (sTNFαRII) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).

In a second session, 31 of the participants received an MRI brain scan while playing a computerized game of catch with what they believed were two other real people. The researchers focused on two areas of the brain known to respond to social stress — the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the anterior insula.

At first, the game was between all three "players." Halfway through the game, however, the research subject was excluded, leading to an experience of social rejection. The researchers then examined how differences in neural activity during social rejection correlated with differences in inflammatory responses to the TSST.

Their results showed that individuals who exhibited greater neural activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula during social rejection in the brain scanner also exhibited greater increases in inflammatory activity when exposed to acute social stress in the lab.

"This is further evidence of how closely our mind and body are connected," Slavich said. "We have known for a long time that social stress can 'get under the skin' to increase risk for disease, but it's been unclear exactly how these effects occur. To our knowledge, this study is the first to identify the neurocognitive pathways that might be involved in inflammatory responses to acute social stress."

Although increases in inflammatory activity are part of our immune system's natural response to potentially harmful situations, Slavich noted, "frequent or chronic activation of the system may increase risk for a variety of disorders, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and even depression."

One critical question raised by the present findings is why neural sensitivity to social rejection would cause an increase in inflammation. There are several possible reasons, the authors note. For one, since physical threats have historically gone hand in hand with social threat or rejection, inflammation may be triggered in anticipation of a physical injury. Inflammatory cytokines — proteins that regulate the immune system — are released in response to impending (or actual) physical assault because they accelerate wound-healing and reduce the risk of infection.

While short-term inflammation is useful in battling an injury, chronic inflammation arising from the mere perception of social rejection is not.

"Although the issue is complex, one solution is to not treat negative thoughts as facts," Slavich said. "If you think you're being socially rejected, ask yourself, what's the evidence? If there is no evidence, then revise your belief. If you were right, then make sure you're not catastrophizing or making the worst out of the situation."

Other UCLA authors on the study were Balwin M. Way and Naomi I. Eisenberger. The study was funded by a Society in Science: Branco Weiss Fellowship and by the National Institutes of Health.

The UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology encompasses an interdisciplinary network of scientists working to advance the understanding of psychoneuroimmunology by linking basic and clinical research programs and by translating findings into clinical practice. The center is affiliated with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Could simply viewing the letter “A” before a test help improve your test performance?

How the Letter A Improves Test Performance | Psych Central News

Could simply viewing the letter “A” before a test help improve your test performance? New research finds that not only does seeing the letter “A” before an exam improves students’ performance, but seeing the letter “F” makes a student more likely to fail.

“The letters A and F have significant meaning for students, A represents success and F, failure,” noted researchers Keith Ciani and Ken Sheldon at the University of Missouri.

“We hypothesized that if students are exposed to these letters prior to an academic test it could affect their performance through non-conscious motivation.”

A total of 131 students took part in three separate experiments. In the first, 23 undergraduates were asked to complete a number of analogies in a classroom setting. All of the tests were the same; however, half of the tests were labeled ‘Test Bank ID: A’, and the other half ‘Test Bank ID: F’. Before starting the test the participants were asked to write their Test Bank ID letter in the top right hand corner of each sheet.

Kids Taught Self-Control Behave Better at School

Kids Taught Self-Control Behave Better at School | LiveScience

While there are many different ways to reduce classroom problems, it appears that giving children the skills they need to problem-solve might be the best solution.

Children taught skills to monitor and control their anger and other emotions improved their classroom behavior and had significantly fewer school disciplinary referrals and suspensions, according to new research.

Children in a school-based mentoring program were about half as likely to have any discipline incident over the three-month period of the study. They also had a 43 percent decrease in mean suspensions and 46 percent less mean office disciplinary referrals as compared to the control group, which did not receive mentoring of the self-control skills.

In the four-month interval after the intervention began, 1.8 percent of children in the mentored group were suspended compared to 6.1 percent of the control group.

Socioeconomic Stresses Could Lower Life Expectancy

Socioeconomic Stresses Could Lower Life Expectancy

Socioeconomic status can affect life expectancy, a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher said in a study published.

People who live in areas with lower household incomes are much more likely to die because of their personal and household characteristics and their community surroundings, according to Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H., director of the VCU Center on Human Needs, professor in the Department of Family Medicine and lead author of the study.

"It's tempting to assume that our findings are based on how much money people make," Woolf said. "But areas with high household incomes also tend to have better schools, a different racial and social mix and healthier community conditions."

In the study to be published in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health and available online today, Woolf and his colleagues analyzed census data and vital statistics from Virginia counties and cities between 1990 and 2006. They demonstrated that one out of four deaths would have been averted if the mortality rates of Virginia's five most affluent counties and cities had existed statewide. In some of the most disadvantaged areas of the state, nearly half of the deaths would have been averted.

"Virginia is an excellent place to explore the connection between health and median household income. There are communities in Northern Virginia with some of the highest incomes in the nation and there are areas of the state, such as the Appalachian Southwest, Southside, the Middle Peninsula and the Eastern Shore, with high poverty and low high school graduation rates," Woolf said.

Regions of the state with deep poverty, large minority populations and lower educational achievement levels had high mortality rates in comparison with high household incomes.

"These findings are especially timely during the current recession. Policymakers typically think of the economy, jobs and education as separate issues from health care reform, but they're deeply connected," Woolf said. "Social care is health policy, probably saving more lives than anything done in health care."

About VCU and the VCU Medical Center: Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 32,000 students in 211 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-nine of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU's 13 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the nation's leading academic medical centers.

Source: Virginia Commonwealth University

Mood Influences Search for Novelty

Mood Influences Search for Novelty | Psych Central News

A new report from an international team of social and cognitive psychologists clarifies how mood influences our actions for exploring new avenues or remaining content with accustomed surroundings.

Researchers discovered a negative mood is associated with sticking to the familiar. Happiness, on the other hand, makes uniqueness attractive. The scientists say this is the first time the effect has been experimentally demonstrated in humans.

The study, by University of California, San Diego psychology professor Piotr Winkielman and Marieke de Vries, currently affiliated with the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, is published online in the journal Psychological Science.

The findings, Winkielman said, not only contribute to understanding basic human psychology but also have numerous applications, including parenting and other interpersonal relationships and even in many of the “persuasion professions.”

In business, in marketing and advertising and in political campaigns, people would be well-advised to take note of the research. When companies introduce novel products, for example, they may want to do so in settings that encourage a happy, playful mood. A surgeon’s office, meanwhile, Winkielman said, which people visit rarely and in stressful circumstances, should probably stay away from edgy décor, opting instead for the comfy and familiar.

“The research helps us understand, too,” said Winkielman, “why incumbent politicians seeking re-election fuel a negative, apprehensive mood and then offer up such tried-and-true symbols as the flag and apple pie.”

It is a classic psychological observation that people prefer familiar stimuli, described 100 years ago by British psychologist Edward Titchener as the “warm glow of familiarity.” In a century of research since, many studies have supported the notion and shown that even simple repetition will enhance liking of an object.

The current researchers wondered, however: Is familiarity always pleasant or warm? Perhaps, they reasoned, that varies with an individual’s mood.

“We thought the value of familiarity would depend on the context,” de Vries said. “Familiarity signals safety, which is pleasant in an unsafe or stressful context but might actually get boring when all is going fine.”

They examined the idea by presenting participants with random dot patterns resembling constellations in the sky and made these familiar through exposure. The researchers put some of the participants in a good mood and others in a bad mood – by asking them to recall joyous or sad events in their lives. They then maintained the mood by playing appropriate music during the remainder of the test.

Finally, they measured participants’ emotional and memory responses to the dot patterns with ratings and, critically, with physiological measures (skin conductors to assess sweat and facial electrodes to detect incipient frowns and smiles).

As predicted, saddened participants showed the classic preference for the familiar, even smiling at the sight of familiar patterns.

A happy mood, however, eliminated the preference.

“When you’re happy,” Winkielman said, “known things, familiar things lose their appeal. Novelty, on the other hand, becomes more attractive.”

Winkielman noted, too, that the physiological measures of the responses are particularly telling: “These are immediate bodily reactions – not just talk – we’re seeing genuine, if mild, emotional response.”

The study follows up on Winkielman’s earlier, related work on “beauty in averages” and on embodied emotion.

Source: University of California, San Diego

Bright, clean rooms promote good behaviour

CBC News - Technology & Science - Bright, clean rooms promote good behaviour

The smell of citrus promotes generosity, while dim rooms increase dishonesty and selfish behaviour, psychology researchers suggest in recent studies.

Chen-Bo Zhong, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, and his colleagues in the U.S. have conducted a series of small experiments designed to test how changes in an environment — differences in lighting or smell — can affect human behaviour.

In one experiment, participants were given $10 in change and 20 mathematical problems, and sent into either a room brightly lit with florescent lights or one with a third as many lights on.

The subjects were asked to complete as many of the problems as they could in five minutes and to keep 50 cents for each problem they solved. They were asked to put the rest of the change in an envelope when they were done.

Typically, the participants were able to complete seven problems in the time allowed, but since the test was anonymous, they could keep as much of the money as they wanted without getting caught.

While the tests had no names or numbers on them, the problems themselves revealed whether the participant had been in a brightly lit room or a dim one.
Dark offers anonymity

"What we found was that participants randomly assigned to the dimmer room … were more likely to lie or cheat compared with participants in the well-lit room," Zhong said.

Zhong said that the rooms with the dim lighting created a sense of anonymity, what he calls illusory anonymity.

"The idea is that when we experience darkness, we disregard what other people may still be able to see or hear or observe," he said. "The illusory sense of anonymity can license unethical behaviour."

In interviews with the participants after the experiments about what happened and what determined their behaviour, few of the participants even noticed the difference in lighting.

In a similar study, participants were asked to wear either a pair of sunglasses or a pair of glasses with clear lenses.

"What we found was that wearing a pair of sunglasses led to greater self-interested behaviour," said Zhong.

Zhong said the sunglasses didn't make the participants anonymous or less visible, of course, but still had an effect on their behaviour, making them less likely to see themselves from another person's perspective.

"We perceive ourselves to be anonymous even if the darkness only applies to ourselves, as in the case where we wear a pair of sunglasses or are in a room that is dim but not exactly dark," Zhong said.

Zhong likened the sunglasses experiment to toddlers playing peek-a-boo.

"This is almost like kids playing a hide-and-seek game who will close their eyes and think that other people won't be able to see them," he said.
Scents affect ethics

The subconscious changes in behaviour weren't limited to visual changes. Zhong conducted similar experiments that used the sense of smell.

Participants were randomly assigned to rooms, some sprayed with citrus-scented window cleaner. In some of the experiments, the participants played a game of trust with an anonymous partner, again involving money.

The way the game typically works is that one partner is given a sum of money and told to put some or all of the money in an envelope. He is told his anonymous partner will receive triple that amount and will give some of the money back. Of course, the second partner could just keep all the money.

In Zhong's experiment, the participants played the role of the second partner and were all told their partner had given them the full mount, $4, which was then tripled to $12.

The participants were free to anonymously return some or none of the money.

"What we found was that in the citrus-scented room, people were more likely to engage in good behaviours," Zhong said. "They were more likely to honour the trust that other people displayed."
Real-world questions

Zhong said that it would be interesting to see how the findings would translate to real-world situations.

"Based on the experiments we have conducted and the findings we've found, I think it's reasonable to speculate that people in a real environment, where they can smell these scents that are associated with purity and cleanliness, also may tend to be behave more ethically or socially," he said.

In another paper published prior to Zhong's, researchers found people eating cookies in a citrus scented room were less likely to leave crumbs behind than those in an unscented room.

Zhong said he wanted to take that finding to the next level, to explore the "metaphorical and psychological connections between physical cleanliness and moral purity."

English is full of metaphors relating cleanliness to moral behaviour, from "clean conscience" to "money laundering" to "dirty jokes."

In previous research, Zhong and his colleagues explored the connection between unethical behaviour and physical cleanliness, something Zhong called the Lady Macbeth effect, after the Shakespeare character who obsessively washed her hands because of her role in the murder of the king ("Out, damn spot. Out, I say!").

"We asked people to recall unethical behaviours they have done, like lying to parents or betraying their friends," Zhong said. Another group was asked about their prior ethical acts.

The participants were then asked to rate items on a list of products by how much they wanted them. The participants who were asked about their unethical behaviour were more likely than the other group to rate cleaning products higher than household products that have nothing to do with cleaning, such as CDs.

Zhong said these findings suggest that abstract concepts, such as morality, or even time, are connected to physical experience. We think "back" to the past and look "forward" to the future, for example.

"Human perception or cognition are not as abstract as we typically assume," Zhong said. "We don't simply store information in our brain. Instead, our cognition is much richer than that. For every abstract construct we associate physiological experience."

The metaphorical connections could even transcend language barriers, although Zhong said there hasn't been research to see if the behaviour is consistent across cultures.

"In Chinese, we refer to a pair of dirty hands, for example, to refer to someone who steals."

Got a decision to make? Get some sugar in your system

Got a decision to make? Get some sugar in your system: study

Got a decision to make? Get some sugar in your system: study
January 30, 2010
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If you're about to try to negotiate a pay rise, it might be a good idea to have a sugary drink beforehand, according to a study published this week in Psychological Science.

Researchers at the University of South Dakota asked 65 students to answer a series of questions in which they had to choose between getting a smaller sum of money "tomorrow" or a larger sum in the future.

The study participants responded to half the questions on an empty stomach and the other half after consuming a caffeine-free soda sweetened either with sugar or the artificial sweetener aspartame.

Blood glucose levels were measured at the start of the experiment and after the volunteers drank the soda.

"Within 10 minutes of drinking a sugary soda, participants' interest in a larger, future reward was higher," Xiao-Tian Wang, one of the psychological scientists who led the study, told AFP.

"It's like when you eat: if your blood sugar's high, you can wait longer to eat," Wang said.

"We did the study to see if the blood glucose level not only regulates eating behaviour but also decision-making. In other words, can you wait longer to get a bigger reward when your blood glucose levels are higher?

"We found that, yes, you can," said Wang, who conducted the study with fellow psychological scientist Robert Dvorak.

Not only did having a higher blood sugar level make study participants less likely to act impulsively, but taking a diet drink made people more likely to act on impulse and take the immediate, smaller reward, Wang said.

"Giving someone a diet drink tells the body that there's an 'energy crisis' because you're giving it something that tastes good but it has no calories.

"Your body realizes that and tries to grab everything available right now. So diet soft drinks lead to increased impulsivity," he told AFP.