Psychology

"The MORE [Virginia Tech students] can talk about what they've lived through, the more that they can be encouraged to emote . . . that gives them some security and insulation against burying those feelings and then having them surprise them later in life."

Social isolation is often described as "cold and lonely" -- but does it actually feel cold? New research this week says the answer is yes. Just thinking about rejection can make a person perceive a room as chillier, according to a report in the journal Psychological Science. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto, also found that people who felt isolated preferred warm drinks over cold ones -- presumably to make themselves feel better.

AROMATHERAPY -- the use of plant oils to improve well-being -- sounds lovely, doesn't it? How wonderful if a whiff of lavender could make you feel drowsy, or a little dab of rosemary oil could relieve muscle pain. There's certainly a plausible biological basis for the idea that scents can have a direct effect on the body. On the yucky side, for instance, nothing makes me nauseated more quickly than the odor of those "air fresheners" that taxi drivers hang in their cabs.

CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that taller men make more money, get more dates and are more likely to win a presidential election. Shorter women aren't taken seriously, and boys and girls both suffer psychologically well into adulthood if they've grown up the shortest in their class. Right? Well, maybe ... or maybe not. What people thought they knew about the height advantage doesn't always hold up to the cold eye of psychological and sociological research.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but other people's opinions matter too. Psychologist Ben Jones, of the University of Aberdeen, and his team gave women a test in which they had to choose the more attractive of pairs of male faces and to rate how much more handsome they found them. They were then shown a short video in which the same faces were displayed. But each face was being looked at by a woman smiling or one showing a bored or neutral expression.

How are those New Year's resolutions shaping up? Several weeks into 2007, many a pledge to lose weight, get in shape and cut out junk food -- among the most popular and short-lived goals -- may now be faltering or well and truly faltered. The repeated frustration of not maintaining resolutions can lead to an abandonment of all efforts, thereby eliminating the enthusiasm you had Jan. 1. And that's not the right way to effectively move forward.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can easily put off a lot longer than that. Not, perhaps, the wisest words to live by. But they worked out well for Piers Steel. The University of Calgary psychology professor spent 10 years studying procrastination before he finally got around to publishing his findings in this month's Psychological Bulletin. ("I had to read a lot of papers," he says.) Steel was on a mission.

MY first attempt at a complaint-free life lasted 15 minutes. Dropping the kids at school five days after a blizzard, I found the parking lot impassible and the sidewalks treacherous. "This place is a disaster!" I called to the principal. And instantly regretted it. Why harp on a situation no one could control? I should have thanked the principal for standing in the cold to make sure his students got in safely -- or brightened his day with a cheery hello.

Lonely people may have a greater risk of developing late-life dementia, researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago reported this week. The study of 823 people older than 80 found that those who described themselves as lonely were twice as likely to develop the kind of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies have suggested that people who are socially isolated or lack intellectual stimulation are at greater risk for Alzheimer's.

Researchers who wanted to find out why it is not only taboo to kiss your sister, but also disgusting, said last week they have discovered why in a find that challenges some basic tenets of Freudian theory. The instinct evolved naturally and cannot be taught, John Tooby and Leda Cosmides of UC Santa Barbara wrote in their report in the journal Nature. They tested 600 volunteers, asking them all sorts of questions jumbled together so they would not know what was being studied.