New research from the University of Reading sheds light on the complex relationship between time spent alone and mental health. The study, published in Scientific Reports, reveals that solitude has both benefits and costs ...
Dec 6, 2023
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Scientific consensus is building around a clear recommendation: To improve health, we need to think differently about our diet of ultra-processed foods. Rather than focus on calories or macronutrients, consider how the food ...
Nov 29, 2023
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Do primary school children influence the snack purchases of their peers? A study by the University of Bonn reveals that they do indeed. In the presence of friends or classmates, kids are more likely to choose the unhealthier, ...
Nov 28, 2023
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Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday eating season, when everyone is constantly tempted by sweet treats, rich foods and fancy, high-calorie drinks.
Nov 24, 2023
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Making decisions is hard. Our choice often leaves something else on the table even when we know what we want. For a hungry mouse, every morsel counts. But what if the decision is more consequential than choosing between crumbs ...
Nov 8, 2023
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Neuroscientists have uncovered a key brain area in rats that encodes the value of economic choices when faced with the uncertainty of a lottery. This is the first time the causal role of frontal and parietal cortex has been ...
Oct 19, 2023
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A new study from University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers highlights the impact of food security on college students' health and well-being.
Oct 17, 2023
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You are what you eat, according to the adage. But it's not just the body that's impacted. According to research from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, living in a disadvantaged neighborhood can affect food choices, weight ...
Sep 15, 2023
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Many of us know all too well the addictive nature of many foods marketed in the United States—most call it "junk food." In fact, this kind of salty, sweet and high-fat fare makes up the lion's share of what's marketed to ...
Sep 8, 2023
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In 2020, more than four in ten people in the United States had obesity, an increase from three in ten people in the year 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To better understand eating behaviors ...
Sep 1, 2023
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Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between imagined options ("what would I do if ...?"), often a choice is made between real options, and followed by the corresponding action. For example, a route for a journey is chosen based on the preference of arriving at a given destination as soon as possible. The preferred (and therefore chosen) route is then derived from information about how long each of the possible routes take. This can be done by a route planner. If the preference is more complex, such as involving the scenery of the route, cognition and feeling are more intertwined, and the choice is less easy to delegate to a computer program or assistant.
More complex examples (often decisions that affect what a person thinks or their core beliefs) include choosing a lifestyle, religious affiliation, or political position.
Most people regard having choices as a good thing, though a severely limited or artificially restricted choice can lead to discomfort with choosing and possibly, an unsatisfactory outcome. In contrast, unlimited choice may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads necessarily to control of that object or course can cause psychological problems.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
