Making important decisions in the dark can be stressful. But a recent study suggests that shining a light on decisions can make decision makers even more anxious. The question remains: Is this anxiety a good thing or a bad …. (Read the rest and view comments at Critical Decisions)
Religious belief has many health benefits. For some people, religious belief reduces existential angst, the reduction in stress leading to lower blood pressure and a stronger immune system. For others, religious belief gives their lives purpose, that purpose motivating them in ways that improve their health. And of course, sometimes religious belief is associated with…
Listen to this interview I conducted with a radio station in Australia. Good Q&A about Critical Decisions. Toughest part of the interview was remembering that although it was 4:30 in the afternoon my time, it was 6:30 the next morning for the Aussies!
What makes people happy? A load of studies tell us that human interaction is key to our happiness. But what kind of interactions matter? And does interaction increase everyone’s happiness, or is it something primarily beneficial to extraverts? A fantastic study set out to answer these questions. In the study, researchers audio-recorded random times in people’s daily lives, and…
I want to share a wonderful blog post with you, written by one of “my” students, Laura Mortimer – a student in the Masters in Public Policy program at the Sanford School at Duke, who also happens to be a talented writer. In linking to her post, and then calling her my student, I of course…
My 14-year-old son Jordan did not make the JV basketball team in his high school. Not very surprising really. There is no freshmen basketball team at his school and only six freshmen made the JV, out of a class of more than 400 students. Six freshmen who were all taller and better basketball players than my…
In the old days, blockbuster drugs were moderately expensive pills taken by hundreds of thousands of patients. Think blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes pills. But today, many blockbusters are designed to target much less common diseases, illnesses like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis or even specific subcategories of cancer. These medications have become blockbusters not…