Junk mail seems like a relic of another era. Physical ads showing up in your mailbox feel easy to ignore in a world dominated by digital marketing. Yet companies still spend billions sending those mailers every year. Why? Because for certain groups of people, those pieces of mail are surprisingly effective — far more than you might expect. ⁠https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2023-01/RISC-WP-20-009.pdf⁠ (more…)

Memory feels dependable — we rely on it to tell the story of our lives. But the truth is, memory behaves in some surprisingly strange ways. For one thing, your brain forgets far more than it remembers, and that’s not a flaw — it’s actually part of how memory is designed to work. (more…)

When was the last time you sighed? Probably not that long ago. We tend to think of sighing as something we do when we’re frustrated, tired, or relieved. But scientists have discovered that sighing plays a much deeper role in keeping your body functioning properly — and your brain actually has a built-in mechanism that triggers it. ⁠https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-and-stanford-researchers-pinpoint-origin-of-sighing-reflex-in-the-brain⁠
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A simple trip to get your hair cut can instantly make you look years younger — and it may have little to do with the haircut itself. There’s a subtle psychological shift that happens in that moment that changes how people see you… and how you see yourself. ⁠https://www.youbeauty.com/beauty/psychology-of-hair/⁠ (more…)

How you think about getting older might be more powerful than you realize. Scientists have uncovered an unexpected connection between people’s beliefs about aging and what happens to them as the years go by. ⁠https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12150226/⁠ (more…)