Forget Comfort Food: We Shun It in Turmoil

Organic food lovers feel too good about themselves: study

(NEWSER) - Ever encountered a snotty attitude at an organic food stand? It makes sense psychologically, according to a new study that analyzed how people reacted after looking at different kinds of foods, MSNBC reports. "There's something about being exposed to organic food that made them feel better about themselves," says study author Kendall Eskine. "And that made them kind of jerks a little bit, I guess." More»

And finds that daydreaming is tied to bad moods

(NEWSER) - Turns out the all-powerful iPhone can also moonlight as your personal therapist, by way of the "Track Your Happiness" app. The app pings users at random times during the day, asking how they're feeling and what they're doing. Researchers looked at the responses of 2,250 adults and found a link between daydreaming and unhappiness: Responders said they were daydreaming almost 47% of the time, and the daydreamers were more likely to say they felt down in the dumps, Mashable reports. More»

(NEWSER) - If Marie Antoinette really said "Let them eat cake," she probably knew the French wouldn't bite. Along with the British and other Europeans, the French have developed genetic variants that make them more sensitive to sweetness in food, a new study says. Africans, on the other hand, need more sugar to wake up their taste buds. As DNA researchers often say, the difference may come down to survival. More»

(NEWSER) - Superstitions and conspiracy theories all boil down to control issues, a new study says. When subjects in a University of Texas test were made to feel out of control, they saw more patterns that did not exist—whether images in a fuzzy picture or links between unconnected actions. Which is why people like investors and baseball pitchers, who rely on things outside their control, are often superstitious, NPR reports. More»

Talking about ourselves stimulates the brain

(NEWSER) - In the era of Facebook and Twitter, it's clear we love talking about ourselves—indeed, the topic makes up 40% of our everyday conversation. Now scientists can explain why: Doing so stimulates the brain the same way sex, food, and cash do. Researchers scanned subjects' brains and found that parts linked to those pleasures lit up when subjects chatted about themselves. More»