PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mind vs. body? Dualist beliefs linked with less concern for healthy behaviors

2012-07-26
(Press-News.org) Many people, whether they know it or not, are philosophical dualists. That is, they believe that the brain and the mind are two separate entities. Despite the fact dualist beliefs are found in virtually all human cultures, surprisingly little is known about the impact of these beliefs on how we think and behave in everyday life.

But a new research article forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that espousing a dualist philosophy can have important real-life consequences.

Across five related studies, researchers Matthias Forstmann, Pascal Burgmer, and Thomas Mussweiler of the University of Cologne, Germany, found that people primed with dualist beliefs had more reckless attitudes toward health and exercise, and also preferred (and ate) a less healthy diet than those who were primed with physicalist beliefs.

Furthermore, they found that the relationship also worked in the other direction. People who were primed with unhealthy behaviors – such as pictures of unhealthy food – reported a stronger dualistic belief than participants who were primed with healthy behaviors.

Overall, the findings from the five studies provide converging evidence demonstrating that mind-body dualism has a noticeable impact on people's health-related attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, these findings suggest that dualistic beliefs decrease the likelihood of engaging in healthy behavior.

These findings support the researchers' original hypothesis that the more people perceive their minds and bodies to be distinct entities, the less likely they will be to engage in behaviors that protect their bodies. Bodies are ultimately viewed as a disposable vessel that helps the mind interact with the physical world.

Evidence of a bidirectional relationship further suggests that metaphysical beliefs, such as beliefs in mind-body dualism, may serve as cognitive tools for coping with threatening or harmful situations.

The fact that the simple priming procedures used in the studies had an immediate impact on health-related attitudes and behavior suggests that these procedures may eventually have profound implications for real-life problems. Interventions that reduce dualistic beliefs through priming could be one way to help promote healthier – or less self-damaging – behaviors in at-risk populations.

###For more information about this study, please contact: Matthias Forstmann at matthias.forstmann@uni-koeln.de.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article ""The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak": The effects of mind-body dualism on health behavior" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Public strongly supports programs helping farmers adapt to climate change

2012-07-26
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A survey conducted by Michigan State University reveals strong public support for government programs to assist farmers to adapt to climate change. According to NASA research, global temperatures have been rising for decades, and it's affecting all aspects of agriculture. Regardless of what those surveyed believe causes climate change, more than 65 percent of them support government assistance for farmers, said Scott Loveridge, MSU professor of agricultural, food and resource economics. This year has been a particularly harsh example. This summer's ...

NASA and university researchers find a clue to how life turned left

2012-07-26
GREENBELT, Md. -- Researchers analyzing meteorite fragments that fell on a frozen lake in Canada have developed an explanation for the origin of life's handedness – why living things only use molecules with specific orientations. The work also gave the strongest evidence to date that liquid water inside an asteroid leads to a strong preference of left-handed over right-handed forms of some common protein amino acids in meteorites. The result makes the search for extraterrestrial life more challenging. "Our analysis of the amino acids in meteorite fragments from Tagish ...

Women with diabetes more likely to experience sexual dissatisfaction

2012-07-26
Women with diabetes are just as likely to be interested in, and engage in, sexual activity as non-diabetic women, but they are much more likely to report low overall sexual satisfaction, according to a UCSF study. The researchers also found that diabetic women receiving insulin treatment were at higher risk for the specific complications of lubrication and orgasm. "Diabetes is a recognized risk factor for erectile dysfunction in men, but there have been almost no data to indicate whether it also affects sexual function in women," said senior author Alison J. Huang, ...

How the fluid between cells affects tumors

How the fluid between cells affects tumors
2012-07-26
July 25, 2012 There are many factors that affect tumor invasion, the process where a tumor grows beyond the tissue where it first developed. While factors like genetics, tissue type and environmental exposure affect tumor metastasis and invasion, physical forces like fluid flow remain a poorly understood component of tumor invasion. A new video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, describes a novel procedure that allows researchers to study and test the microenvironment of a growing tumor. The technique is valuable because it allows scientists to assay ...

Piglets in mazes provide insights into human cognitive development

2012-07-26
URBANA -- Events that take place early in life almost certainly have consequences for later cognitive development. Establishing the connections is difficult, however, because human infants cannot be used as laboratory subjects. Rodney Johnson and his collaborators have developed an alternative model for studying infant brain development. "Assistant professor Ryan Dilger and I became interested in establishing the neonatal piglet as a model of human brain and cognitive development 3 or 4 years ago," he said. The idea came to Johnson when a former student, who was working ...

Texas A&M biologists prove ZOLOFT packs potential to fight fungal meningitis

2012-07-26
New research conducted by biologists at Texas A&M University suggests that ZOLOFT®, one of the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the world, also packs a potential preventative bonus — potent mechanisms capable of inhibiting deadly fungal infections. The findings are the result of a two-year investigation by Xiaorong Lin, assistant professor of biology, and Matthew S. Sachs, professor of biology, involving sertraline hydrocholoride (ZOLOFT) and its effects on Cryptococcus neoformans, the major causative agent of fungal meningitis — specifically, cryptococcal meningitis, ...

Increasing dopamine in brain's frontal cortex decreases impulsive tendency, UCSF-Gallo study finds

2012-07-26
Raising levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the frontal cortex of the brain significantly decreased impulsivity in healthy adults, in a study conducted by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. "Impulsivity is a risk factor for addiction to many substances, and it has been suggested that people with lower dopamine levels in the frontal cortex tend to be more impulsive," said lead author Andrew Kayser, PhD, an investigator at Gallo and an assistant professor of neurology at UCSF. "We wanted to ...

Tropical arks reach tipping point

Tropical arks reach tipping point
2012-07-26
Almost half of the tropical forest reserves in a new study are ineffective, according to results published in the journal Nature by William Laurance, research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute now at James Cook University in Australia and more than 200 co-authors. "Biodiversity is declining rapidly at reserves including Kahuzi Biega in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Xishuangbanna in southern China, and Northern Sierra Madre in the Philippines, among others," said Laurance. "Reserves that are doing relatively well include Bwindi Impenetrable N.P. ...

Researchers find new gene mutation associated with congenital myopathy

2012-07-26
Ann Arbor, Mich. — University of Michigan researchers have discovered a new cause of congenital myopathy: a mutation in a previously uncharacterized gene, according to research published this month in the American Journal of Human Genetics. About 50% of congenital myopathy cases currently do not have a known genetic basis, presenting a clear barrier to understanding disease and developing therapy, says James Dowling, M.D., Ph.D., the paper's co-senior author and assistant professor of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Finding ...

Basal cell carcinoma risk can be chronic

Basal cell carcinoma risk can be chronic
2012-07-26
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In the powerful sunlight of July, newly published results from a large study of people at high risk for basal cell carcinoma support the emerging view of the nation's most common cancer as a chronic ailment that often repeatedly afflicts older people but for which the seeds may be planted in youth. The research also found a new association with eczema. "Basal cell carcinoma is a chronic disease once people have had multiple instances of it, because they are always at risk of getting more," said Dr. Martin Weinstock, professor of dermatology ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Public take the lead in discovery of new exploding star

What are they vaping? Study reveals alarming surge in adolescent vaping of THC, CBD, and synthetic cannabinoids

ECMWF - delivering forecasts over 10 times faster and cutting energy usage by 1000

Brazilian neuroscientist reveals how viral infections transform the brain through microscopic detective work

Turning social fragmentation into action through discovering relatedness

Cheese may really be giving you nightmares, scientists find

Study reveals most common medical emergencies in schools

Breathable yet protective: Next-gen medical textiles with micro/nano networks

Frequency-engineered MXene supercapacitors enable efficient pulse charging in TENG–SC hybrid systems

Developed an AI-based classification system for facial pigmented lesions

Achieving 20% efficiency in halogen-free organic solar cells via isomeric additive-mediated sequential processing

New book Terraglossia reclaims language, Country and culture

The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet

Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy

Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab

Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy

Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue

[Press-News.org] Mind vs. body? Dualist beliefs linked with less concern for healthy behaviors