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The study, "Working memory capacity predicts individual differences in social-distancing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States," assessed the working memory, personality, mood and fluid intelligence of test subjects; the researchers surveyed 850 U.S. residents between March 13 and March 25..."The decision of whether or not to follow social distancing guidelines is a difficult one,...This decision critically relies on our mental capacity in retaining multiple pieces of potentially conflicting information in our head, which is referred to as working memory capacity," study author Weizhen Xie (Zane) told PsyPost.

In a finding that will be bittersweet for Hillary Clinton supporters, a new Pew survey finds that when it comes to honesty, intelligence and a handful of other key traits valued in leaders, the public rates women as superior to men. < > On the policy front, more than 50 percent of respondents said women are better than men at dealing with social issues such as health care and education, while 42 percent said men have an edge over women in the way they deal with crime and public safety. More than 50 percent said men are better than women...

A regular diet of even modest amounts of food containing soy may halve sperm concentrations, suggest scientists. The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, found 41 million fewer sperm per millilitre of semen after just one portion every two days. The authors said plant oestrogens in foods such as tofu, soy mince or milk may interfere with hormonal signals. However, a UK expert stressed that most men in Asia eat more soy-based products with no fertility problems. Oestrogenic compounds in food or the environment have been of concern for a number of years, but we have mostly thought that...

A Stanford scientist has spelled out for the first time the direct links between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increases in human mortality, using a state-of-the-art computer model of the atmosphere that incorporates scores of physical and chemical environmental processes. The new findings come to light just after the Environmental Protection Agency's recent ruling against states setting specific emission standards for this greenhouse gas based in part on the lack of data showing the link between carbon dioxide emissions and their health effects. While it has long been known that carbon dioxide emissions contribute to climate...

Sleeping too much, just like sleeping too little, could increase a person's risk of dying, a new U.K study indicates. Researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School studied 10,308 British civil servants in two different time periods: between 1985 and 1988, and between 1992 and 1993. Study participants who slept longer than eight hours were more than twice as likely to die as those who kept sleeping for seven. Researchers believe depression, low socioeconomic status and cancer-related fatigue could play a part. (CBC) With seven hours seen as the optimal amount of sleep for the average adult, the...

LONDON - The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) has said that young people are unaware of the fact that smoking could lead to blindness. The charity says that if the government were to fund a national campaign, then young people could give up smoking. For evidence, it cites an article in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, which found that the fear of blindness was more of a deterrent than anything else. The study surveyed around 250 clubbers in Winchester, Manchester and Southampton. All responders were aged between 16 to 18 years. On a scale of 5, most rated...

Sport hunting of mountain lions in the American West does not reduce the number of attacks by the animals, also called cougars and pumas, against man and livestock, said a study released on Tuesday "Sport hunting is nothing more than the random shooting of mountain lions for fun, it does not reduce attacks on people or livestock, as far as we can tell from any of the evidence," said Lynn Sadler, president of the Sacramento, California-based Mountain Lion Foundation which initiated the study. "What we would like to see is that states manage them according to science, and not just...

Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones. But late in the article comes this quote from Dr. Frans de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University: "The question," he said, "is whether ugly people have fewer offspring than handsome people. I doubt it very much. If the number of offspring are the same for these two categories, there's absolutely no evolutionary reason for parents to invest less in ugly kids."......this is the where evoltionary argument is going.....

Nevada youths deemed unfit because state doesn't mandate gym classes Accustomed to seeing themselves placed near the bottom in some bureaucrat's ranking of government spending in one category or another, it was probably with a heavy sigh of resignation that many Silver Staters read last week of a study by New York-based Child magazine concluding Nevada's children are some of the least fit in the country -- ranking 48th, behind only Alaska and Nebraska. Karen Cicero, food and nutrition director for the magazine, explained the rankings were compiled by a panel of experts ranging from dieticians to pediatricians. Their conclusion?...