Do Men Fall in Love More Easily?
Some survey measures suggest that men do fall in love more easily than women, with more men falling in love “at first sight.” Confirming the suspicion of many, this seemed to occur more readily if the men found the women particularly good-looking. For women, “sex drive positively predicted the frequency of falling in love,” found the survey. “However, this association was not found in men.” (Dan Vergano, Science Fair, USA Today)

Scientists Develop Robots That Evolve Complex Behaviors (Like Cooperation)
The Swiss scientists placed within the robot’s operating system both basic instructions and some random variations that changed every generation in virtual mutations. After each trial, the code for the more successful robots got passed on to the next generation, while the code for the less successful robots got bred out. (Stuart Fox, Popular Science)

How the Body Processes Abstract Information—Literally
One study showed that participants who were asked to dwell on a personal moral transgression like adultery or cheating on a test were more likely to request an antiseptic cloth afterward than were those who had been instructed to recall a good deed they had done. (Natalie Angier, The New York Times)

Cognitive Fluency
One of the hottest topics in psychology today is something called “cognitive fluency.” Cognitive fluency is simply a measure of how easy it is to think about something, and it turns out that people prefer things that are easy to think about to those that are hard. (Drake Bennett, The Boston Globe)

Pursuing “Optimal Illusions,” Pt. 2
Let science win the reality prize. All told, even with its fumbles, it does a better job of figuring out what is. Let religion and all other manner of revelation and wishful thinking win the comfort prize. Then let’s transition the science-religion debate into shop talk about how to divide duties between illusion and accuracy, faith and reason, hope and honesty, romanticism and skepticism. (Jeremy Sherman, Ambigamy, Psychology Today)

BOOKS
Generosity
As the fictional scientist in Richard Powers’ ambitious new novel about happiness argues, the “negative feedback loops and illusory come-ons” of modern human brain chemistry are nothing more than an evolutionary hangover. Depression and anxiety are no longer necessary. “Now that we’re somewhat safe,” he says, “it’s time to free the subjugated populace and show what the race can do, armed with sustainable satisfaction at last.” (Helen Brown, Telegraph)