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important question. Should the medical community communicate these findings to patients with insomnia who inquire about medical cannabis? Some health professionals may not feel comfortable due to the fluctuating legal status, a lack of confidence in the state of the science or their personal opinions.

The ConversationAt this point, cannabis's effect on sleep seems highly variable, depending on the person, the timing of use, the cannabis type and concentration, mode of ingestion and other factors. Perhaps the future will yield more fruitful discoveries.

Believing others have more friends could make you unhappy

 by Ana Sandoiu

 

When we move to a new environment - be it a new job, new school, or new neighborhood - we tend to think that our peers have more friends than we do. But what impact does this belief have on our happiness? Research investigates.
It is known that loneliness and social isolation are not good for one's health and well-being.

In fact, recent studies have reported that social isolation threatens our immune system and cardiovascular health, being responsible for more premature deaths than obesity.

But could the mere thought that we are alone make us unhappy?

Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada - in collaboration with scientists at Harvard Business School and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, MA - set out to investigate the impact of simply believing that one has fewer friends than their peers on one's overall well-being.

The team was led by Frances Chen, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at UBC, and the researchers conducted two studies to investigate this social belief.

Their findings were published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

 

Examining social misperceptions
In the first study, Prof. Chen and colleagues surveyed a group of 1,099 first-year students at UBC, asking them how many close friends they had made and to approximate how many close friends they thought that their peers had made since the beginning of the academic year.

"Close friends" were defined as friends in whom the students felt comfortable confiding their problems, and these were distinguished from "social acquaintances."

The survey revealed that most of the students believed that their peers had made more friends than they had. In fact, 48 percent of the respondents were convinced that this was true, while 31 percent thought the opposite.

In the second study, the researchers tried to see whether or not this belief would be as prevalent over time, examining its positive and negative implications.

The team followed 389 first-year university students and asked them to complete the surveys at two time points, with 4 to 5 months between them.

The surveys inquired about the participants' well-being and sense of belonging. The former was assessed using the Satisfaction With Life Scale, as well as the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, while the latter was examined using the Revised Social Connectedness Scale.

Additionally, the researchers looked at the time that students spent socializing, and the time it took them to form friendships.

Beliefs about peers' friends lower well-being
"[At] any given time," the study found, "students who believed that their peers were more socially connected reported lower well-being and belonging."

But over time, those who thought that their peers were "moderately more socially connected" at the beginning of the year were also more likely to make more friends than those who thought that their peers were much more socially connected.

This is what first study author Ashley Whillans, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, makes of the findings.

"We think students are motivated to make more friends if they think their peers only have one or two more friends than they do," she says. "But if they feel like the gap is too big, it's almost as if they give up and feel it isn't even worth trying."

"We know the size of your social networks has a significant effect on happiness and well-being [...] But our research shows that even mere beliefs you have about your peers' social networks has an impact on your happiness."
Prof. Ashley Whillans
Prof. Chen explains what might be driving these social misperceptions, saying, "Since social activities, like eating or studying with others, tend to happen in cafes and libraries where they are easily seen, students might overestimate how much their peers are socializing because they don't see them eating and studying alone."

Further studies, the authors think, should investigate other possible mechanisms. For example, it could be that people tend to disproportionately discuss their social activities, but not their solitary ones.

Future research should also examine whether or not the same findings would apply outside of the university - that is, to people changing jobs or moving to another city.

"These feelings and perceptions are probably the strongest when people first enter a new social environment, but most of us probably experience them at some point in our lives," Prof. Chen concludes.

 

Does music make men more attractive?

 By Maria Cohut

 

 

A new study by researchers from Austria suggests that listening to music may "prompt" women to find male faces more attractive.
In the 1871 book The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin tried to get to the bottom of the question, "Why is music so important in our human society?" He suggested that humans may have invented music to serve a reproductive aim.

Darwin implied that the fact that a person engages with music - be it to compose it or play it - may be a subtle indicator of cognitive as well as physical abilities. Since these are all abilities desirable in a partner, he thought that music may act as a signpost for biologically attractive characteristics.

Darwin's ideas were never proven true, but now, researchers from the University of Vienna and the University of Innsbruck, both in Austria, have decided to build on this hypothesis and test whether it - and how much of it - could actually be rooted in psychosocial and biological mechanisms.

The study - led by Dr. Manuela Marin, from the University of Vienna - set out to test whether or not women and men find potential partners more attractive "under the influence" of music.

The researchers' findings were published online in the journal PLOS ONE.

'Arousal transfer' noted in women
"Facial attractiveness is one of the most important physical characteristics that can influence the choice of a partner," explains study co-author Prof. Helmut Leder, from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna. "We wanted to find out how music can alter the perception of this feature."

The fact that music has a strong social element to it, the team says, makes it likely that listening to it could have an impact on how we see other people's faces and how we therefore perceive their attractiveness.

"There is some evidence in the psychological literature that so-called arousal transfer effects can occur if two stimuli are processed consecutively. The processing of the first stimulus produces internal arousal, [...] which is then attributed to the second stimulus. This mostly unconscious mechanism can then influence our actions, in this case, the choice of a partner."
Dr. Manuela Marin
The team worked with 96 heterosexual participants of both sexes, comprising 64 women and 32 men. The women were split into two distinct groups depending on whether or not they were at a fertile stage in their menstrual cycle. Both the men and the women had similar tastes in music, similar musical training, and the same relationship status.

 

All the participants were exposed to various fragments of instrumental music of different emotional intensities. Following exposure to music, the women were shown photos of male faces set in a neutral expression, and vice versa.

They were instructed to assess the attractiveness of the photographed faces on a seven-point scale, where 1 meant "very attractive," 4 was neutral, and 7 meant "very non-attractive."

For consistency, the results were compared with the outcomes of a control group, in which the men and women were shown photographs of members of the opposite sex but were not exposed to music.

The researchers noted that the women who had listened to music tended to rate male faces as more attractive and were more likely to say that they would consider dating them. The results were largely the same for all women, regardless of their fertility status at that point.

Men, however, did not exhibit any significant change in their perception of faces after having been exposed to music. It was also found that the more complex and emotionally stimulating music had the greatest influence on the participants.

Following this experiment, the researchers are interested in finding out whether they would be able to replicate the results in larger cohorts. They would also like to try to understand just how much influence music could have on perception when it comes to selecting a mate.

"Our goal is to replicate these results in a larger sample and to modify some aspects of the experiment," says study co-author Dr. Bruno Gingras, from the University of Innsbruck.

"For example," he continues, "we would like to clarify whether musical abilities and creativity can compensate partially for deficiencies in terms of physical appearance and fitness."

Med students aren’t learning enough about marijuana

 by Jim Dryden-WUSTL

 

 

New research suggests that medical students aren’t learning enough about the risks and benefits of medical marijuana, despite 29 states and the District of Columbia allowing marijuana use for medical purposes.

Researchers surveyed medical school deans, residents, and fellows, and examined a curriculum database maintained by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), learning that medical education is not addressing medical marijuana.

Hear researcher Anastasia B. Evanoff discuss the research:

 

 

“Medical education needs to catch up to marijuana legislation,” says senior author Laura Jean Bierut, the professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse. “Physicians in training need to know the benefits and drawbacks associated with medical marijuana so they know when or if, and to whom, to prescribe the drug.”

Doctors are being asked to