If people know that excessive exposure to UV rays causes cancer, why do they still insist on grilling themselves? Health psychologists would love to know the answer so they could help curb the growing rates of skin cancer. The obvious answer is that people think that tanned skin makes them look more attractive, but this is not the whole story.
Research has suggested that UV rays provide a relaxing effect through an endorphin rush. Building on this, new research asks whether tanning might actually be addictive. In questioning 145 beachgoers in the US, researchers used models only slightly modified from those used to describe substance-related disorders like drug addiction.
The study's authors argue that thinking of tanning as a form of addiction may help to design better ways of discouraging excessive tanning.
ScienceDaily
How to Be Creative
If we can all be creative, why is it so hard to come up with truly original ideas?
It's because creativity is mysterious. Just ask any scientist, artist, writer or other highly creative person to explain how they come up with brilliant ideas and, if they're honest, they don't really know.
But over the decades psychologists have given ordinary participants countless tests, forms and tasks and conducted hundreds of hours of interviews. From these emerge the psychological conditions of creativity.
Not what you should do, but how you should be...
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