It’s that time again – the blog post where we get our weird and wonderful (but evidence-based) geek on. Did you know any of these funky facts?
- Stress can be a good thing. According to the Yerkes-Dodson law there’s an empirical relationship between performance and arousal. This means there’s an optimal level of stress related to increased achievement in say, your exams or with a work project. However, if stress levels increase beyond this point, performance declines.
- It’s not just a saying that you can smell fear. Unconsciously, your snozzle can pick up on pheromones in people’s sweat when they’re scared.
- There’s no such thing as multi-tasking – you’re actually rapidly switching your attention between tasks rather than focusing on multiple activities at the same time.
- There are no reported cases of anyone born blind being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Researchers believe changes in the brain secondary to congenital blindness protect against schizophrenia rather than the blindness itself.
- Feeling rejected causes similar chemical changes in the brain to physical injury. No wonder getting turned down hurts so much!