Evolved to cut and run?

Published: September 26, 2007, 11:11 am

Comes a new scientific paper in the journal Psychological Science. A couple of Canadian researchers followed 90 teenage girls for a year. Measured their ability to "disengage' when confronted by a particularly tough task. Then measured something called C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation found in the blood. High CRP is tied to all kinds of unpleasant health effects over time. The researchers conclude: We have shown that the inability to disengage from goals in such situations has downstream biological consequences in the form of systemic inflammation. This effect was fairly large. The rate of CRP increase was twice as rapid among women with poor disengagement tendencies as it was among women at the sample average. And then they come up with a title for their paper that, I suspect, was part of what drove 'em to do the research. After all, how often can you get Kenny Rogers into a peer reviewed journal: You've Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em:Goal Disengagement

[ Full article ]

Blog link

Rating: 0

Comments