Posts tagged: psychology

The Magic of Reading

Reading is normally regarded as a relaxing pastime or a characteristic of a stereotypically smart person. But according to actual MRI scans, reading has amazing effects on your overall mental and physical well-being.
When we read, parts of our brain “light up”. The more “lighting up” our brain does, the more we are working on it. The more we read, the more our brain develops, becoming better at its job and working more smoothly. And just like physical activity, more strenuous activity works your brain more.
Reading doesn’t only make you smarter! Daily reading can help your mental and physical health in the long run. Continuous brain exercise can prevent mental decline, depression, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. According to a study by Rush University Medical Center, “People who’ve engaged in mentally stimulating activities all their lives were less likely to develop the plaques, lesions, and tau-protein tangles found in the brains of people with dementia.” (Rebecca Joy Stanborough)
Along with this, there is proof that reading can help you live longer. In a study centered around seniors, they found that those who read lived 2 years longer than those who didn’t or spent more time-consuming other forms of media. Next time you feel like picking up your phone or turning on the TV, try picking up a book!
Have you noticed that the last thing you do every day before bed is scrolled on your phone? This habit is detrimental to our health due to the constant exposure to bright lights. Replacing phones with reading can also help relaxing before sleep in ways that phones can’t. Just 30 minutes of reading can lower “blood pressure, heart rate, and feelings of psychological distress” (Stanborough).

How Can Reading Affect Your Day-to-Day Life?

Reading consistently can have effects on your everyday life too. For example, you may notice that reading more exposes you to more vocabulary. Reading more books can help you articulate yourself better, in formal conversations and writing.
Stress reduction is one of the most known benefits of reading. It can be a way to escape from all the chaos of life and into a more still, tranquil world. Reading can also help students with high-stress levels. A few minutes of reading per day can be snuck into a busy schedule, and depending on what genre or subject you are reading, the topics discussed in a book can bring tranquility to your life.
While we read, we’re transported into a whole new world, and we don’t even notice how much our brains work! There are new places, names, and plots you have to keep in mind. All this new information helps your brain work your memory, and it quickly helps you remember details in your real life.

Conclusion

Reading has so many benefits, both short-term and long-term! So next time you feel like picking up your phone or turning on the TV, try picking up a book!

References:

• https://www.crawshawacademy.org.uk/seecmsfile/?id=165
• https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-reading-books
• Cover image: Koshevaya_k on Pexels.com

Pressing Play

We’ve all done it before: rewatching “Friends” for the hundredth time or playing a movie you’ve already seen because you don’t know what else to watch. Well, there’s a deeper scientific reason than not knowing what to watch. 

Emotional Fulfillment

Sometimes, we rewatch movies or shows for emotional fulfillment. For example, you might rewatch a comedy because you know it makes you laugh. Knowing how the story unfolds, the happy and sad parts, and how it ends. Knowing how a story ends gives us a sense of comfort and closure. We might rewatch a movie to find hidden clues we missed before or to fill in gaps in the story. We might also watch a movie for nostalgia. Rewatching something we used to watch gives us the bittersweet feeling of a blast to the past. 

Effortless Enjoyment

Humans naturally prefer activities that don’t demand much effort- watching something new means dealing with new characters, stories, and settings. But when we rewatch something familiar, our brains can relax and enjoy the show better. It’s easier to retain information – a concept called perceptual fluency. Rewatching a movie or show helps us notice small details we might have previously missed.

These days, we’re flooded with options for media, shows, and movies. With such an overwhelming amount of choices, it’s easier to watch something we know instead of watching something we may or may not like. It takes less brain power to settle on something we already know instead of going through the exhausting task of browsing through endless options.

The Mere Exposure Effect

The Mere Exposure Effect is when people tend to develop a liking or dislike for things merely because they are familiar with them. For example, have you ever hated a song on the radio, upset that they kept playing that song, but after a while, started humming along and eventually started singing along to all the lyrics? This is the same for movies and TV shows: watching it over and over again deepens our appreciation for it. 

This phenomenon affects our ability to make decisions. Instead of using logic to pick a movie or show, we choose something familiar to us. We do this because decisions make us unsure, so when we see an option we know everything about, we’ll inevitably choose that one. We may naturally view new things as threats, and watching a show repeatedly increases our confidence.

References

Mere exposure effect – the Decision Lab. (n.d.). The Decision Lab. https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/mere-exposure-effect 

Avlonitis, K. (2023, March 2). Why We Can’t Stop Rewatching Movies and TV Shows: A Psychological Exploration. Medium. https://medium.com/@bananofloydas/why-we-cant-stop-rewatching-movies-and-tv-shows-a-psychological-exploration-7f3a90ea3be5

Jean-Pierre, T. (2021, December 29). The problem with having too many choices | Medium. Medium. https://tavianjp.medium.com/the-problem-with-having-too-many-choices-49ae23aff1b4

N. Kraft, R., Ph. D. (2022, December 22). Play and Repeat: Why We Watch the Same Shows Over and Over. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/defining-memories/202212/play-and-repeat-why-we-watch-the-same-shows-over-and-overNickerson, C. (2023, October 10). Mere Exposure Effect in Psychology: Biases & Heuristics. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/mere-exposure-effect.html