new scientist kan sånt du redan visste men behövde bakgrundsfakta till

new scientist är som bekant en kär källa med trivsamt laboratoriemys. man kan bland annat få en snabbkurs i de senaste studierna om:

• att förälskelser inte är mer än en bit choklad eller ett släng av good old OCD / tvångssyndrom:

"When you first fall in love, you are not experiencing an emotion, but a motivation or drive, new brain scanning studies have shown. The early stages of a romantic relationship spark activity in dopamine-rich brain regions associated with motivation and reward. The more intense the relationship is, the greater the activity. The regions associated with emotion, such as the insular cortex and parts of the anterior cingulate cortex, are not activated until the more mature phases of a relationship, says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist from Rutgers University in New Jersey."

• varför killars aktier hos andra tjejer går upp när de är ihop med en ball tjej (aka cant buy me love-lagen):

"Such “mate choice copying” can pay off. If it is difficult to choose the best mating material, or takes a lot of time and energy, it makes sense to go with what works for the other girls.(...) Ben Jones at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and colleagues, showed 28 men and 28 women pairs of male faces and asked them to rate their attractiveness. The photos had been already been rated by 40 women as of about equal attractiveness.(...) Women found the men who were being smiled at suddenly more attractive, while men who apparently elicited no such smiling approval were pronounced less attractive."