Random links

(Mis)imagining the good life and the bad life: Envy and pity as a function of the focusing illusion
"“focusing illusion” suggests these impressions of others are incomplete: we may overweight extreme features (the exceptionally good circumstances of envied others and exceptionally bad circumstances of pitied others) at the cost of overlooking the smaller ups and downs of daily life, which inevitably dilute the other person's overall experience. If so, envy and pity could involve misperceiving that envied others have lives that are uniformly wonderful (overlooking that they still face smaller annoyances) and pitied others have lives that are uniformly awful (overlooking that they still enjoy smaller pleasures)."
The Case for Letting Fevers Run Their Course
"Numerous studies over the past few years have shown that taking fever reducers hurts your body’s ability to recover from an illness."
Policies believed to stabilize the financial system may actually do the opposite, study finds
"The problem arises because these policies typically focus on the stability of individual banks—but due to the complex nature of networks, what's good for individual banks may not be good for the banking system as a whole."