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I hate being vulnerable .  It makes me feel weak and unprotected and just about all the things I hate about myself. But a new study says being vulnerable at work may signal strength, according to newswise.com. Because vulnerability equals courage when you take a risk, or try something new, and that's one of the ways that leads to success. James R. Detert, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and workplace researcher, defines workplace courage as simply “ acts, related to one’s work, that are done for a worthy cause/reason, despite perceived risks, threats or obstacles to the self .” Those risks can be economic/professional (e.g., lost job or opportunity for advancement), social (e.g., damaged reputation or relationships), psychological (e.g., shattered confidence) or physical (e.g., violence encountered from employees or customers). You might learn, for example, that it’s seen to reflect a “great amount” of courage in your organization to “speak up t

I've always worried about the people swiping their smart phones at check-out to pay for merchandise.  Aren't they worried someone could pick up their banking information? Now a new study says your smart watch may give away your ATM info. Wearable devices can give away your passwords, according to new research, newswise.com reports. “Wearable devices can be exploited,” says study co-author Yan Wang, assistant professor of computer science within the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University. “Attackers can reproduce the trajectories of the user’s hand then recover secret key entries to ATM cash machines, electronic door locks and keypad-controlled enterprise servers.” Researchers conducted 5,000 key-entry tests on three key-based security systems, including an ATM, with 20 adults wearing a variety of technologies over 11 months. The team was able to record millimeter-level information of fine-grained hand movements from a

I've always been a risk-taker. Well, if you consider someone who jogs in the snow when she's broken her wrist and nose (3 times) doing it, that is. Maybe just stupid! Anyway, a new study has found that once a risk-taker, always a risk-taker.  People who are risk-takers in their youth also tend to take relatively more risks than their peers as they age, according to an analysis of more than 44,000 German citizens, newswise.com reports. “The data suggests risk-taking is similar to a personality trait in that it remains relatively stable throughout most of adulthood,” says Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin, assistant professor of psychology and a co-author of the paper appearing in the   Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . The results show that individuals’ level of risk-taking remains stable over time, relative to their peers. The results suggest that a person who went bungee jumping in their 20s may be more likely than their more risk-averse peers to, say, ride m

Admit it. When you've had a bad day, don't you want to go on Facebook and see that your work friend's car slid off the driveway in the ice storm and smashed into a tree?  Or your college pal's getting a divorce?  Or the neighbor who never waves back has her windows shaving-creamed on Halloween. OK, so maybe you have friends like I do, who only post wedding anniversaries in the Caribbean (we had our 20th at Kozi's) or children who get 1600s on their SATs.  But a new study says, if you're in a bad mood, chances are your best bet is to head to Facebook and find someone else who's worse off, according to newswise.com. When people are in a bad mood, they are more likely to actively search social networking sites like Facebook to find friends who are doing even worse than they are, the study suggests. Researchers found that, in general, people use social media to connect with people who are posting positive and success-oriented updates. “But when

Once again I'm grateful I have a son.  A new study talks about how men and women compete differently (big duh), but what jumped out at me was how the ways women do it hit at what exactly makes you, you, and in that way, is more vicious and destructive. "Threats and fear of isolation are powerful weapons in situations involving competition or aggression. Girls and women who fail to modify their behavior to fit the norm face social exclusion and loss of friendships rather than physical violence," medicalnewstoday.com reports. Look at the girls committing suicide because of bullying, which usually comes back around to being dislodged from your peer group, along with the mean, hateful words that induce it. "Indirect aggression uses minimal energy and usually provides the least risk of injury," the Web site adds. But its power to harm is still considerable -  gossip coming from many members of a group protects the majority but can be devastating to the individ

Do you smoke? Many who do, do it to relax.  Experts believe most do it to self-medicate.  But those with mental illness smoke the most, and it's not for the reason doctors originally thought. Who wouldn't want to do anything they could to feel better than someone struggling with depression or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia? Mentally ill people were long thought to smoke so much for that very reason.  But a new study has found that that's just not the case. Instead, "research indicates that psychiatric disease makes the brain more susceptible to addiction," according to newswise.com. Half of all cigarettes sold are to people with mental illness, statistics show, even though smoking rates have fallen below 25% in the general population. "This is really a devastating problem for people with mental illness because of the broad health consequences of nicotine addiction," newswise.com quotes R. Andrew Chambers, M.D., associate professor of psychiat