When i started reading this book i had no idea that i was going to encounter something so stunning. Although the book is not very long (like 100 pages) its content contain very deep meanings and makes you think about life, time, mercy, hope, freedom and evilness on every single page.

About the Book

Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurologist">neurologist</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatrist">psychiatrist</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher">philosopher</a>, writer, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_survivors">Holocaust survivor</a>. He was the founder of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logotherapy">logotherapy</a>, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force.

About the Author

In 1942, just nine months after his marriage, Frankl and his family were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. His father died there of starvation and pneumonia. In 1944, Frankl and the surviving members of his family were transported to Auschwitz, where his mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers. His wife died later of typhus in Bergen-Belsen. Frankl spent three years in four concentration camps.

The author tells about his own experiences in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp">Nazi concentration camps</a> over the years in from a psychotherapist's and a human being's point of view in this book. The author explains what this book contains with these words;

Content

"This book does not claim to be an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again. It is the inside story of a concentration camp, told by one of its survivors. This tale is not concerned with the great horrors, which have already been described often enough (though less often believed), but with the multitude of small torments. In other words, it will try to answer this question: How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?"

The author loses everything that he has when they bring him to the camp. Soldiers separate him from his wife, brother, sister and parents. For a long time, he didn't even know if they were alive or not. Soldiers confiscated the scientific works he had been working on all his life and destroyed them.After losing everything including his purpose of life, how can a man continue to live without losing hope?

Meaning & Purpose

"While we were waiting for the shower, our nakedness was brought home to us: we really had nothing now except our bare bodies—even minus hair; all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence"

Walking for hours on icy roads with torn shoes, being flogging while working all day long on extreme conditions, eating a bowl of soup and a piece of bread and witnessing people die one by one every day. In these conditions can a man still have mercy for another prisoner and help him or does he do everything to survive?

Mercy

There were men in camp called 'Capos'. They were privileged people chosen inside of the prisoners. They were people that never hungry, never worked. Although they were chosen from prisoners often they were harder on the prisoners than were the guards, and beat them more cruelly than the SS men did.Someone who has been oppressed for a long time was becoming more ruthless than those who had oppressed themselves when power had taken over.

Evilness

After suffering for a very long time, most people begin a state of indifference towards everything. For these people, life loses its meaning and purpose. There are two things that people who fall into this situation do in the camps; either waiting for death by doing nothing or committing suicide by running to electrical wires.

Indifference

"The prisoner who had lost faith in the future his future was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and wash or to go out on the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just lay there, hardly moving. He simply gave up. There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him anymore."

After Viktor Frankl lived for a long time in different camps, he is not giving up but he kinda accepts his destiny. He accepts his fate by saying that he refuses to do so to an officer who offers to stay here by deleting his name from a list where he will probably be taken to be killed on the pretext of being transferred to a better place. But they do take him to a better place, and it turns out that after he left the camp, the whole camp burned down and all of his friends died.

Destiny

"And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate."

"The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life."

"...we could say that most men in a concentration camp believed that the real opportunities of life had passed. Yet, in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge. One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners"

"When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden. "

This book shows that even if in extreme situations there is always hope and something to fight for.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

books

Books

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living. He was one of the key figures in existential therapy.

Viktor E. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

Man's Search For Meaning

It’s natural; when things go wrong, one of the first thoughts is likely to be “Why me?”“Why me?” is a weakening phrase. It only serves to increase our feeling of victimhood and makes us feel incapable of dealing with the situation.By “What next?” we not only gain back a feeling of control, but also figure out what we can actually do.

1. Replace “Why me?” with “What next?”

It is hard to feel grateful when you are dealt a blow, no matter how big or small it is.No matter what you are dealing with, there is always, always something to be grateful for. Force yourself to say it out loud a few times. Your heart and your mind will soon catch up.

2. Force yourself to practice gratitude.

When you’re hurt, it is equally natural to look for someone to blame.But blame only serves to prolong the hurt. It makes it harder to let things go. It makes us angry and corrodes us from the inside. It brings negativity into our life.So just stop blaming.

3. Quit blaming.

This is a tough one. It’s so much easier to just give in and surrender to the fear and grief. But we need to stand tall, even when we feel two feet too short.

4. Don’t give in to fear and despair.

No matter where you’re at or what you’re going through, don’t give up. Try just one more thing; maybe it’s just the thing that will resolve it for you.

5. Never give up.

We all face something in our day to day routine, sometimes we aren't able to deal with it ....

Every single one of us goes through times when it seems like life sucks. It’s just the way it is. It’s what we do in those moments that matters.

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

5 Helpful Things to Do When You Think Life Sucks

A new <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439760.2022.2053877?journalCode=rpos20">study</a> published in the Journal of Positive Psychology explores how feeling and showing gratitude can make people feel less used and objectified.

Introduction

“Objectification causes severe consequences, ranging from interpersonal indifference, reduced empathy and helping, aggression and bullying l, to even killing and genocide, therefore, it is important to find interventions to alleviate objectification.”

According to Wang, objectification refers to treating others as mere things or tools that can help in one’s goal achievement while denying others’ autonomy, needs, and feelings.

Researchers opinion

“Employees can be treated as mere instruments to aid the financial success of their employers, students can be treated by their classmates as note-takers, and women can be perceived and treated solely as an object of sexual desire without regard for their personality or dignity”

Combining classical definitions of objectification, Wang suggests that objectification is marked by seven key features:1. Instrumentality : When someone treats a target as a tool for his or her own purpose2. Fungibility : When someone treats a target as interchangeable with other objects3. Violability : When someone treats a target as lacking in boundary integrity

Seven Key Features - Part 1

4. Ownership: When someone treats a target as though the target can be owned5. Denial of autonomy: When someone treats a target as lacking in autonomy or self-determination6. Inertness: When someone treats a target as lacking in agency or activity7. Denial of subjectivity: When someone treats a target as someone whose experiences and feelings need not be taken into account

Seven Key Features - Part 2

Over a series of three studies that included writing gratitude letters and imagining the effects of gratitude in an environment prone to behaviors of objectification, Wang’s research concluded that gratitude, both as a feeling and as a gesture, lowered the levels of objectification in a given environment.

Research

“The effect of gratitude on weakening objectification can be due to its ability to reduce people's focus on their own needs. That is, when people become less concerned with their own wants and desires, they are less likely to see others as instruments to fulfill those needs and are less likely to fail to consider others’ personhood.”

For people who wish to cultivate gratitude in their daily lives, Wang proposes three simple tips: <ul><li>Reflection : Spend a few minutes every day thinking about the wonderful things in life (such as a movie, books, a TV show we enjoy, or even being able to bask in the sunshine). </li><li>Exposing ourselves to nature : Spend time in nature by traveling to a place where you can enjoy a magnificent environment. </li><li>Showing Appreciation : Writing a thank you note or verbally appreciating or thanking someone. </li> </ul>

Three tips

“Expressing gratitude doesn’t need to cost you anything financially. So just do it.”

Wang, Xijing (Interview). <a href="https://therapytips.org/interviews/how-gratitude-helps-us-feel-whole">How gratitude helps us feel whole.</a> Therapytips.org, April 28th, 2022

References

New research from Dr Xijing Wang from City University of Hong Kong

Expressing gratitude may be the most effective way to combat objectification.

communication

Communication

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

7 Aspects of Feeling Objectified and How to Overcome Them

One guiding principle for UX or Product Design is to make it simple.Users like simple it decreases the cognitive load and helps you create better experiences that do not confuse users.

Make It Simple

There is already so much pain in the world, do not try and add to it with your designs.Make sure your designs better the world. For instance stay away from Dark Patterns or things that hurt your users.

Do not Hurt anyone

Before you start designing, always figure out the problem first. That is critical and crucial in making excellent designs.every person should do some user research before designing to make sure you actually understand the problem at hand.

Figure out the problem

Everyone has a different background. They have different mental models and representations of how the world is. Understanding you are not your users will help you create better designs that stand out and make a difference.

Understand you are not your User

I have talked with a lot of high-quality designers, and empathy is something that has always come up.Having Empathy is critical in UX Design. Many designers have already proven that fact. If you have empathy as a UX Designer, you will be able to accomplish various things.

Have Emapthy

If you found something helpful from this content, please follow me.

Follow Me For More On UX Design and Human Psycology

Principles help you become a better designer. Read this article if you want proven principles to take your designs to the next level.

product

Product & Design

5 Guiding Principles for Design

The weirder something seems, the more we remember it Also called the isolation effect or bizarreness effect, the Von Restorff effect is the proven psychological theory that the more something stands out from the crowd the more likely it is to be seen. For example, in a bucket full of green apples we’ll remember the red one. And be more drawn to it. It was first coined by Hedwig Von Restoff a female behavioral scientist. who discovered that the more something differed the more easily it was recalled.

What is the Von Restorff effect ?

A company utilized this effect in the store. Instead of saying remember the social distance laws they instead said "Think Cow" mentioning that social distancing was the length of a cow making sure people will remember it.Make your advertisements memorable and you can thus create more likeness with them.

How you can utilize it

Wow, I am going to try and utilize the von Restoff Effect in all of my design work.

Understand the behavioural bias: The Von Restorff effect and how it can boost your marketing effectiveness and conversion rate.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

Von Restorff Effect: The Behavioural Bias Series - The Behaviours Agency

The Von Restoff Effect states that users are more likely to remember something out of the ordinary. When most items are similar the one that differs the most will be most remembered.

Von Restoff Effect

Attentional Bias states that people pay more attention to things they were previously thinking about. For instance, if you were thinking about a haircut and got an advertisement about the one you would pay more attention.

Attentional Bias

Costumer Fatigue states that when users see things many times their brain starts becoming acquainted with it and it no longer has the same effect.Costumer Fatigue states that when companies overuse a tactic. People will slowly start filtering out the information.

Costumer Fatigue

Learn how the Von Restoff Effect, Attentional Bias and other human psycological effects can influence your designs.

Human Behavior Laws

When we think of influence, we don’t generally tend to think about the influence we naturally have, which is why we probably have more influence than we think.<ul><li>Influence is so much more than social media engagement, it’s about understanding the psychology of your interactions.</li><li>Allowing yourself to look past your biases will reveal the natural influence you have in your everyday life.</li></ul>

Influence And Bias

Basing your happiness on comparisons isn’t helpful because we are hopeless at setting reliable benchmarks for those comparisons”

Everyday people have more influence than they give themselves credit for.<ul><li>Marketing, advertising, and social media influencers have created an aggressive and flashy narrative around the influence that isn’t applicable to most people</li><li>The psychology of influence is so much more than just Twitter likes, it’s about understanding your everyday interactions.</li><li>So many “influence” books claim that you need to gain influence, and that you don’t have it already—but that’s simply not true. This false narrative only bolsters our biases and causes us to ignore our natural influences.</li></ul>

Gaining Vs Natural Influence

The Invisibility Cloak Illusion: Tendency to (incorrectly) believe that you notice people more than they notice youWe almost always underestimate how many people are paying attention to usThe Spotlight Effect: Tendency to overestimate how much others notice aspects of one’s appearance or behaviorThe Barry Manilow T-Shirt Experiment: People don’t actively notice your flaws as much as you thinkThe Liking Gap: Tendency to underestimate how much a conversation partner enjoyed the conversation and how much they liked you afterwards.

The Biases That Influence Our Perception Of Our Influence

We unfairly judge ourselves on the specifics of the conversation while we judge the other person on warmth and friendliness.Based on the referenced study, the actual likeness is about 12% higher than the perception.Audience Tuning Effect: Tendency to adjust our language and context based on who we are talking toSaying is Believing Effect: When we take audience tuning too far, we begin to muddy our own reality, memory, and opinionsThanks, but No Thanks Experiment: We overestimate how awkward it is to receive a compliment and we underestimate how good a compliment makes us feel

The Blind Spots Of Our Mind

<ul><li>The average person thinks they are less social than the average person</li><li>Logically, this can’t be true, so there’s plenty of bias involved in FOMO.</li><li>We have a tendency to compare ourselves to the maximum rather than the mean</li><li>Basing your happiness on comparisons isn’t helpful because we are hopeless at setting reliable benchmarks for those comparisons.</li></ul>

Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)

<ul><li>Engage more and worry less about getting things perfect.</li><li>By trying to avoid negative interactions, you actively limit the opportunity for positive interactions.</li><li>Interactions are usually less awkward than you think, and the results are almost always surprisingly comforting.</li></ul>

Staying Worry Free And Being Okay With Imperfection

Our biases and blindspots relating to us.

Nudge - Marketing Science Simplified✓Claim  Podcast Notes Key Takeaways “When we think of influence, we think of influences. But, we rarely think about ourselves. We don’t tend to think about the influence we naturally have, which is why you probably have more influence than you think.”– Phill AgnewInfluence is so much more than social media engagement, it’s about understanding the psychology of your interactionsAllowing yourself to look past your biases will reveal the natural influence you have in your everyday lifeVanessa and Phill explore the everyday biases that hold us back from seeing our natural influence:The Invisibility Cloak Illusion: Tendency to (incorrectly) believe that you notice people more than they notice youThe Spotlight Effect: Tendency to overestimate how much others notice aspects of one’s appearance or behaviorAnd more!“Basing your happiness on comparisons isn’t helpful because we are hopeless at setting reliable benchmarks for those comparisons”– Phill AgnewIt can’t be logically true for the average person to think they are less social than the average personEngage more and worry less about getting things perfectThe positive outcomes almost always outweigh the negativeDon’t be limited by perception—it’s usually incorrect anywayRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWhen you think of influence you probably think of Beyonce, Ronaldo, or Obama. But you don’t think about yourself. In today’s show, Professor Vanessa Bohns talks about the influence you already have. She explains why we underestimate how many people like our company, why we overestimate how social our friends are, and how we change our views depending on who we’re talking to. Tune in and I guarantee you’ll learn something surprising about yourself. Vanessa’s book: https://www.vanessabohns.com/ Follow Vanessa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/profbohns Sign up for the Nudge Newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list

podcasts

Podcasts

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

You have more influence than you think

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

“In situations of low stress and safety, mind-wandering will be a gift, a pleasure, a creative force. In situations of high stress or danger, mind-wandering will be a torment.”

“The sensation of being alive in the early twenty-first century consisted of the sense that our ability to pay attention—to focus—was cracking and breaking.”

We now live in ‘an attentional pathogenic culture’ – an environment in which sustained and deep focus is extremely hard for all of us, and you have to swim upstream to achieve it. It is not your fault you cannot focus.Attention spans are decreasing at the time we need them most. One of the biggest contributors to inaction on big issues such as climate change is the lack of focus. When attention breaks down, problem-solving breaks down.

The Attentional Pathogenic Culture

"Empathy is one of the most complex forms of attention we have – and the most precious. Many of the most important advances in human history have been advances in empathy."

<ul><li>Use pre-commitment to stop switching tasks so much.</li><li>Don't listen to negative self-talk - You’re lazy, you’re not good enough, what’s wrong with you?</li><li>Take extended times away from social media. </li><li>Embrace mind-wandering. Letting your mind wander is not a crumbling of attention but in fact a crucial form of attention in its own right.</li><li>Sleep is not a luxury. It is essential for sustained focus.</li><li>Embrace play and unstructured free time. This can be the greatest form of focus.</li></ul>

Improve Your Attention

<ul><li>Switching cost - You lose focus switching between tasks</li><li>Screw-up effect. When you switch between tasks, errors that wouldn’t have happened otherwise start to creep in.</li><li>Creativity drain - In the long run, you are likely to be much less creative.</li></ul>

Three Ways Task Switching Degrades Your Focus

Resolving clearly to do something and making a pledge to stick to it helps you focus.

Pre-Commitment Is Successful

<ul><li>The less you sleep, the more your world blurs in every way – the ability to focus, ability to think deeply, ability to make connections</li><li>During sleep, your brain cleans itself of waste that has accumulated during the day</li><li>During sleep, your energy levels are restored and replenished</li><li>Dreaming allows you to revisit stressful moments without releasing stress hormones, which makes it easier to handle stress.</li></ul>

Importance Of Sleep

<ul><li>On average, we will look at something negative and outrageous a lot more than something peaceful and calm</li><li>Every word of moral outrage increases the chances of retweets on Twitter and words that increased retweet rates are attack, bad, blame</li><li>Social media sites are designed to train your minds to crave frequent rewards</li><li>Social media sites get to know what makes you tick. They learn what you like to look at, what excites you, what angers you</li><li>Social media sites make you feel that you are surrounded by other people’s anger</li><li>Fake news travels six times faster on Twitter than real news.</li></ul>

Social Media Negativity

"Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening and how to get our attention back."--

productivity

Productivity

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening—and how to get our attention back. “The book the world needs in order to win the war on distraction.”—Adam Grant, author of Think Again “Read this book to save your mind.”—Susan Cain, author of Quiet   WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Post, Mashable, Mindful In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions—even abandoning his phone for three months—but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention—and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.   We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers’ productivity.   Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus—as individuals, and as a society—if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.

Johann Hari

Stolen Focus

Are there differences between men and women in terms of beauty-enhancing behaviors? According to new research published in Environmental Research and Public Health, there is an overlooked side to masculinity; women invest more time on cosmetic usage, whilst men spend more time exercising and bodybuilding.

Summary of article

“There is this widespread belief that men have to wait for (eternity) hours until their female partners (finally) get ready. Usually, there is a kernel of truth in such shared worldviews because they often derive from actual world observations. But does such common knowledge perfectly reflect reality? As a woman myself, I always wondered if most women do indeed spend so much time on their attractiveness,”

“Or maybe it is just the distorted image created by all the ads, Hollywood movies, and TV series? After all, many studies provide evidence that being perceived as physically attractive by others (and oneself) is beneficial in multiple ways, both for women and men. So do modern men ‘don’t even try’ to enhance their beauty because it is ‘only a female’ thing to do? Luckily, in moments of doubt, science comes in.”

Women are more likely to use make-up and personal care products to improve their appearances. This does not, however, preclude men from engaging in other behaviours that may improve their appearance, such as muscle building. The increased media focus on male physique in recent decades coincides with evolutionary theories that emphasise the role of male upper body strength in intra- and inter-sexual competition. Women, for example, have more positive attitudes toward muscle, which may explain why men are more interested in their muscularity.

Stereotypes

Kowal and her colleague Piotr Sorokowski investigated how men and women attend to their appearances, as well as how much time each sex devotes to improving their appearances, in two studies. The first study recruited 121 people aged 18 to 49 using qualitative research methods. Participants were asked two open-ended questions, specifically: what do people do to improve their physical attractiveness? How do you improve your appearance?

The researchers narrowed down the responses to the eight most common beauty-enhancing behaviours participants shared, which included:<ol><li>make-up use</li><li>cosmetic use</li><li>cardio</li><li>strength training</li><li>hair grooming</li><li>body cleaning</li><li>hands grooming</li><li>and mirror-checking to adjust one's image.</li></ol>

Common behaviours

Study 2 enlisted 62 participants ranging in age from 20 to 67 and asked them to keep an online diary of their beauty-enhancing habits for one week. Thirty-three people responded to each of the outlined questions on all seven days, with the average number of daily diary entries being 3.76. On the first day, demographic information (age, gender, and education) was provided.

Second Study

Participants also completed the NPI-13 and indicated their self-perceived physical attractiveness (e.g., how attractive would you rate yourself?) and daily intensity of improving their appearances. The appearance-improving scale included eight questions that assessed the eight different types of beauty-enhancing behaviours identified in Study 1. Participants specifically indicated the number of minutes (ranging from 1 min to 6 hrs) they spent on each activity per day. Over the next six days, self-perceived physical attractiveness and daily intensity of improving appearances were also assessed.

Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13

“First of all, our study highlights that ways to achieve a good look vary between both sexes. While in general women focus on stereotypically female activities that increase their appeal, such as putting on makeup, men may be more interested in more masculine activities, such as bodybuilding or even caring for their hair,”

“Secondly, when we narrow the definition of beauty-enhancing behaviors only to those stereotypically perceived as female, unsurprisingly, women appear to spend more time improving their looks. However, when we broaden the definition to include various activities – including those stereotypically connected with masculinity, like cardio or physical exercise – the sex difference might decrease or even disappear!”

The researcher added, “Modern masculinity is evolving. It becomes culturally more and more acceptable for men to admit they want to look physically attractive and attend to their attractiveness.” With regard to study limitations, she noted, “Although our study is innovative, as it utilizes a diary design (i.e., participants filled the diary each day for seven days, reporting all the activities they performed on the given day that were aimed to increase their attractiveness), the sample size warrants caution when drawing any general conclusions."

"Future studies should investigate this matter on larger and more diverse samples. To address the limitations of this study, my team and I conducted large cross-cultural research on physical-enhancing behaviors. We recruited 107,715 participants from 175 countries, so please, stay tuned for the results of this research!”

“We observed that individuals who perceive themselves as more (vs. less) attractive spend more time improving their looks. As our study is correlational in nature, future research could investigate what a cause is (and what is a consequence). For example, is it that the belief of one’s attractiveness stems from intensified self-care, or instead being beautiful leads to increased efforts to preserve one’s beautifulness? Or perhaps, they are so interrelated that it is like this conundrum: ‘Which came first: the chicken or the egg?’.”

The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073842">Sex Differences in Physical Attractiveness Investments: Overlooked Side of Masculinity</a>”, was authored by Marta Kowal and Piotr Sorokowski.

Link to access the research

New research showing that beauty investments do not differ between men and women

Are there differences between men and women in terms of beauty-enhancing behaviors? According to research published in Environmental Research and Public Health, there is an overlooked side to masculinity; while women invest more time on cosmetic usage, men spend more time exercising and bodybuilding. ...

A new psychology study reveals no sex differences in beauty investments

Conceal Your Intentions Don't showcase your entire game plan. Some things are best when kept secret. Keep working hard in silence and let the results stun the spectators.

Actions over arguments Strong and smart people do things to win. Weak and dumb people keep verbally abusing everyone all the time thinking that they are becoming stronger by putting others down. Your words don't mean horsesh!t if you don't back it up with actions.

People are selfish Yes. Everyone no matter how saintly they appear to be are selfish at the end of the day including you. And that's not a bad thing at all. But at the same time you need to be aware of this fact to make better decisions for yourself.

Never put too much trust in friends There's an old saying, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." You might never know exactly how your friends truly feel. Keep friends for friendship but work with the experienced and qualified.

Make other people come to you This is a simple rule of life. The one who's in power never goes into someone else's territory. Lure others into your territory and you will have the upper hand.

Use absence to increase strength and honor The straightforward rule of supply and demand. The more the supply, the lesser will be its demand and vice versa. The more you are seen and heard of, The more they take you for granted. Create value through scarcity.

Always say less than necessary The famous Shakespeare quote, "Have more than you show Speak less than you know." You can never be too careful. Once your words exit your mouth you can never take them back. Keep them under control.

Never outshine the master As tempted as you might feel to zoom past your masters and show them that you became better than them... It's actually a mistake when it comes to power. Don't take your position for granted.

11 laws of psychological power

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