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January 21, 2022

January 21, 2022 Inspiration 92.3 FM

Study Says Face Masks Make People Look More Attractive

New research has found face masks – particularly the surgical kind – make people appear more attractive.

The study presented female participants with 40 male faces of “low to high attractiveness” in various states: Partially covered by a cloth mask, a surgical mask, a book and not covered at all.

The 43 female participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of the man in each state on a scale from one to 10.

The results showed that faces were considered the most attractive when covered by a medical mask. The participants also considered the faces they observed to be more attractive when wearing a cloth mask compared to not wearing one at all.

The current research shows the pandemic has changed our psychology in how we perceive the wearers of masks. When we see someone wearing a mask we no longer think ‘that person has a disease, I need to stay away’.

The researchers from the School of Psychology at Cardiff University conducted the study in February 2021 – seven months after face masks became mandatory in the UK. It was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.

The study’s co-author Dr Micheal Lewis said the research was undertaken to see if the pandemic had changed people’s feelings and attitudes towards face masks. A similar study conducted in Japan in 2016 found masks reduced a person’s attractiveness.

Dr Lewis told Cardiff University: “The results run counter to the pre-pandemic research where it was thought masks made people think about disease and the person should be avoided.

Blue medical masks were found to increase facial attractiveness more than other types of masks. (Dominic Lipinski/PA) (PA Archive)

“This relates to evolutionary psychology and why we select the partners we do. Disease and evidence of disease can play a big role in mate selection – previously any cues to disease would be a big turn off. Now we can observe a shift in our psychology such that face masks are no longer acting as a contamination cue.”

Dr Lewis added that the increased attractiveness of a person – in the study’s case, men – when wearing a surgical mask could be attributed to the association we make between healthcare workers and blue masks.

“At a time when we feel vulnerable, we may find the wearing of medical masks reassuring and so feel more positive towards the wearer,” he said.

The university said further work is being conducted with female and male participants to help determine if the results are the same for both genders.

Serie A Leaders Inter Milan Held At Atalanta

Serie A leaders Inter Milan saw their eight-match winning run come to an end as they were held to a goalless draw at Atalanta.

The visitors were looking to move four points clear at the top of the table but could not find a goal in a game packed with chances.

Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso produced a stunning save in the second half to deny Edin Dzeko.

The result means Inter are two points clear of AC Milan.

However, Inter’s city rivals can go top on Monday if they beat Spezia.

Atalanta remain fourth, one point behind Napoli and one ahead of Juventus.

Earlier, Sergio Oliveira scored on his Roma debut to give Jose Mourinho’s side a 1-0 win over struggling Cagliari.

7 Tips To Work Smarter Not Harder

Working smarter, not harder, entails working on a whole lot of factors like, improved time management, understanding what has to be done when, and leveraging tools to keep you on target.

Working smarter also boosts your productivity and performance while improving your job happiness and satisfaction. It can also help you become a valued asset where you work, therefore enhancing your job security. Although working smarter involves some experience and growth to put the methods in place, still, it is not a herculean task.

Here are 7 ideas in to help you work SMARTER, not HARDER.

1. Make your to-do-list concise

Keep your to-do list concise and focused on the first three most significant tasks for the day. Tasks that will make you feel incredibly productive once accomplished. Concentrate on these tasks, one at a time, before moving on to less critical ones. Also when you realize a task is getting too difficult, leave it and move on to the next task then come back to it later. A refreshed mind might just be what you need to detect that error.

2.Respond to people or things quickly

Make it a practice to respond to people or things as soon as possible. For example, if you receive an email that demands a response, reply quickly to remove it from your to-do list. Furthermore, if you need to reply to a mail later or get back to a person about something, write it down so you don't forget and make an effort to do it within 24 hours.

3.Work in 90-minutes block

According to studies, your brain can best focus for up to 90 minutes at a time. So, consider taking more breaks and break down your day into 90-minute blocks. This will help boost your overall productivity by maximizing your brain's natural capacity to focus. Take a walk, get into a conversations with people around, you can rest your head for a while by taking a nap and then continue with your task for the day.

4.Practice stress-reduction techniques

Asides the 90-minutes block, you can use stress-reduction techniques such as meditating, listening to music, or doing yoga. These techniques can help you manage stress on the job and enhance your physical, emotional, and mental health.

5.Keep that pesky phone away.

Make sure you put your phone away! According to research, having your phone nearby, even if you are not using it, might cause you to perform 20% less than if it is out of sight.

On the other hand, you can also cut off the internet or distracting websites with apps like StayFocusd or Freedom.

We all desire the best possible use of our time. Therefore, your productivity will skyrocket by learning how to manage your time and energy.

6. Stop Multitasking

Multitasking is a very efficient tool when you have so many tasks in front of you but, when you realize you are doing jobs halfway and end up dumping it or too many tasks are just pilling up, you take a step backward and try picking your task one after the other. For the sake of emphasis, try to ensure you finish one task completely before taking on the next task.

7. Chunk similar tasks together

Batching similar tasks can help you be more efficient because you're not switching back and forth between different types of work. This is especially useful for small tasks because you can knock out a bunch at once (and get a nice kick of productivity).

Plus, you can be intentional about blocking off time for the things that distract you—such as answering text messages or checking your social feed. You can even chunk small tasks together and get them done between meetings.

Try out these techniques and see how well it works out for you.

How To Cultivate a Saving Habit In 2022

In this New Year, everyone wants to make more money, grind harder, and live their best life.

It is all fun and sunshine until it is time to implement and put things in action to achieve your goal.

In this New Year, cultivate a saving culture; it doesn’t have to be elaborate. It might be a bit difficult in this economy, and the depreciation in naira value doesn’t help matters either. But the truth is, saving actively doesn’t just jump on you; one has to start somewhere small to achieve more. If you save a thousand naira per week, that’s 52000 naira in a year, small I know, but you saved that amount; your discipline made that happen.

Here are a few tips to help save actively this year:

Budget

I know it sounds cliché, and maybe you are like ‘budgeting’ doesn’t work for me at all, I understand you, but perhaps you are not disciplined enough uhnn(table shattered). If you have an active income coming in every month, budgeting should be your best buddy; listing your needs in the order of priority will always save you stress. Now, I’m all about spending on yourself, satisfying your food cravings, living the baby girl/boy life (as you should dears). However, doing everything in excess can be detrimental to your bank account.

Do not indulge your cravings every time, and there is food in the house!!

Set saving goals

Setting goals will give you the suitable ‘ginger’ to save. If you are trying to save for a new phone or your passport or saving for an important examination, these goals can motivate you to save better. Why?

Well, because you have an expected end in mind.

Get apps that help you track your savings

There are a lot of fintech startups that help you save actively; apps like Cowrywise, Piggvest will help you on your journey to saving actively. It helps that these apps have a lot of flexible features to help you save.

Have an accountability partner

Although, this is not necessarily very important.

Your accountability partner does not have to be your friend, or family member.

Your partner can be your tracking app or your account officer. When you feel like relaxing or losing your motivation, having someone to answer to will help you put things into perspective.

All it takes to start saving is discipline; if you do not have that, these tips may not work well. Cheers to starting this journey; we’ll all review how far and well we’ve done after the first quarter.

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Category: lifestyle

Serie A Leaders Inter Milan Held At Atalanta

MORE STORIES

7 Tips To Work Smarter Not Harder

1. Make your to-do-list concise

2.Respond to people or things quickly

3.Work in 90-minutes block

4.Practice stress-reduction techniques

5.Keep that pesky phone away.

6. Stop Multitasking

7. Chunk similar tasks together

MORE STORIES

How To Cultivate a Saving Habit In 2022

Budget

Set saving goals

Get apps that help you track your savings

Have an accountability partner

MORE STORIES

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