The price of popularity|New research confirms what parents have long suspected about the power of popularity in school: It makes kids more vulnerable to peer pressure. A study in the journal Child Development placed 40 teens in an Internet chat room where they thought they were socializing with some of their popular and unpopular classmates. (In fact, they were receiving messages that had been programmed by the researchers.) The teens agreed more often to take part in risky and aggressive behaviors, like smoking, drinking and fighting, when they believed that such actions were endorsed by their well-liked peers.
Lonely hearts|Older people who live alone may double their risk of serious heart disease, according to research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The study of 138,000 Danish adults found women over age 60 and men over age 50 who lived alone were twice as likely as those who lived with a partner to have severe angina, heart attack and other cardiac problems. Researchers said loners tended to smoke more, have higher cholesterol, get less medical care and have poorer social support networks – all risk factors for an unhealthy heart.|The Washington Post
