Think you'll be basically the same 10 years from now? A new study says probably not. (Photo: Thinkstock)What do you think you'll be like 10 years from now?
Maybe you'll have a different job or live in a different town, but you'll still be the same old you, right? With the same basic personality, political views, values, best friends, and favorite activities?
Probably not. According to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, people of all ages are terrible at predicting how much they'll change over the course of a decade -- and that affects how well they make big decisions about their futures.
"I have to tell you that never in my wildest dreams when I had a long ponytail and was hitchhiking around the country and playing my guitar did it occur to me that my greatest joy would be sitting next to the love of my life, eating dinner on a TV tray, and watching 'Jeopardy!' " Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and a co-author of the study, told The Boston Globe. "But now I'm the guy who does that."
Gilbert and his team surveyed thousands of people and
Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine
What Will You Be like 10 Years from Now? You're Probably Guessing Wrong
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living – Fri, Jan 4, 2013 5:15 PM ESTElvis is Too Sexy for Some Utah Parents -- in 2013?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Fri, Jan 4, 2013 1:54 PM EST
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The poster for the Broadway musical All Shook Up. Does this seem too sexy to you? The kids at Herriman High School in Utah had already spent months rehearsing for their 2013 production of the Elvis-inspired musical "All Shook Up" when the complaint came in: An anonymous parent was upset about the show, saying that it was too sexy for high schoolers to perform. Even though it had been approved nearly a year earlier, Jordan School District officials cancelled it on Wednesday, saying that it didn't conform to revised community standards.
Related: RI School District Bans Father-Daughter Dances After Single Mom Complains
"What was communicated to us, they were upset with sexually explicit language and some other aspects of the play," Jordan School District spokeswoman Sandy Riesgraf told the Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday. "What they deemed cross-dressing."
Related: Utah Girls Banned from Dance, Principal Apologizes
But another district spokesperson, Steven Dunham, told Yahoo! Shine in an interview on Friday that cross-dressing wasn't the issue.
"The concerns aboutParalyzed by ALS, Susan Spencer-Wendel Writes Memoir About the Beauty of Living
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Secrets to Your Success – Thu, Jan 3, 2013 2:45 PM EST
Read More »from Paralyzed by ALS, Susan Spencer-Wendel Writes Memoir About the Beauty of Living
Journalist Susan Spencer-Wendel wrote her life-affirming memoir in three months, typing on her iPhone with one thumb. (Photo: AP)As her body succumbed to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, journalist Susan Spencer-Wendel wrote her life story. It took her three months to type it, letter by letter on her iPhone, using just her right thumb-all of her other fingers had stopped working by then.
Related: What's On Your Life's Must-Do List?
"I cannot lift my arms to feed myself or hug my children," the 45-year-old mother of three wrote in "Until I Say Goodbye: My Year of Living With Joy," which will be published in March. By then, she says, she will probably no longer be able to speak clearly.
"My muscles are dying, and they cannot return. I will never again be able to move my tongue enough to clearly say, 'I love you'," she wrote. "Swiftly, surely, I am dying. But I am alive today."
Related: More Inspirational Stories on Yahoo! Shine
A former courts reporter for the Palm Beach Post newspaper in south Florida, Spencer-Wendel lives in Florida with her husband, John, and theirWould You Take a Class on Fifty Shades of Grey?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Love + Sex – Wed, Jan 2, 2013 6:39 PM EST
Read More »from Would You Take a Class on Fifty Shades of Grey?
What if these were your text books? (Photo: Amazon.com)Pretty much everyone has read E.L. James' "Fifty Shades of Grey" by now, but even those who enjoyed the book probably didn't share the more graphic passages in public. Still, students at American University in Washington, D.C., will be doing just that this month, when they study all three of the "Fifty Shades" books -- terrible prose, awkward "apex" references, and all.
Related: Meet the Man Who's Married to 'Fifty Shades of Grey' Author E.L. James
The course is being taught by sex educator and adjunct professor Stef Woods, who came up with the idea after a summer spent talking about "mommy porn."
"As I began talking and writing more about the trilogy, I started thinking about how to frame the books in an academic light," Woods wrote on her blog, City Girl. "Could the issues that the trilogy raises be examined in a critical and intellectual way?"
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American University agreed that they could, and "ContemporaryDo Recession Babies Grow Up to Be Troubled Teens?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Financially Fit – Wed, Jan 2, 2013 2:33 PM EST
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Do babies born during a recession have more problems as they grow up? (Photo: Thinkstock)Kids born during the economic recessions of the 1980s had a higher chance of substance abuse and arrest as teenagers, a new study has found, leading researchers to wonder if babies born in recent years could face a similar fate.
"The mechanisms involved may be different in intensity and severity, (but) based on the study it seems like there would be some effects," Dr. Seethalakshmi Ramanathan, a researcher at State University of New York Upstate Medical University and the lead author of the study told Reuters.
Related: Things You Need to Do While You're Unemployed
The study, which was published online this week in JAMA Psychiatry, used data from 8,984 people born between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 1984, who had participated in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, when they were 12 to 17 years old. There were two recessions in the 1980s, from 1980 to 1981 and then another in 1982.
Related: Are We Regulating Ourselves Back IntoDr. Travis Stork's Top 10 Health Tips for the New Year
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living – Wed, Dec 26, 2012 3:18 PM EST
Dr. Travis Stork offers tips for a healthier new year. (Photo courtesy of The Doctors)Losing weight and getting in shape are two of the most popular New Years resolutions we make—and two of the ones we're most likely to break as well. Dr. Travis Stork, the Emmy Award-nominated co-host of "The Doctors," tells Yahoo! Shine about his 10 best health tips for the new year, and we have to admit, these sound like things a real-life human being can actually handle.
Related: Why New Years Resolutions Are So Hard to Keep
"I definitely try to practice what I preach," he told Yahoo! Shine in an interview." So all these tips? I do them. And I can say that with all sincerity."
Related: New Years Resolutions Men Wish Women Would Make
It's easy for celebrities to talk about staying in shape and looking good when they have a personal trainer, nutritionist, and stylist at their beck and call. For the rest of us, though, Stork offers these ideas:- Find an activity you enjoy, and exercise with a friend. Finding an activity you really enjoy is the key, Stork says. And it's OK if that
The Most Inspirational Stories of 2012
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living – Fri, Dec 21, 2012 3:37 PM ESTOnce called "The World's Ugliest Woman," Lizzie Velasquez was born with a medical condition so rare that just two other people in the world are thought to have it: She weighs just 60 pounds and has no adipose tissue, and cannot create muscle, store energy, or gain weight. She inspired women the world over earlier this year when, during an interview with CNN, she said that people "should stop staring and start learning." Since then, she told Yahoo! Shine, she's been flooded with speaking requests and supportive emails. In 2013 she's hoping write her third book (her second, "Be Beautiful, Be You" came out in September), continue her work as a motivational speaker, and meet as many people as possible in 2013.
"There are so many different people out there with so many different stories," she told Yahoo! Shine. "Hearing their stories is what inspires me. That's what keeps me going."
Yahoo! readers called Velasquez's story one of the most-inspirational pieces they read in 2012 and
Read More »from The Most Inspirational Stories of 2012Michelle Obama's Letter to the Parents and Residents of Newtown
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Parenting – Fri, Dec 21, 2012 12:36 PM EST
Michelle Obama's Open Letter To Newtown FamiliesFirst Lady Michelle Obama reached out to the residents of Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday in the aftermath of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary school, expressing her grief and offering her support in an open letter published in the Hartford Currant. The White House shared her letter with Yahoo! Shine.
Dear parents,Like every American, Barack and I are absolutely heartbroken about the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week in Newtown, Connecticut. And like so many of you, our first reactions were not as a President and First Lady, but as a Mom and Dad. We were asking ourselves, what if this had been our town, or our school, or our girls?
And we know that all across the country, it's not just adults who are asking questions right now - our children are looking for answers as well. Like us, they want to know, why did this happen? Could it happen again? And as parents, all of us can take the time to hold our kids close and talk with them about the things that truly
Read More »from Michelle Obama's Letter to the Parents and Residents of NewtownPizza Hut's Double Sensation Pizza: Would You Eat This?
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Shine Food – Fri, Dec 21, 2012 12:26 PM EST
Pizza Hut has one-upped itself with a new offering from its Singapore stores: A fully loaded pizza with a second fully loaded pizza baked right into it. They call it "The Double Sensation Pizza" and critics are impressed, confused, and hungry.
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"Yes, this is the Inception pizza the world has been waiting for," cheered Amy McKeever at Eater.
"The Double Sensation Pizza is less of a pizza and more just a bunch of seemingly random things thrown on top of and stuffed into a pizza crust," writes Chris Morran at The Consumerist.
Related: Home Made vs. Store Bought Pizza
The Double Sensation's outer crust is filled with mozzarella, Parmesan, and cheddar cheese, which oozes out from strategically placed notches all the way around the edge. The smaller crust is stuffed with a chicken sausage that is itself stuffed with bits of cheese. The entire thing is liberally covered in pepper-Alfredo sauce, salsa sauce, smoked chicken, turkey Read More »from Pizza Hut's Double Sensation Pizza: Would You Eat This?Study: Playing Hard to Get Actually Works!
By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Love + Sex – Thu, Dec 20, 2012 2:06 PM EST
Read More »from Study: Playing Hard to Get Actually Works!
You may be playing hard-to-get without even knowing it. We scoffed earlier this year when we heard that "The Rules"—the 1995 dating guide that encouraged women to be passive and pleasing and play hard-to-get— was making a comeback. But new research shows that the rules may be right after all: Playing hard-to-get actually works.
Related: Study Shows Men and Women Can't Just Be Friends
Published in the European Journal of Personality, the data from hundreds of people in four different experiments showed that college-age men and women who played hard-to-get ended up with a higher-quality partner.
"We all would want honesty in dating but this is never going to happen," the study's author Peter Jonason, who teaches psychology at the University of Western Sydney in Australia, told NBC. "We are not overtly lying, but we're always trying to marry up."
Related: Is Playng Hard-to-Get a Turn On or Turn Off?
Both sexes play the game, but there are a few slight differences. While women made themselves seem more interesting by not communicating and
