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Hi everyone.
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Welcome to a peek into what interests me. I've been writing these for four months now, and there are two questions I get over and over.

1. Are these archived online anywhere? Yes. Here! Just scroll through to see Science Digest.
2. How do you find all of this diverse research?

To fully answer that might take a long post, but let's briefly outline my process. There are multiple layers to do.

I'd split my approach into two phases: putting myself in the way of interesting research and deliberate searching. The first is about using other people and places as sorting mechanisms. The easiest way to do this is through social media and reading. Follow people who post research. I do a lot of work trying to find reputable people who do this in the variety of fields I'm interested in: from physiology to biomechanics to psychology to neuroscience. The second part is reading popular science books on subjects I don't know a lot about but enjoy. These books are great introductions. I make note of the research studies I need to investigate. In a few fields, I go to the research journals that generally have the most relevant and interesting work and subscribe to have their table of contents e-mailed to me monthly. Whenever that e-mail comes through, I browse the titles of the articles and make note of which ones I want to explore more. (Note: Always search the title of the article on google scholar and online. Often, you can find a free copy on the internet).
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The second part, deliberate searching is much more interesting. Here, I pick a topic and go to work. I use google scholar to start. I often begin with review articles to familiarize myself with the topic. The key here is to use a review article as a jumping-off point. Browse through the review and see what captures your interest. Make note of those studies. Another starting point, though more time-consuming, is academic books. If I really want to understand a subject, I look for a recent academic book published by a leading author. I don't read these like a traditional book— from cover to cover— but instead use it as a quick primer to an area of research and a jumping-off point. During both of these processes, I note down interesting studies, and names of researchers who pop up a lot in this area. I'll often go see if they've written a recent review, popular press article, or academic book. They are experts. Use their knowledge. Let them be the sifters and sorters.

That brings me to the last part: down the rabbit hole days. These are days when I allow myself to go down the rabbit hole on the research I've collected. I go through my list of studies, quickly reading the abstract of each. In a Word document, I note any interesting finding and make a note of studies I want to read fully. This is key. There are so many studies out there. You aren't going to read them all. You must filter. That means saving reading the full research for those that you are going to use, or that you really want to understand at a deep level. As I'm going down the rabbit hole, if I get bored, I shift directions. I abandon the study or subject, and jump to something else. All the while, I'm dropping interesting links and notes into a document. So by the end of the down the rabbit hole, I've got a document that might be labeled "Performing under pressure," with nuggets from psychology, neuroscience, or whatever that relate to that topic.
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It's a long process. It's resulted in hundreds of pages of notes over the years. But those notes turn into newsletters and books. I'm sure I could be more efficient. I'm positive there's a better way to take notes. But that's my process.

Now, let's get to the good stuff!

-Steve
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P.S. In the spirit of finding research, I just signed up for Threads. I have no idea if it'll be good or bad, but if used correctly, Twitter was a great place for finding interesting research by following good scientists.

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​Don't Avoid the Difficult Conversations in Your Relationship​

What they found: Avoidance is tempting. Just let go, move on, or avoid the rough spots in your relationships. That way you don't fight and argue. The problem? Research shows that avoidance or withdrawing from difficult conversations is linked to emotional distress, an increase in inflammation, an impaired immune response, and even a slowing of wound healing by a day,

So What? While this study gets at marital relationships, it gets at how our psychology interacts with our biology. If we are stuck in a negative state, environment, or relationship, we often default toward avoidance coping. Not just in conversations, but also in our pursuits. We avoid the hard task in favor of something easier. We use avoidance strategies during hard workouts instead of accepting the pain. And there's always a cost. Avoiding the difficult thing alleviates discomfort in the short term, but it always comes back with a vengeance.

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​Conspiracies and Anger Go Hand and Hand.​

What they found: Have you noticed that the guy shouting extreme conspiracies online always seems to be angry? Well, it may not be a coincidence. Recent research found that those who were more easily angered were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. Most interestingly, it didn't have to be anger that was related to the conspiracy at all. Anger was associated with a belief in general conspiracies.

So What? Our emotions and our beliefs go hand and hand. There's a load of research that shows when we are overcome with fear, anger, or outrage, it changes our perception of the world. Maybe you've seen the videos of cops collapsing because of touching fentynl? It turns out that almost certainly doesn't occur. Why? Fentenyl doesn't move through the skin that easily or quickly. The actual cause is that police have been inundated with messages of its danger. They are primed to be afraid. Seeing it in the real world, maybe even feeling a bit anxious or woozy, convinces the body to respond. So the cop faints. It's the same phenomenon as mean world syndrome, where watching too much news, makes you see the world as a more dangerous place, and acting accordingly. The point is: our emotional states impact our perception and action. And our emotional states are influences by the information we consume, the people we're around, and much more.

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​Put Someone on the Moon ​

What they found: The apocryphal story goes: JFK visited NASA, saw a janitor, asked him what he was doing, and the janitor replied, "I'm putting a man on the moon." While the story may or may not be true, a deep dive into communication at NASA at the time found that the sentiment was true. They really did believe that their actions were contributing to a much bigger mission. They converted simple tasks into meaningful ones, partially by reframing and connecting it to the greater goal. It wasn't working on some simple electrical circuit, it was helping get a man to the moon. People really did feel connected to the greater goal.

So What? This study speaks to the value of a vision, goal, and purpose. As I outlined in Peak Performance, having a self-transcending goal helps performance and decreases burnout. In that book, I discussed research that shows hospital janitors perform better when they connect their work to saving people's lives by decreasing infections. The same holds here. But...there's a tension here. Many CEO's took the message that big goals motivate. That's not the key. It's CONNECTION to a grander mission. Most employees don't feel connected to the work. And in turn, that work loses meaning. So what you've seen in the corporate world is lots of talk of missions, changing the world, and big audacious goals. But that talk backfires when it's not authentic and real. If that big mission of improving lives seems ridiculous, it's doing more harm than good. Be authentic, be real. Make sure your goals connect to the actual work being done.

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​Heat Training Works​

What they found: Heat training is the poor man's altitude. I first heard this phrase when I was a 14-year-old budding distance runner training in the heat and humidity of Houston, Tx. This study put that to the test with elite cyclists training either in a heat chamber or while wearing a heat suit. They found that training five days a week in the heat for five weeks led to a 2.4 to 2.6% increase in hemoglobin mass, which is the main benefit you are after when you do altitude training. Furthermore, performance tended to improve as well, when compared to a control group. They also found that reducing the amount of heat training per week to 3 days maintained that hemoglobin bump.

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So What? Let's be honest. I'm just looking for something to keep me motivated to go outside and train when it's 100 degrees out with what feels like 1000% humidity. No heat suit or chamber is needed, just step outside. But it's not a surprise that this occurs. When you exercise in the heat, more blood flow gets diverted to cooling your body, which means less blood flow, oxygen, etc. to the muscles themselves. The heat shifts the physiological demands, so it makes sense your body adapts. Does this mean you should heat train? Maybe if you are pushing your performance limits. But for most of us, use this as motivation for putting in the miles this summer. At least you're getting an added benefit for being miserable out there!

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​How to Improve Collaboration: Take Breaks​

What they found: Collaboration is the name of the game for successful teams and innovative organizations. But there's a catch. Research tends to show with group collaboration, "the average problem-solving performance of the group increases, but the best solution of the group actually decreases in quality." In other words, groups raise the floor of average ideas but don't quite improve the ceiling. Is there a way to get the best of both worlds? According to a recent study, yes! Take breaks! By alternating periods of group interaction with individual periods to work and brainstorm, they maximized both average and peak performances.

So What? Too often, we structure group collaboration in 'brainstorming' sessions where we all just get together and talk about a problem. A better approach is to give people both individual and group time. In fact, we'd be better off copying elementary school teachers, who often alternate between whole group, small group, and individual work when trying to teach kids a new concept. The same applies to adults. One way I've found effective is what I call the 15/15/15, where you spend 15 minutes in a group discussing the problem, 15 minutes solo wrestling with it, and 15 minutes coming back together. Of course, you can adjust the times to fit your needs.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to read my random musings on the latest science and research. Expect more of the same, the 2nd Sunday of every month. If you found this interesting, consider sharing this e-mail with a friend. And if you are that friend reading this message, sign up to get it monthly.

And let's keep the feedback coming! If you'd like to understand what the research says on a topic, send your suggestions my way. Who knows, it might be my next deep dive down the rabbit hole.

All the best,

​Steve​

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