Everyday Things That Are Making You Dumber [LOOK]

This is a list of things that make you dumber. Even smart people can become dumb during these everyday activities and situations. Gaining weight, using the internet, meetings at work, sharing an office, lack of exercise... to get smart, don't do the things on this list that are making you dumb.

Based on clinical studies, this list of proven things that make you dumber includes daily activities that affect your memory, ability to make decisions, learning ability, thinking capacity, self-control, reasoning, and overall brain functionality. In short, this is a list of stuff that makes you dumb.

1

Going to Meetings

 Research from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute found that small-group dynamics - such as jury deliberations, collective bargaining sessions, and cocktail parties - can alter the expression of IQ in some susceptible people. "You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, who led the study. 

2

Using the Internet

 Web use is affecting our ability to remember things. No longer are we forced to rely on our memory for basic info, we can just Google it. A Columbia University study shows people have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The internet has become a primary form of external memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.

3

Being Obese

 According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the brains of obese people work harder than those of average-weight people to achieve the same results. The connections between the brain parts responsible for memory and decision-making were hyperactive in overweight people, but functioned normally in average-weight people, says study author Timothy Verstynen, Ph.D., a professor at Carnegie Mellon. High blood pressure and inflammation irritate your brain’s communication systems, making it harder for messages to come through, says Verstynen.

4

Not Getting Enough Sleep

 An NIH study shows that sleep deprivation effects cognitive performance, especially memory consolidation, and activates the sympathetic nervous system, which can lead to a rise of blood pressure. People who are exposed to sleep loss usually experience a decline in cognitive performance and changes in mood.

5

Staring at Your Facebook Profile

 A study published in the journal Media Psychology found that a brief exposure to one's own profile raised self-esteem, but that prolonged viewing hampered performance by decreasing one's motivation to perform well. 

6

Eating Junk Food

 Harvard research shows what we eat has an impact on our ability to remember and our likelihood of developing dementia as we age. Junk food or any foods loaded with saturated fat raise blood levels of unhealthy low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Other kinds of fats, such as trans fats, do the same thing to LDL. LDL cholesterol builds up in, and damages, arteries. Diets high in cholesterol and fat might speed up the formation of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. These sticky protein clusters are blamed for much of the damage that occurs in the brains of people with Alzheimer's.

7

Shared Office Space, Poor Ventilation

 

 The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance. In test subjects, the most dramatic declines in performance were for taking initiative and thinking strategically. The primary source of indoor CO2 is humans. So, a lot of people crammed in a small space produces too much Carbon Dioxide, brains aren't getting as much oxygen as they need. So spread out or open some windows to improve ventilation (and brain function). 

8

Living in a City

 Cities actually dull our thinking. Scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain. Just being in an urban environment impairs basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory and suffers from reduced self-control. 

9

Stories About Stupid People

 Sorry, reality TV and tabloid fans. Research suggests watching something dumb or reading about something dumb might make you dumber. It's called media priming - the idea that the things we watch, listen to or read influence our emotions and our behavior. So if watching or reading about stupid people makes you dumb, imagine what spending time with real-life stupid people can do.

10

Sugar

 A UCLA study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning - and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption.


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