Chapel Hill: College women who are more emotionally invested in Facebook and have lots of Facebook friends are less concerned with body size and shape and less likely to engage in risky dieting behaviors. But that’s only if they aren’t using Facebook to compare their bodies to their friends’ bodies, according to the authors of a surprising new study at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Philadelphia: A new study from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions suggests that a single set of genes affects a person’s perception of sweet taste, regardless of whether the sweetener is a natural sugar or a non-caloric sugar substitute.

Washington: Rudeness in the workplace isn’t just unpleasant: it’s also contagious.

Ithaca: Research by Cornell food scientists reveals how a person’s emotional state – particularly in the competitive, wide world of sports – affects the perception of taste. In particular, people in negative emotional states tend to crave sweets more than those in a positive frame of mind.

Washington: When a family finds itself in tough economic times, parents are likely to be more financially generous to a daughter than to a son. And the reason has to do with something parents often tell their adult children – they really want grandchildren.

Ann Arbor: A study of nearly 1,000 teens found that sexually active obese adolescents were significantly less likely to use contraception than normal weight peers, putting them at higher risk of unintended pregnancy.