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How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings
Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Volume 16, Number 2) Read the Full Test (PDF, HTML) The term telecommuting was first coined in the early 1970s, and since that time the number of people taking advantage of the ability to work remotely has grown dramatically. By 1997, more than 100,000 U.S. federal employees were telecommuting, and by 2014, more than 3.3 million U.S. workers reported their home as their primary place of work. This number is only expected to grow as a result of the increasingly global nature of our economic and employment systems.
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DARPA Seeks Information on Experimental Falsifiability
Psychological scientists have called for an increased focus on replication to strengthen the reproducibility of scientific research. Now, other groups are beginning to follow suit: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), best known for developing emerging technologies for the military, has taken an interest in evaluating research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. This month, DARPA put out a request for information (RFI) seeking tools and approaches for disconfirming models, theories, and hypotheses.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Coping Styles in Twins Discordant for Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Depression Rebecca G. Fortgang, Christina M. Hultman, and Tyrone D. Cannon Although schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression are distinct disorders, they share some clinical features. One feature in need of additional study is the similarity -- or dissimilarity -- in coping style among people with these disorders. Monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs were given a clinical evaluation and were assessed for different types of coping behavior.
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Background Music Influences Buying Behavior
Background music has a surprisingly strong influence on what products consumers buy and how much they’re willing to pay for them, according to a new study from psychological scientists Adrian North and Lorraine Sheridan of Curtin University and Charles Areni of Macquarie University. North and colleagues hypothesized that specific songs or musical genres could prime congruent concepts in a person’s memory, ultimately shifting people’s preferences and buying behavior. Hearing Edith Piaf in the grocery store may then be just the thing to nudge a buyer to choose a French wine over an Italian or South African one.
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Stress Affects How Men and Women Provide Support to Partners
Men and women both provide strong support to their partners, but women tend to do a better job of being supportive under stressful situations.
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Mindfulness May Make Memories Less Accurate
The mechanism that seems to underlie the benefits of mindfulness might also affect people’s ability to determine the origin of a given memory.
