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Cambridge Analytica Scandal Casts Spotlight on Psychographics
A political data firm’s use of Facebook data for targeted messaging reveals the exploitation of psychometric data that some psychological scientists have warned about.
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How Reciprocity Can Magnify Inequality
A series of studies show that people tend to reciprocate others’ actions in ways that increase disparities in wealth.
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2-week Summer School in Nonlinear Dynamics in Life Sciences
Applications to Neuroscience and Psychology June 18-29, 2018; hosted at McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada We are pleased to announce a 2-week summer school in theory and applications of nonlinear dynamics in neuroscience and psychology. The program includes tutorials by experts in nonlinear dynamics, computer lab applications, and trainee presentations. Travel funds are available; housing and food costs are included.
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Is Fandom Really Worth It?
There’s a lot of losing in sports. Only one team can win at a time, and only one champion escapes the season without tears. But that doesn’t stop Americans from spending nearly $56 billion a year on sporting events, while dropping many billions more on jerseys, cable packages, buffalo wings—to say nothing of the substantial emotional costs incurred. (Having logged many fan-hours on behalf of the pre-success Cubs and post-success Arsenal FC, I’ve paid my fair share.) Is fandom worth it? At first glance, the evidence isn’t encouraging.
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Picture a Leader. Is She a Woman?
Tina Kiefer, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, fell upon the exercise accidentally, while leading a workshop full of executives who did not speak much English. Since then it has been adopted by organizational psychologists across the world. In terms of gender, the results are almost always the same. Both men and women almost always draw men. “Even when the drawings are gender neutral,” which is uncommon, Dr.
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If you want your kid to get a good job, let them play more
Fears about automation displacing workers around the world ranked high on the list of Things to Be Very Worried About at the World Economic Forum in January. “At the end of the day, we have to fire a lot of people,” said Ursula Burns, chairman of the supervisory board at telecom group VEON, and former CEO of Xerox—which, indeed, recently had to fire a lot of people. Most of the remedies on offer were the usual high-level suggestions: re-train workers, offer some kind of universal basic income, design a “new social contract” that requires companies to factor in the needs of workers along with maximizing shareholder value.