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Political Polarization on Twitter Depends on the Issue
While people tend to share political information with those who have similar ideological preferences, research indicates that Twitter is more than just an “echo chamber.”
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Amazon’s Mistake: Mixing Creative Conflict With Animosity
“Of all [Jeff Bezos’] management notions, perhaps the most distinctive is his belief that harmony is often overvalued in the workplace — that it can stifle honest critique and encourage polite praise for flawed ideas. Instead, Amazonians are instructed to “disagree and commit” (No. 13) — to rip into colleagues’ ideas, with feedback that can be blunt to the point of painful, before lining up behind a decision.” - New York Times Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos may want to read up on some new findings from psychological science: conflict can enhance creativity, but not all conflict is good for business.
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Developing Electrophysiology Training Resources
This event was supported by the APS Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science, which invites applications for nonrenewable grants of up to $5,000 to launch new, educational projects in psychological science. Proposals are due October 1 and March 1. Cindy M. Bukach of the University of Richmond noticed a problem: The field of cognitive neuroscience relies on costly and complicated neuroimaging methodologies, creating a barrier to entry for undergraduates. An exception is the electroencephalography/event-related potential (EEG/ERP) technique, which offers inexpensive and accessible methodologies for investigating cortical dynamics during human cognition.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Can Faces Prime a Language? Evy Woumans, Clara D. Martin, Charlotte Vanden Bulcke, Eva Van Assche, Albert Costa, Robert J. Hartsuiker, and Wouter Duyck What cues initiate language selection in people who are bilingual? Spanish-Catalan bilinguals took part in simulated Skype conversations with interlocutors who spoke in either Spanish or Catalan.
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Why ‘Batman’ Met a Tragic Death on the Highway
Leonard B. Robinson, known as the "Route 29 Batman," was killed this week after his black “Batmobile” broke down on the highway. At the time of the accident, Robinson was dressed in the black Batman costume he often wore to cheer up sick children in the hospital. After his car experienced an engine problem, Robinson pulled over to the side of a dark highway where he got out of the car to check the engine in the dark. Robinson was killed when a passing car failed to spot him on the side of the road. Recent research has shown that pedestrians tend to underestimate how visible they are to drivers at night; likewise, motorists overestimate their own accuracy at spotting pedestrians in the dark.
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Good Stress, Bad Stress
Over the course of one’s life, hormonal changes alter behavior, mood, and cognition. Bruce McEwen has spent more than 40 years studying how hormones regulate the brain and nervous system, and his lab helped draw distinctions between the vital and toxic forms of stress. McEwen coined the term allostatic load, a concept that explains how stress systems that help the body survive can cause problems when overworked. This work has led to a realization that stress hormone effects are protective in the short term and potentially damaging in the long term.
