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Feelings of Entitlement Enhance Creativity
Entitlement is rarely viewed as a positive quality. But a recent study finds that a sense of entitlement can lead to one surprisingly positive outcome—increased creativity. Entitled people are unapologetic about getting what they want, when they want it, without regard for anyone else. By definition, entitled people feel that the rules just do not apply to them, and this can easily lead to problems in the workplace. Researchers have found that people who feel a sense of entitlement are more likely to make unethical decisions, break rules, and engage in hostile behavior. But across four experiments, psychological scientists Emily M. Zitek of Cornell University and Lynne C.
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Babies Can Follow Complex Social Situations
Infants can make sense of complex social situations, taking into account who knows what about whom, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Our findings show that 13-month-olds can make sense of social situations using their understanding about others’ minds and social evaluation skills,” says psychological scientists and study authors You-jung Choi and Yuyan Luo of the University of Missouri.
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The Power of Puppies: Looking at Cute Images Can Improve Focus
Pictures of baby animals, including puppies and kittens, can have powerful effects on attention and concentration, a study shows.
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We Know How You Feel
The New Yorker: Three years ago, archivists at A.T. & T. stumbled upon a rare fragment of computer history: a short film that Jim Henson produced for Ma Bell, in 1963. Henson had been hired to make the film for a conference that the company was convening to showcase its strengths in machine-to-machine communication. Told to devise a faux robot that believed it functioned better than a person, he came up with a cocky, boxy, jittery, bleeping Muppet on wheels. “This is computer H14,” it proclaims as the film begins.
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Positive thinking? It’s not enough to reach your goals
USA Today: "Dream it. Wish it. Do it" is a popular T-shirt slogan. It is not a very good way to change your life – as countless people who made New Year's resolutions to lose weight, start exercising or improve work habits are learning right about now. Positive thinking has its merits, but it has been seriously oversold as a way to achieve goals, a growing body of research shows. If you want to change, you might want to confront your dreams with some hard, cold, even negative reality, studies show. "It's so pleasant to believe that positive fantasies will work," says Gabriele Oettingen, a professor of psychology at New York University.
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How Do We Respond to Parenthood?
Pacific Standard: Yes, men have a harder time than women adjusting to life as new parents. But that blanket statement covers up important differences between individual men and women—specifically how those differences affect couples making the transition to parenthood, according to a new study. Maybe this goes without saying, but men and women respond differently when the stork comes calling, reporting different levels of satisfaction with their relationships depending on their individual childcare responsibilities.
