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She Takes After You!
Slate: I vaguely remember my son’s first crawl, his first steps, and the first time he said “mama.” But I really remember the first time he swore. It was shortly after he had turned 3. He was playing with his toys in the other room, and I’m guessing he was getting frustrated because, for the zillionth time, his zoo animals weren’t fitting in his zoo truck. Suddenly I heard: “Fuck it chuck it!” I froze. My first thought was: Did I just hear what I think I heard? Then I wondered: Is it bad if I laugh? Because that was kind of hilarious.
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Airport Security; Attitudes to Psychosis; Walking Happy
BBC: Home Secretary Theresa May says the UK is facing a terror threat "perhaps greater than it has ever been", and this week's anti-terrorism bill includes tighter airport security. But two psychology professors say current screening methods used at airports, where security agents check the behaviour of passengers for "suspicious signs", need an urgent upgrade.
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How to Be a Better Writer: 6 Tips From Harvard’s Steven Pinker
Time: U want 2B a better writer? Good writing is often looked at as an art and, frankly, that can be intimidating. No need to worry. There are rules — even science — behind writing well. Our brain works a particular way; so what rules do we need to know to write the way the brain best understands? To find out the answer I gave Steven Pinker a call. Steven is a cognitive scientist and linguist at Harvard. He’s also on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Read the whole story: Time
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Sons’ Intelligence Linked to Fathers’ Criminal History
Sons whose fathers have criminal records tend to have lower cognitive abilities than sons whose fathers have no criminal history, data from over 1 million Swedish men show. The research, conducted by scientists in Sweden and Finland, indicates that the link is not directly caused by fathers’ behavior but is instead explained by genetic factors that are shared by father and son. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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6th FPR–UCLA Interdisciplinary Conference
A Critical Moment: Sex/Gender Research at the Intersection of Culture, Brain, & Behavior October 23-24, 2015 UCLA This conference occurs at a critical juncture in sex/gender research in neuroscience, anthropology, psychology, and related disciplines. New theories are utilizing a conception of the brain as dynamic, plastic, and adaptable, and of sex/gender brain and behavioral differences as subject to the influence of a broad range of biological, cultural, and social or environmental factors. In organizing this conference, our aim is to bring the neuro- and social sciences together to consider three cross-cutting questions on sex/gender: Why now? what’s fixed/changing/changeable?
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How to Defeat the Impulse Buy
The New York Times: As Thanksgiving approaches, so does the holiday shopping season. Once again, a day traditionally meant to celebrate gratitude will inaugurate a month of rampant consumerism. As a psychologist who studies decision making, I’m acutely aware that marketers know how the mind works, and they aren’t hesitant to use that knowledge to stoke consumers’ desires and lessen their self-control. Tactics emphasizing scarcity (“only 10 televisions at this price in stock”) and delayed cost (“0 percent interest until 2016”) are employed to great effect.
