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Trust Tramples Turnover
Even when you have to break a promise or obligation, you’re more apt to keep your star players if they perceive you as fair and honest, a study suggests.
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Children’s Language Advantage
Why are children more successful at learning a new language compared to adults? Elissa Newport has devoted her career to studying human language acquisition, including the learning differences between children and adults. In her “less-is-more” hypothesis, she posits that children are better able than adults to learn languages because, paradoxically, they have fewer cognitive resources available to them.
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APS Announces Second Replication Project: Proposals Due April 10, 2014
APS is pleased to announce a new Registered Replication Report project is under way. The replication editors at Perspectives on Psychological Science will be reviewing applications to participate in this project through April 10th. Applicants should note that this study requires that subjects be native English speakers. Links to the study protocol and application to participate, as well as to the full project site on Open Science Framework, can be found here. Significant financial support is available. Researchers can seek funding for expenses related to conducting the replication, such as subject testing fees, materials, and other costs.
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Got a Dollar? You May Be Happier if You Spend it on Someone Else
A boost to income can increase happiness to a certain degree, but research suggests how you spend your money may be equally important as the amount you have.
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For Black Professional Men, It’s Who You Are, Not Who You Know
President Obama last week announced a new public-private initiative aimed at giving young minority men better opportunities — as long as they “work hard” and “take responsibility.” Indeed, those qualities tend to be more critical to the success of African American men than they are for other groups, who appear better able to leverage social and professional contacts to get ahead. Studies have shown that social capital — defined as one’s professional network — is a big factor in career advancement. But those studies focused largely on Caucasians. As a recent study shows, networking seems to be less of a factor in Black men's career accomplishments than are education and motivation.
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The Nature of Culture
Douglas Medin has explored scientific reasoning in children and adults across cultures, as well as across urban versus rural populations. His research also has focused on what is known as commons behavior. This line of inquiry asks why certain populations do or don’t destroy a shared environment to fulfill selfish needs. His research teams have studied indigenous Mayan populations and found that they share natural resources without draining them, largely because they develop a rich, spiritual understanding of forest ecology. Medin’s work has helped move psychological science beyond laboratory models to a broader focus on how our cultural background influences our view of the world.
