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The One Thing You Can Learn From Ryan Lochte’s Olympic Mistake
TIME: Ryan Lochte is in hot water. After he reported being robbed in Brazil, authorities investigated and learned a very different story. It turns out Lochte and his fellow swimmers had a confrontation with gas station employees after trashing their property. In an attempt to put this episode behind him, Lochte, the second most decorated Olympic swimmer in history and erstwhile reality TV star, apologized: “I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend—for not being more careful and candid.” ... In our research, we have identified three critical elements of an effective apology.
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Neuroscientists scanned Sting’s brain. Here’s what they learned.
The Washington Post: A book with the title “This Is Your Brain on Music” would, presumably, be of great interest to a musician like Sting. His gray matter has been on the stuff for a career that spans four decades. What the once and future Police frontman could not have anticipated is that by reading the book, authored by rocker-turned-McGill University neurologist Daniel Levitin, Sting would end up inside an fMRI machine. As coincidence would have it, in the wake of reading Levitin’s book, Sting was headed to a concert in Montreal. Also located in the city is Levitin’s lab, which Sting decided to visit.
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Tim Duncan, Natalie Portman and 76 other ‘unusual’ authors of psychological research
Minnpost: What do the Academy-Award-winning actor Colin Firth, the conservative radio host Michael Savage, the San Antonio Spurs basketball great Tim Duncan and eHarmony founder Neil Clark Warren have in common? They’ve all published papers or studies in psychology journals, according to an intriguing (and sometimes amusing) recent article in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Read the whole story: Minnpost
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Most Americans Think Their Opinion on Guns is Widely Shared
TIME: When it comes to how Americans view gun ownership, there is a curious contradiction: Almost everyone thinks the majority of the country agrees with them. In June, we ran a survey in partnership with social psychologists Sander van der Linden of Cambridge and Princeton Universities and Adam Pearson of Pomona College, in which readers were polled on their opinions about gun ownership and then asked to predict how other people felt about the issue. The more likely the 5,117 respondents were to agree with the statement “I think having a gun in the home increases one’s risk of death,” the more likely they were to think other Americans agreed as well, as the following graph demonstrates.
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A bit of cash can keep someone off the streets for 2 years or more
Science: If someone is about to become homeless, giving them a single cash infusion, averaging about $1000, may be enough to keep them off the streets for at least 2 years. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that programs that proactively assist those in need don’t just help the victims—they may benefit society as a whole. “I think this is a really important study, and it’s really well done,” says Beth Shinn, a community psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who specializes in homelessness but was not involved in the work. Read the whole story: Science
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The power of rituals
The Boston Globe: WADE BOGGS, THE Hall of Fame third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, was famous for his pregame rituals. Before each outing, he ate chicken, took batting practice at 5:17 p.m., did wind sprints at 7:17 p.m., and fielded 150 ground balls. He also wrote the Hebrew word for life (“chai”) in the dirt before going up to bat. Did these superstitions do any good? Some new research suggests they might have, and that anyone — from Olympic athletes to office workers — can benefit from the same kinds of routines. So, how does one go about testing the power of superstition?
