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Is Musical Talent Rooted in Genes?
LiveScience: Practice doesn't always make perfect when it comes to becoming the next Mozart, a new study suggests. Researchers compared pairs of identical twins, and found that no matter how hard one twin had practiced up until that point in their life, the other twin who had practiced much less still had an equal level of ability in certain musical skills. This may be because some aspects of musical talent are built into the genes, the researchers said. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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The 1 Question to Ask to Identify a Narcissist
New York Magazine: If you suspect someone in your life is a narcissist, there may be an incredibly straightforward way to confirm your suspicions: Just ask them. New research published in PLOS ONE suggests that simply asking narcissists to out themselves can be surprisingly effective. Specifically, researchers asked this question over a series of 11 studies: “To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist.’” The participants — and there were about 2,200 of them in total — were told to answer on a scale of one to seven.
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And the Moral of the Story Is: Keep It Positive
The New York Times: The slower pace of summer means more time to tell stories to our kids, whether it’s around a campfire or in a car on the long, long trip to our vacation spot. We tell these stories for many reasons: to entertain, to pass the time, to share adventures from our own past. And sometimes we tell stories in order to make a point. Parents, teachers, and other adults have employed moral parables for thousands of years (Aesop’s fables date to the sixth century B.C., and we’re still telling kids who are slow off the mark about the tortoise and the hare).
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The Idea of Racial Hierarchy Remains Entrenched in Americans’ Psyches
Pacific Standard: Remember all that talk about how the United States is becoming a post-racial society? New research throws cold water on the concept, suggesting that, at least on an unconscious level, Americans retain their belief in a race-based hierarchy. In a large-scale study measuring implicit judgments, Americans—not surprisingly—showed a strong liking for their own racial group. But beyond that bias, their answers revealed a consistent set of racial rankings, with whites being most associated with positive thoughts, followed by Asians. Surprisingly, African-Americans did not end up at the bottom of the list.
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Why Power in the Workplace Makes People Feel They Control Time
The Wall Street Journal: When it comes to time, people in power believe they have more of it at their disposal than others. In reality, time is a great equalizer. Minutes tick by at the same pace for all, whether the sun measures our day by lengthening shadows or an atomic clock subdivides our every second into 9 billion molecular moments. But positions of authority give people a sense they are better able to control time than subordinates, even though both groups are equally at the mercy of the clock. That conclusion is among the findings of five recent studies that measured how status and authority—the "boss effect"—shape our inner time zones. ...
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Does This Make Me Sound Insecure?
Slate: Insecurity, like blood, will out. It makes us feel so vulnerable and exposed that we eventually expose ourselves and become vulnerable. Like a scarlet sock in the load of white wash, insecurity has the irksome power to stain our speech and writing, interfering with the immaculate poise we’d like to project. Yet if you know what linguistic tics to look for, you can recognize self-doubt (and perhaps bleach the fuchsia from your pants before anyone notices). Insecurity has several linguistic calling cards, and learning to spot them may help you both assuage others and more skillfully present your self to the world.
