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Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence
The New York Times: Many decades ago I spent what seemed like a great deal of time under a scorching sun, watching groups of sweaty soldiers as they solved a problem. I was doing my national service in the Israeli Army at the time. I had completed an undergraduate degree in psychology, and after a year as an infantry officer, I was assigned to the army’s Psychology Branch, where one of my occasional duties was to help evaluate candidates for officer training. We used methods that were developed by the British Army in World War II. One test, called the leaderless group challenge, was conducted on an obstacle field.
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Babies are smarter than you think
CNN: In the past 30 years we've learned that babies and young children know more and learn more than we would ever have thought possible. Philosophers and psychologists, even the great Swiss child-development theorist Jean Piaget, once thought that babies and young children were irrational, solipsistic, illogical and amoral -- unable to take the perspective of others or understand cause and effect. But new scientific techniques have taught us that even the youngest infants already know a great deal about objects, people and language, and learn even more. In fact, they have implicit learning methods that are as powerful and intelligent as those of the smartest scientists.
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Who You Are
The New York Times: Daniel Kahneman spent part of his childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris. Like the other Jews, he had to wear a Star of David on the outside of his clothing. One evening, when he was about 7 years old, he stayed late at a friend’s house, past the 6 p.m. curfew. He turned his sweater inside out to hide the star and tried to sneak home. A German SS trooper approached him on the street, picked him up and gave him a long, emotional hug. The soldier displayed a photo of his own son, spoke passionately about how much he missed him and gave Kahneman some money as a sentimental present.
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Scientific Freedom, False Positives and the Fountain of Youth
The Huffington Post: "Chronological rejuvenation" is psychological jargon for the Fountain of Youth, that elusive tonic that, when we find it, will reverse the aging process. Though many of us would welcome such a discovery, most of us also know it's a fantasy, a scientific impossibility. So imagine my surprise when I came across this report on chronological rejuvenation while browsing in the highly regarded journal Psychological Science.
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Narcissists’ Overconfidence May Hide Low Self-Esteem
Live Science: Narcissists may seem to love themselves, but a new study finds that narcissistic self-aggrandizement may hide deep feelings of inferiority. According to the new research, people who are narcissistic are likely to tell psychologists that they feel good about themselves. But when the psychologists trick these narcissists into thinking they're hooked up to a working lie-detector test, the truth comes out and the narcissists admit to lower self-esteem. "This suggests that individuals with high levels of narcissism may be inflating their self-esteem," study researcher Erin Myers, a psychologist at Western Carolina University, told LiveScience.
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Having a bad day? Try washing your hands
WTOP: WASHINGTON -- Washing your hands, taking a shower or even imagining cleaning up can clear away a sense of immorality, feeling unlucky or having doubts. Researchers at the University of Michigan reached this conclusion after conducting several studies showing the act of removing residue from your body corresponds to perceptions in your mind. One example of the strength of that body and mind link is how people respond to telling a lie and whether the lie is spoken or typed in an email. People voicing a lie respond better to mouthwash afterward. While people typing a lie show preference for hand sanitizer. Read the whole story: WTOP
