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Bin Laden mythology lives on as fast sea burial sows doubt among believers that he is dead
The Canadian Press: WASHINGTON — Knowing there would be disbelievers, the U.S. says it used convincing means to confirm Osama bin Laden's identity during and after the firefight that killed him. But the mystique that surrounded the terrorist chieftain in life is persisting in death. Was it really him? How do we know? Where are the pictures? Already, those questions are spreading in Pakistan and surely beyond. In the absence of photos and with his body given up to the sea, many people do not believe bin Laden — the Great Emir to some, the fabled escape artist of the Tora Bora mountains to foe and friend alike — is really dead. U.S.
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Power, Confidence and…Infidelity
Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump–they’ve all cheated, they’ve all got power, and they’re all men. People often assume that men are more likely to cheat than women, so researchers decided to look at the role of gender and the role of power in infidelity. An upcoming study to be published in Psychological Science found that power has a stronger link to cheating than gender does.
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How Americans Think About Wealth
The Huffington Post: OK, so I confess I woke myself up at 3:45 a.m. to watch the royal wedding, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Who doesn't like a good fairy tale? But in order to savor the spectacle, I had to temporarily suppress my discomfort in the face of such opulence. Behind the fairy tale is some of the most obscene wealth inequality in the world. And it's not just England. Wealth inequality is at historic highs in the U.S. as well, with some estimates suggesting that 1 percent of Americans control nearly half the nation's wealth.
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How data helps to know people’s mind
Yahoo India: Washington, April 29 (ANI): An author has described how psychologists can use their data to learn about the different ways that people's minds work. Most psychology research is done by asking a big group of people the same questions at the same time. "So we might get a bunch of Psych 101 undergrads, administer a survey, ask about how much they use alcohol and what their mood is, and just look and see, is there a relationship between those two variables," said Daniel J. Bauer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the author of the article. Read the whole story: Yahoo India
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Test Flags Babies With Autism, But Also Feeds False Alarms
NPR: Pediatricians can use a five-minute questionnaire to identify many 1-year-olds with autism, according to a new study in Journal of Pediatrics. But the screening test also flags a whole lot of babies who aren't autistic. Even so, the result provides "an exciting proof of concept," says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, in a statement. NIMH helped pay for the study. Read the whole story: NPR
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We’ve Got to Have It Under Control
We love being in control. When we have power, we have control over what others do; when we have choice, we have control over what happens to us personally. A study published in Psychological Science found that when we have either power or choice, we don’t strive for the other as much, but when either source of control is lacking, we have a greater need for the other. In one experiment, volunteers who were asked to think about being in a powerless position favored the store that provided fifteen options of a desired product over a store with only three options. They were also willing to go to greater lengths (e.g.
