-
Why Christmas Creep Turns Holiday Shoppers into Grinches
TIME: We’re a nation divided, with each side judging the other harshly, unable to empathize with the counterpart’s point of view. And with each sure that their side’s own values, methods and motives are more just, more reasonable, and just plain better. Sound familiar? And yet, according to the National Retail Federation, more than 40% of Americans begin their holiday shopping before Halloween. No one’s forcing them to do so. Could such a large percentage of our population truly be neurotic, materialistic, and/or easily manipulated, like Joanne suggests? Read the whole story: TIME
-
Is Your 4-Year-Old A Liar? Here’s The Bright Side
NPR: Most parents bewail the inevitable occurrence of lying in their kids, but the emergence of deception in childhood may actually signal the development of something pretty wonderful: an ability to understand other people's beliefs as distinct from one's own. This ability is part of what psychologists call "theory of mind," and a new paper finds that improving children's theory of mind abilities can turn honest 3-year-olds into strategic liars. That might not sound like a positive outcome, but it tells us something important about how theory of mind affects social behavior. ... That's where new research by Xiao Pan Ding and colleagues comes in.
-
Math Anxiety Doesn’t Equal Poor Math Performance
Experiencing math anxiety — nervousness and discomfort in relation to math — impairs math performance for some students, but new research shows that it’s linked with improved performance for others, at least to a degree. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
-
Jeb Bush Says Psych Majors End Up “Working at Chick-fil-A”
Slate: Only a few months into primary season and the GOP has already identified plenty of scapegoats. Immigrants. Planned Parenthood. Psychology majors. As Jeb Bush said at a recent town hall, “Universities ought to have skin in the game. … When a student shows up, they ought to say, ‘Hey, that psych major deal … that’s great … but realize you’re going to be working at Chick-fil-A.” ... As a psychology professor, I’m biased, but I think psychology majors have more to offer than fast food prep skills. We live in a complex society with challenging problems. The social sciences offer tools to solve these problems. Take the rising cost of health care.
-
Why do drivers hate cyclists?
CBC: On last week's program, we had a conversation about a proposal to license cyclists in Vancouver. That unleashed a torrent of feedback - more than we've ever had on a single item, and much of it hostile to cyclists. This week, we asked psychologist Ian Walker why drivers get so angry about cyclists. Walker studies traffic and transportation psychology in the United Kingdom. Read the whole story: CBC
-
Why Screams Are So Upsetting
Scientific American: If there is one sound that bettered our ancestors' chances of survival, it might be the scream. When a baby needs food, it hollers; if a ravenous lion prowls a little too close, a blood-curdling shriek alerts the tribe. Yet from an acoustic standpoint, screams—and how our brain processes the sound—have been largely overlooked by researchers, until now. A study published in July in Current Biology found that screams are sonically unique in a way that perfectly captures our attention.
