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Is Social Psychology Biased Against Republicans?
The New Yorker: On January 27, 2011, from a stage in the middle of the San Antonio Convention Center, Jonathan Haidt addressed the participants of the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. The topic was an ambitious one: a vision for social psychology in the year 2020. Haidt began by reviewing the field that he is best known for, moral psychology. Then he threw a curveball. He would, he told the gathering of about a thousand social-psychology professors, students, and post-docs, like some audience participation. By a show of hands, how would those present describe their political orientation?
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Is Powerlessness the Key to Successful Negotiation?
The Huffington Post: Leigh Steinberg, the real-life inspiration for the title character in the film Jerry Maguire, is one of the most successful agents in the history of American sports. He is also a master negotiator. It's said that when he signed quarterback Steve Bartkowski as his first client in 1975, he realized that the NFL rules allowed him no power to bargain over salary. The Atlanta Falcons had drafted his client, so if he was going to play pro ball, it was the Falcons or nothing. So what did Steinberg do? He offered Bartkowski's services to the Atlanta Falcons for a whopping $750,000 -- more than any football player had ever been paid.
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Eating Healthy vs. Your Own Brain
New York Magazine: There are many, many obstacles to reaching for an apple instead of a candy bar, and a new study out of Canada helps illuminate some of them. To the press release: Will that be a pizza for you or will you go for a salad? Choosing what you eat is not simply a matter of taste, conclude scientists in a new study at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre. As you glance over a menu or peruse the shelves in a supermarket, your brain is making decisions based more on a food's caloric content. Read the whole story: New York Magazine
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Maternal Buffering of Human Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry During Childhood but Not During Adolescence Dylan G. Gee, Laurel Gabard-Durnam, Eva H. Telzer, Kathryn L. Humphreys, Bonnie Goff, Mor Shapiro, Jessica Flannery, Daniel S. Lumian, Dominic S. Fareri, Christina Caldera, and Nim Tottenham Primary caregivers often play a vital role in helping children regulate themselves. Researchers examined the mechanism through which caregivers assist with their children's regulation by having children (ages 4-10) and adolescents (ages 11-17) perform a task while being scanned in an fMRI machine.
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Workers Worried About Job Loss Forego Support Programs
It’s been five years since the end of the recession was declared, but economists report that levels of unemployment in many states still haven’t fully recovered to their pre-recession levels. The sluggish economic recovery has kept many workers worried about the potential for layoffs and the risk of long-term unemployment. Although organizations offer programs meant to help employees cope with workplace stress, a recent study finds that employees who are stressed and anxious about their job prospects are hesitant to make use of these programs. Psychological scientists Wendy R. Boswell, Julie B. Olson-Buchanan, and T.
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Nervous Laughter, Tears of Joy
In Stanley Milgram’s famous obedience experiments, the subjects, called “teachers,” were instructed to shock the “learners” for every wrong answer. The learners, confederates in the study, were not actually shocked, of course, but the teachers believed they were—and they even heard faked cries of pain to add authenticity. Most of the subjects showed signs of distress, as one would expect, and some were extremely agitated. But it’s said that some of the subjects laughed when they heard the screams. We call this nervous laughter—incongruous emotional displays like chuckling uncontrollably at a funeral or some other somber or upsetting event.
