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Science: U.S. presidents are becoming more narcissistic over time
The Washington Post: Presidents of the United States are gradually becoming more narcissistic, and that might not necessarily be a bad thing. That isn't meant as an endorsement of the unethical behavior associated with some kinds of narcissism in a new analysis of data on presidential personalities. Unethical behavior should never be condoned. Ever! Well, okay. Maybe sometimes. But only sometimes. In the right circumstances. If you are concerned with good executive leadership in general, say, you might be willing to forgive the occasional lapse.
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The Brain’s Way Of Dealing With ‘Us’ and ‘Them’
The Wall Street Journal: A tribe of shepherds brings its sheep to graze at a common field. Every shepherd limits the size of his herd to avoid overgrazing the commons—except for one selfish guy who doesn't care. What should be done to solve this problem? Now consider two rival tribes of shepherds being forced to share the same field. In one tribe, the herd is communally owned, while the second tribe would divide the field into fenced plots belonging to each individual. What should be done to reconcile these two different views?
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Beware the Long-Winded Leader
The most overbearing talkers in the office can be bad for business. Whether it’s in the conference room or by the water cooler, they display an incessant need to dominate every meeting and every conversation. And if they’re in positions of authority, they can douse any ideas from others. But loquacious folks who aren’t in leadership roles don’t get away with controlling the dialogue, new research shows. Their colleagues simply don’t allow them to hijack a meeting or override anyone else’s input. And that leads to better sharing of information and ideas. The research is based on experimental studies led by psychological scientist Leigh Plunkett Tost of the University of Michigan.
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Hungry? Low Blood Sugar May Increase Support for Social Welfare
Think “Hunger Games” and you’ll undoubtedly think of heroine Katniss Everdeen fighting against a totalitarian state in the blockbuster series of books and movies. Fortunately for us, those Hunger Games are entirely fictional, but new research suggests that we may have developed a different kind of real-world “hunger games” as a way of getting others to share a particularly precious resource: Food.
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Overeating Due to Stress?
Scientific American: Stress can make some people (me included) lose our appetite. Other folks find comfort in food. But such behaviors may actually even out in the long term. Because researchers find that people who change eating patterns when stressed out may actually make up for those not-so-healthy impulses during easier times. So finds a study in the journal Psychological Science. Volunteers for the study self-identified as either “munchers” or “skippers”. Each person had to interact with another person via video chat, with the intention of meeting them later.
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The Surprising Science Of Workplace Training
The Brilliant Blog: The problem with workplace training is that it seems so simple: Show employees what to do, have them practice it a few times, and you’re done. But “training is not as intuitive as it may seem,” notes Eduardo Salas, a professor of psychology at the University of Central Florida. “There is a science of training that shows that there is a right way and a wrong way to design, deliver, and implement a training program.” Salas is the lead author of “The Science of Training and Development in Organizations: What Matters in Practice,” a report published recently in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
