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Budgets and Biases: Summing Up American Values
Our lawmakers may have averted the fiscal cliff on the first of the year, but the threat of sequestration still looms over the nation. If the Congress and the White House cannot agree on the particulars of deficit reduction by March, draconian across-the-board cuts will slash both national security spending and core domestic programs, ranging from education to public health to environmental protection. Every federal budget is, underneath those numbers, a set of values—many related to protecting Americans from harm. But the mandate to cut spending means choosing among those values and safeguards.
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Happy Home in Adolescence Tied to Good Marriages Later
LiveScience: Having a warm and supportive home during one's teenage years may make for more satisfying marriages later on, new research suggests. Those who come from a family where people can talk positively through conflicts tend to bring the same supportive communication style to their marriages. And they tend to be more satisfied with their marriages, according to the research. "The overall family climate seems to matter," said study author Robert Ackerman, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Dallas. "A positive family climate is related to individuals being more positively engaged with their spouses." Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Why extroverts fail, introverts flounder and you probably succeed
The Washington Post: Spend a day with any leader in any organization, and you’ll quickly discover that the person you’re shadowing, whatever his or her official title or formal position, is actually in sales. These leaders are often pitching customers and clients, of course. But they’re also persuading employees, convincing suppliers, sweet-talking funders or cajoling a board. At the core of their exalted work is a less glamorous truth: Leaders sell. So what kind of personality makes the best salesperson — and therefore, presumably, the most effective leader? Does this mean instead that introverts, the soft-spoken souls more at home in a study carrel than on a sales call,are more effective?
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Can You Read the Face of Victory?
The New York Times: Picture a tennis player in the moment he scores a critical point and wins a tournament. Now picture his opponent in the instant he loses the point that narrowly cost him the title. Can you tell one facial expression from the other, the look of defeat from the face of victory? Try your hand at the images below, of professional tennis players at competitive tournaments. All were included in a new study that suggests that the more intense an emotion, the harder it is to distinguish it in a facial expression. Read the whole story: The New York Times
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The culture of lying
The Miami Herald: While it is not possible to say whether Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o is a victim or perpetrator in the fake girlfriend hoax, his story, paired with cyclist Lance Armstrong’s admitted doping on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network last week, represents someone foisting a big lie into the cultural mainstream. Researchers at Zhejiana Normal University in China and at Northwestern University found that lying “becomes more automatic upon training.” When people practice deception, it is simply easier to lie, in turn making it harder to differentiate from the truth. Read the whole story: The Miami Herald
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How Effective Are Tactics Used on TV Shows to Treat Troubled Teens?
TIME: Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell— these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and narrow. But the strategies may make for better TV than treatment. ... “Time and time again, research finds these approaches to be innocuous at best and traumatizing at worst,” says John Norcross, professor of psychology at the University of Scranton who studies the effectiveness of psychological treatments.
