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Considering Your Opponent’s Perspective Isn’t Likely to Change Your View
It's a piece of advice we've all received at one time or another: Don't judge someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes. It's based on the assumption that seeing things from another person's perspective can open our minds and bring us closer together. New research contradicts that axiom. It finds that temporarily adopting the point of view of a political opponent can actually harden our original positions. "Despite its well-known benefits, perspective-taking can inhibit, rather than facilitate, openness to change," writes a research team led by psychologist Rhia Catapano of Stanford University.
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What the ‘10-Year Challenge’ Might Say About You, and Me
Earlier this month out of nowhere came the “How Hard Did Aging Hit You Challenge” that flooded Instagram and Facebook. The game, better known as the “10-Year Challenge,” couldn’t have been easier: Simply post two photos side by side — an early profile photo from 2009 next to a recent one — as proof positive of how you’ve aged. Or, in many cases, miraculously not aged. It was fun to watch, especially considering how good many of my friends looked. I posted on their feeds. “Ageless!” “Gorgeous X2.” And, “Which is which?” The whole exercise seemed harmless, if a bit self-involved, despite some concerns about privacy.
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Game Brain Science: How Your Super Bowl Team Plays Can Sway What You Eat
The Super Bowl isn't just one of the biggest sporting events of the year. It's also one of the biggest eating events. And whether your team wins or loses the big game can influence how you enjoy your food – and how much of it you consume – even the day after. That's according to neuroscientist Rachel Herz, who is on the faculty at Brown University and Boston College and author of Why You Eat What You Eat. "Many, many chickens die for the Super Bowl, and it's estimated that people consume, in the four to five hours of the game alone, 2,400 calories," Herz notes, pointing to a popular estimate released by the Calorie Control Council.
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What Keeps Some Presidents Carved into Our Memories While Others Are Forgotten
Memory research explains why a few US presidents remain so profound in the national consciousness while most others are destined to fade from our collective memory.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring income inequality and racial bias, support for resettling refugees, and self-referential stimuli in working memory.
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SBE and NSF’s Big Ideas
This letter from SBE’s Assistant Director, Arthur Lupia, is posted to alert the SBE research community about substantial funding opportunities from NSF relevant to SBE scientists.
