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Why Do So Few Women Write Letters to the Editor?
In America, letters to the editor have been around as long as newspapers. They represent one of the country’s most basic modes of political engagement, accessible—at least in theory—to all. They are also written, overwhelmingly, by men. --- The disparity, several experts told me, stems from “the confidence gap,” a phenomenon covered by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman in The Atlantic in 2014. Women are less likely to think that they’re, one, skilled enough write something worthwhile, and, two, able to offer insight other people should care about, Joyce Ehrlinger, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State, said.
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Birth Control Probably Doesn’t Change Who You’re Attracted to, Study Finds
A commonly touted theory about how women’s attraction to men works might be all wrong, suggests a new paper published this week in Psychological Science. Prior, small experiments have found that birth control pills and ovulation could change a woman’s sexual preferences. Now, a large new study has found that women’s preferences for men’s faces are reliably stable, regardless of whether they’re taking birth control pills or whether they’re ovulating. Some previous experiments have found that women taking hormonal contraceptives or experiencing their period were more likely to favor male facial features that are less associated with testosterone, like a rounder jaw or thinner eyebrows.
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The Fox And The Hedgehog: The Triumphs And Perils Of Going Big
The Greek poet Archilochus wrote, "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." There are many different interpretations of this parable, but psychologist Phil Tetlock sees it as a way of understanding two cognitive styles: Foxes have different strategies for different problems. They are comfortable with nuance; they can live with contradictions. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, focus on the big picture. They reduce every problem to one organizing principle. "The hedgehogs are more the big idea people, more decisive. In most MBA programs, they'd probably be viewed as better leadership material," Tetlock says.
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School’s still in. Here’s how to help kids get through to the end.
Down in her room on the first floor at Benjamin Banneker Middle School, Clara McDonald might be speedily tossing a bean bag around with her sixth-graders over the next few weeks. And they’ll probably be shouting out author names and parts of speech. Over the 19 years she’s been teaching reading, McDonald, who is known as “Pete” at the Burtonsville, Md., school, has learned a few important lessons about how spring visits her classroom: Sometimes students need to learn in a different way.
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What is Grammar’s Role in Conflict?
A new study shows just how critical word choice becomes in softening long-standing conflicts — including geopolitical clashes
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At What Age Does Our Ability to Learn a New Language Like a Native Speaker Disappear?
The older you get the more difficult it is to learn to speak French like a Parisian. But no one knows exactly what the cutoff point is—at what age it becomes harder, for instance, to pick up noun-verb agreements in a new language. In one of the largest linguistics studies ever conducted—a viral internet survey that drew two thirds of a million respondents—researchers from three Boston-based universities showed children are proficient at learning a second language up until the age of 18, roughly 10 years later than earlier estimates. But the study also showed that it is best to start by age 10 if you want to achieve the grammatical fluency of a native speaker.
