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Politeness can sometimes hurt more than it helps
Ryan — a brilliant, enthusiastic young scientist — spent a two-year layover in my neuroscience laboratory between his undergrad studies in Vancouver, B.C., and graduate school on the East Coast. On his last day in California, we sat over drinks, reflecting on his plans for the future. I offered some parting advice and then asked the question I pose to everyone who graduates from my lab: “What could I have done better?” He hesitated, then replied, “You’re too nice.” This was startling, especially coming from a Canadian. (I’ve omitted Ryan’s last name to protect his privacy.) “Nice” might count as faint praise, but is it really an insult? I asked him to elaborate.
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Telecommuting Study Shows Benefits for Many Job Types, No Negative Effects
Teleworkers received higher job-performance ratings if the job was complex, required minimal interpersonal interaction, or if the worker received little social support at work.
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NSF Funding Available for Research on Augmenting Human Cognition and Intelligent Cognitive Assistants
NSF invites researchers to apply for funding for projects addressing two main themes related to the human-technology frontier: (1) Foundations for Augmenting Human Cognition and (2) Embodied Intelligent Cognitive Assistants.
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How to Make Friends as an Adult — and Why It’s Important
Anyone who’s ever made room for a big milestone of adult life–a job, a marriage, a move–has likely shoved a friendship to the side. After all, there is no contract locking us to the other person, as in marriage, and there are no blood bonds, as in family. Friendships are flexible. “We choose our friends, and our friends choose us,” says William K. Rawlins, Stocker Professor of Communication Studies at Ohio University. “That’s a really distinctive attribute of friendships.” But modern life can become so busy that people forget to keep choosing each other. That’s when friendships fade, and there’s reason to believe it’s happening more than ever.
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In war zones and refugee camps, researchers are putting resilience interventions to the test
n 2015, in the name of science, more than 800 teenage boys and girls in northern Jordan each allowed 100 strands of hair to be snipped from the crowns of their heads. Roughly half the teens were Syrian refugees, the other half Jordanians living in the area. The hair, molecular biologist Rana Dajani explained to the youngsters, would act as a biological diary. Chemicals embedded inside would document the teens' stress levels before and after a program designed to increase psychological resilience. It was a unique experiment. And it was one that suited Dajani, who's based at The Hashemite University in Az-Zarqa, Jordan.
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The data show that how we connect with romantic partners changes as we age
If you’re in your 20s or 30s and feel insecure in your relationship, you’re not alone. The good news: it’s likely that things will get better, according to data gathered about people’s attachment styles in romantic relationships. The adult attachment theory, developed in the 1980s by American ecologist Cindy Hazan and psychologist Phillip Shaver, sorts individuals into four categories by scoring them on just two traits: “avoidance” and “anxiety.” Avoidance refers to how willing you are to be vulnerable with your partner; anxiety refers to how much you worry about your partner paying attention to you.
