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Are we really different from animals?
CNN: Thomas Suddendorf is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. He is the author of "The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals." We humans tend to think of ourselves as better than, or at least separate from, all other species on this planet. But every species is unique, and in that sense humans are no different. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that there is something extra special about us -- after all, we are the species running the zoos. In "The Gap," I survey what we currently do and do not know about what exactly sets humans apart.
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The Gift We Love to Receive but Forget to Give
LinkedIn: When you ask people around the world what they value most, one answer consistently rises to the top. It’s giving to the people who matter to us. We want to help others and contribute to our communities. But if you look at how we spend our time, we fail to live up to these values. I’d love to volunteer more, but I don’t have the free time. I’d donate more to charity, if only I had the money. If it didn’t require such a sacrifice, we’d all give more. Yet there’s one form of giving that involves few costs, while offering offers dramatic benefits to the people around us. It’s the single best way to help someone fall in love, and the most common way that people find a job.
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To Boost Concern for the Environment, Emphasize a Long Future, Not Impending Doom
Researchers find that one strong way to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior is to emphasize the long life expectancy of a nation, and not necessarily its imminent downfall.
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New Ways to Fight ‘Imposter Fears’
The Wall Street Journal: Feeling as if you don't belong—that you've landed in a fortunate spot by luck or by accident—can send anyone into a tailspin, from college students to corporate executives. Imposter fears are common among men and women alike, research shows, and are blamed for an array of problems, from high college-failure and dropout rates to low female participation in math, engineering and science jobs. ...
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: The Geography of Intimate Partner Abuse Experiences and Clinical Responses Anne P. DePrince, Susan E. Buckingham, and Joanne Belknap Studies examining the effects of intimate-partner abuse (IPA) often focus specifically on the victim; fewer studies examine the effect of ecological factors in victims' responses to IPA. Ethnically diverse women who had been the victims in police-reported IPA cases were assessed for incident severity, incident-related fear, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The researchers also collected information characterizing the communities in which the IPA incidents occurred.
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Yes, Your Toddler Really Is Smarter Than A 5-Year-Old
NPR: Parents, does your 18-month-old seem wise beyond her years? Science says you're not fooling yourself. Very small children can reason abstractly, researchers say, and are able to infer the relationships between objects that elude older children who get caught up on the concreteness of things. In experiments at the University of California, Berkeley, children as young as 18 months were able to figure out the relationship between colored blocks. The child would watch a researcher put two blocks on top of a box. If the blocks were identical, the box would play music. The majority of children were able to figure out the pattern after they were shown it just three times.
