Pacific Standard: America, we learn as children, is the land of opportunity—a place where anyone who works hard and saves their money can climb their way into a higher social class. While statistics do not bear out this belief, newly published research suggests it remains stubbornly entrenched in our minds. Across More
Play may seem like fun and games, but new research shows that specific kinds of play are actually associated with development of particular cognitive skills. Data from a nationally representative study show that children who play frequently with puzzles, blocks, and board games tend to have better spatial reasoning ability. More
The Huffington Post: It’s well known that income inequality leads to all sorts of social problems. The bigger the gap between the affluent and the poor, the higher the rates of homicide, teenage pregnancy and infant mortality, to name just a few of the negative outcomes. Unequal societies are also More
The Huffington Post: “Our success should depend not on accident of birth, but on the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.” So President Obama proclaimed in his 2014 State of the Union Address, adding: “Opportunity is who we are.” Yet in the same speech, just More
It’s well known that income inequality leads to all sorts of social problems. The bigger the gap between the affluent and the poor, the higher the rates of homicide, teenage pregnancy and infant mortality, to name just a few of the negative outcomes. Unequal societies are also more polarized politically More
Pacific Standard: Psychologists and political scientists have puzzled for some time about why the same Americans who favor greater economic equality don’t also support the kinds of redistributive economic policies that would get them there. Perhaps, some say, it’s political ideology. Perhaps it’s some kind of twisted self-interest. Or perhaps More
