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Why We Feel Others’ Pain — or Don’t
The Huffington Post: When the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 teenage girls from a schoolhouse last month, the world responded with an outpouring of undiluted emotion -- shock, outrage, fear, and most of all deep sympathy for the victims and their families. It was impossible not to feel the suffering of these innocent, helpless girls in the hands of their cruel jihadist captors. Well, maybe not impossible. Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter showed not a trace of empathy, as she chose instead to poke fun at a Twitter campaign to raise awareness of the victims' plight.
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SARMAC 11th Annual Meeting
The Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC) 11th annual meeting will be held June 24–27, 2015, in Victoria, BC, Canada. Visit www.sarmac.org/upcoming-conferences for more information. SARMAC welcomes submissions for papers, symposia, or posters in any area of applied research on memory and cognition (e.g., law, education, engineering, health/medicine, politics, marketing). Deadline for submissions is January 9, 2015.
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Peer Pressure Lasts Only Three Days, Study Says
TIME: Feeling pressure to go on a date with someone all your friends told you was so cute? Just wait three days and your true feelings might be revealed. It turns out the influence of others may not have as big an impact on your decisions as psychological researchers previously thought, according to a new study published in Psychological Science. In fact, their opinion may only be impactful for a short period. Read the whole story: TIME
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Little Children and Already Acting Mean
The Wall Street Journal: Children still in kindergarten or even younger form cliques and intentionally exclude others, say psychologists and educators who are increasingly noticing the behavior and taking steps to curb it. Special programs are popping up in elementary schools to teach empathy as a means of stemming relational aggression, a psychological term to describe using the threat of removing friendship as a tactical weapon. Children also are being guided in ways to stand up for themselves, and to help others, in instances of social exclusion.
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Comfort Food Myth: Ice Cream May Not Boost Your Mood
LiveScience: The idea that eating certain foods make us feel better when we're down may be a myth, psychologists say. In fact, we may simply feel better after some time has passed, regardless of what food we eat, a new study says. In the study, people were asked to pick foods that they thought would make them feel better if they were in a bad mood, such as chocolate, cookies or ice cream. They were also asked to pick foods that they liked, but that they didn't think would boost their mood. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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The Anatomy of Everyday Hatred
The Huffington Post: It's hard to outdo Medea for raw hatred. Thrown over by her husband Jason for another woman, the mythic sorceress takes revenge by poisoning her rival and, just for good measure, her rival's father. Then, just to make sure that Jason comprehends the enormity of her wrath, she murders their two sons in cold blood. Now that's hate -- and probably a lot of other emotions as well, including jealousy and humiliation and anger and disgust. Scientists and poets have long been fascinated by intense, negative emotions such as Medea's, but surprisingly there is no overarching theory of hatred. Who hates whom, and why? What do we mean when we say, I hate?