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Itchy Trigger Finger? How About Itchy Brain?
Police work is very dangerous, often involving bad people with guns, and one of the most dangerous policing tasks is searching and clearing a house. This is where the police go room to room through a building, in pursuit of a suspect, who may be armed and dangerous. The police officer must be fully prepared to shoot—finger on the trigger, mind alert—in case he or she does confront a suspect who is armed and ready to shoot. But the officer must also have the self-restraint not to pull the trigger if he or she bursts into a room and confronts an innocent bystander.
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The Perils of Being a ‘Chameleon’ in a Job Interview
We often unconsciously mirror the behavior of those around us, particularly when we’re trying to make a good impression, a phenomenon known as the “chameleon effect.” Research shows that, in general, mimicking another person’s gestures, inflections, or posture tends to make us come across as more likeable to that person. But a new study conducted by a team of psychological scientists from Texas Tech University and Drew University finds that people will also unwittingly mimic negative behaviors that can potentially get them into trouble. Researchers K. Rachelle Smith-Genthôs, Darcy A. Reich, Jessica L. Lakin, and Mario P.
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In the Bully Pulpit: ‘It’s the Right Thing to Do.’
The Huffington Post: In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama urged the Congress to take action on paid sick leave for American workers. Forty-three million workers currently have no paid sick leave, the President noted, forcing many to make "the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home." Rectify this situation, he told the lawmakers: "It's the right thing to do." ... After the volunteers read these justifications, the scientists asked them how much they supported each policy, and also asked them to rate the leaders on kindness, compassion and caring.
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The Technology that Unmasks Your Hidden Emotions
The Wall Street Journal: Paul Ekman, perhaps the world’s most famous face reader, fears he has created a monster. The 80-year-old psychologist pioneered the study of facial expressions in the 1970s, creating a catalog of more than 5,000 muscle movements to show how the subtlest wrinkling of the nose or lift of an eyebrow reveal hidden emotions. Now, a group of young companies with names like Emotient Inc., Affectiva Inc. and Eyeris are using Dr. Ekman’s research as the backbone of a technology that relies on algorithms to analyze people’s faces and potentially discover their deepest feelings.
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Does Mathematical Ability Predict Career Success?
Scientific American: In the early 1970s researchers identified a large sample of U.S. 13-year-olds who were exceptionally talented in math—landing in the top 1 percent of mathematical reasoning scores on SAT tests. Forty years later those wunderkinder are now midcareer and have accomplished even more than expected, according to a recent follow-up survey. Researchers at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College published the update in the December 2014 issue of Psychological Science, writing: “For both males and females, mathematical precocity early in life predicts later creative contributions and leadership in critical occupational roles.” Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Need to Solve a Personal Problem? Try a Third-Person Perspective
Why is it that when other people ask for advice about a problem, we always seem to have sage words at the ready, but when we ourselves face a similar situation, we feel stumped about what to do? In a 2014 Psychological Science article, researchers Igor Grossmann (University of Waterloo) and APS Fellow Ethan Kross (University of Michigan) suggested that people’s tendency to reason more wisely about others’ social problems than they do about their own is a common habit — one they referred to as Solomon’s Paradox. In a series of studies, the researchers not only found evidence of Solomon’s Paradox, but also identified a way that this reasoning bias can be eliminated.
