-
Birth order may not shape personality after all
Birth order, according to conventional wisdom, molds personality: Firstborn children, secure with their place in the family and expected to be the mature ones, grow up to be intellectual, responsible and conformist. Younger siblings work harder to get their parents’ attention, take more risks and become creative rebels. That’s the central idea in psychologist Frank J. Sulloway’s “Born to Rebel,” an influential book on birth order that burst, like a water balloon lobbed by an attention-seeking third-born, onto the pop psychology scene two decades ago.
-
Boost your creativity by developing your “distant thinking” skills
The common human default mode is that we focus our energy on the here-and-now, and care less about ourselves and the events of the farther-off future. This present-bias can get in the way of all sorts of decisions that might improve our lot. The struggle with delayed gratification is what makes it hard to choose saving for retirement over spending today, or committing to a diet or exercise plan for our future health at the cost of spending less time on the couch binging Netflix and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. Or, say, supporting public policy aimed at tamping down the march of global warming for the benefit of future generations.
-
Why You Procrastinate (It Has Nothing to Do With Self-Control)
If you’ve ever put off an important task by, say, alphabetizing your spice drawer, you know it wouldn’t be fair to describe yourself as lazy. After all, alphabetizing requires focus and effort — and hey, maybe you even went the extra mile to wipe down each bottle before putting it back. And it’s not like you’re hanging out with friends or watching Netflix. You’re cleaning — something your parents would be proud of! This isn’t laziness or bad time management. This is procrastination. If procrastination isn’t about laziness, then what is it about?
-
What Police Departments and the Rest of Us Can Do to Overcome Implicit Bias, According to an Expert
Jennifer Eberhardt is a MacArthur “genius grant” winner and psychology professor at Stanford University who studies implicit bias. TIME spoke with her about her new book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See Think and Do, as well as her research, her work with police departments and how implicit bias can affect us all.
-
Concept Submissions Due 4/15: NSF Collaborative Research on Data Science and Human-Technology Frontier
The National Science Foundation has announced a Convergence Accelerator pilot initiative dedicated to advancing integrative research on data science and the human-technology frontier. Psychological scientists are encouraged to apply, as behavioral science is integral to the problem areas targeted by this collaborative program.
-
Advanced Modeling of Behavior Summer School Apps Open
The Barcelona Summer School for Advanced Modeling of Behavior (BAMB) is accepting applications for a 30 student course on model based analysis of behavior for cognitive and computational neuroscientists at the PhD and early career levels. The course will run September 4 – 10 at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona, Spain. The application deadline is June 3, 2019. More information on the program and application process is available on the BAMB website. BAMB is supported by the William K. and Katherine W. Estes Fund.
