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Feeling Powerful Makes You Think You Are Taller Than You Are
ABC News: Feeling powerful today? Then you probably think you are taller than you really are. And if you feel a tad powerless, you probably feel like the runt of the litter. In a provocative new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., participants in three experiments who were made to feel powerful estimated their own physical height significantly higher than it really was. And conversely, those made to feel less powerful thought they were shorter in stature than they actually were. Read the full story: ABC News
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A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond
The New York Times: IN 1905, at age 55, Sir William Osler, the most influential physician of his era, decided to retire from the medical faculty of Johns Hopkins. In a farewell speech, Osler talked about the link between age and accomplishment: The “effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of 25 and 40 — these 15 golden years of plenty.” In comparison, he noted, “men above 40 years of age” are useless.
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Act Your Age
There is no denying that in Western society, youth is valued. It is estimated that in 2008, more than £16 billion was spent on anti-aging products the United Kingdom. In 2006, Americans spent over $45 billion on cosmetics, plastic surgery, and hormone therapy. Despite this massive effort to combat aging, there is little research on the social consequences of attempting to look younger. Psychological scientists Alexander Schoemann and Nylar Branscombe (University of Kansas, Kansas, USA) investigated how young adults evaluate older adults who attempt to make themselves look younger. Most research has been done on in-group-out-group interactions.
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Powerful people think they’re taller than they are (we’re looking at you, Sarkozy)
Toronto Star: Women don’t need high heels to feel taller – all they need is a little bit of power. People overestimate their height when they are in more powerful positions, according to new research from Washington University and Cornell. “Although a great deal of research has shown that physically imposing individuals are more likely to acquire power, this work is the first to show that the powerful may actually feel taller than they are,” Michelle Duguid and Jack Goncalo wrote in the study. Perhaps 5-foot-5 French President Nicholas Sarkozy, notorious for standing on boxes while being photographed, really feels like he’s 6-foot-1.
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Kids Want Fame More Than Anything
Huffington Post: "This is America, where everyone has the right to life, love and the pursuit of fame." -- Ryan Seacrest, American Idol, 2010 In the new millennium, people face messages highlighting the significance of fame everywhere they look. Not only in reality television shows such as "Keeping up with the Kardashians" and "American Idol", but also in popular fictional TV shows, even those targeted to children. After watching some of these shows with my then 9-year-old daughter, I grumbled about the drastic change in "values." Worried that I was becoming one of those predictable adults who lament that things were much better in the past, I decided to test my hypothesis.
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When Kids Know Better
In case you missed it, the cameras were rolling at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Watch Alia Martin from Yale University and Kelcey Wilson from Quinnipiac University present their poster session research on “When Kids Know Better: Paternalistic Helping in 3-Year-Old Children.” One challenge we face in helping others is that sometimes the best way to help is by not doing what is requested. Martin, Wilson, and collaborators showed that 3-year-old children can override a communicated request and, as a result, provide the most useful means of helping another person to achieve her goal.
