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Dan Ariely: Should job descriptions be as vague as possible?
Business Insider: Dan Ariely, author of the wonderful Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions discusses the problem with specifics in job descriptions: Most of the time, when you hire people you don’t want to specify exactly what they are to do and how much they would get paid—you don’t want to say if you do X you will get this much, and if you do Y you will get that much. That type of contract is what we call a complete contract. Creating one is basically impossible, especially with higher-level jobs. If you try to do it, you cause “crowding out.” People focus on everything you’ve included and exclude everything else.
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The Limits of Empathy
The New York Times: We are surrounded by people trying to make the world a better place. Peace activists bring enemies together so they can get to know one another and feel each other’s pain. School leaders try to attract a diverse set of students so each can understand what it’s like to walk in the others’ shoes. Religious and community groups try to cultivate empathy.
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Ig Nobel Award Winners: Do Humans Think Less Clearly When They Have To Urinate?
Huffington Post: Can a strong urge to urinate impair your ability to drive? Is yawning contagious? Will motorists stop double-parking if you threaten to flatten their cars with an armored tank? The studies of these subjects might not win you a Nobel Prize. But they might win you an Ig Nobel -- an award given to research that makes you laugh -- and may even somehow benefit society.
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Slimmer door sneller brein
Metro Nieuws: Waarom neemt de intelligentie in onze tienerjaren eigenlijk toe? Wetenschappers komen met een antwoord. In de puberteit krijgt niet alleen ons lichaam een radicale make-over, maar verandert ook ons brein. Zo hebben wetenschappers al eerder aangetoond dat adolescenten intelligenter worden, maar was tot op heden onduidelijk waarom. Het vermoeden was dat het iets te maken heeft met de mentale verwerkingssnelheid, die ook een spurt neemt tijdens de tienerjaren. En jawel: dit blijkt inderdaad te kloppen.
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Doubts raised over dyslexia diagnoses
The Telegraph: Dyslexia is defined as reading achievement "substantially below that expected" for a person's age, intelligence and education level, according to a widely used guide, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Consequently 'dyslexics' - poor readers with an average or high IQ - have tended to be treated differently from those who are consistently bottom of the class. The basis for this approach has been the assumption that something particular impedes the brains of dyslexics, specifically their reading and writing ability.
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Rich less empathetic than poor, study says
Deseret News: Rich people are less empathetic, less altruistic and more selfish than those of the lower classes, according to new research from University of California at Berkeley and at San Francisco. In an article published by the Association for Psychological Science, co-authors Michael W. Kraus of UC-San Francisco and Dacher Keltner and Paul K. Piff of the UC-Berkely found people from lower classes were better at reading other people's emotions, which is one scientific measure of empathy. If you can't recognize what someone is going through, they argue, it's hard to respond to their needs.
