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Hey, You! Mean People Earn More, Study Finds
The Wall Street Journal: It may not pay to be nice in the workplace. A new study finds that agreeable workers earn significantly lower incomes than less agreeable ones. The gap is especially wide for men. The researchers examined "agreeableness" using self-reported survey data and found that men who measured below average on agreeableness earned about 18% more—or $9,772 more annually in their sample—than nicer guys. Ruder women, meanwhile, earned about 5% or $1,828 more than their agreeable counterparts. "Nice guys are getting the shaft," says study co-author Beth A.
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Spoiler Alert: Knowing the ending enhances the story
CTV News: Reading the final chapter of a book first or researching plot-spoiling movie reviews online before going to the cinema could actually enhance your entertainment experience, rather than lessen it, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego found that, quite simply, stories are not spoiled by spoilers. Just the opposite is true, in fact. When subjects in a study conducted by the university's psychology department were asked to rate their enjoyment of various stories, they almost always picked the ones where they knew the outcome ahead of time.
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For Men, ‘Culture of Honor’ Can Be Deadly
U.S. News & World Report: Psychologists call it the "culture of honor," a mostly male mindset that places a high value on defending one's reputation at any cost. But new research confirms that it's linked with high rates of accidental deaths. "People who embrace these values also report more risk-taking," explained study author Dr. Ryan Brown, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Oklahoma, in Norman. This dangerous male mindset is also more prevalent among those living in the South and West, in such states as South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming, he added. Read the whole story: U.S. News & World Report
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Understanding Academic Stressors
Whether it’s before a big presentation, during an exam, or after grades have been posted, at some point or another, everyone experiences stress in school. Sian Beilock’s research analyzes how stress in academic settings affects performance. She is interested in various academic stressors such as the chronic stress that a female math major might experience from the negative stereotype that “men are superior to women in math,” the pressure that most people experience while taking a high-stakes college admissions test, and the anxieties some hold about their performance in a particular academic area (e.g., math anxiety).
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Mathematic Models and Human Learning
Thomas Griffiths developed mathematical models of higher level cognition. He focuses on the abstract computational problems that underlie inductive human cognition, such as probabilistic reasoning, learning causal relationships, acquiring and using language, and inferring the structure of categories. He researches the ideal solutions to those problems using ideas from probability theory and Bayesian statistics, used to calculate the likelihood of a hypothesis. These statistical tools allow him to analyze human learning and link computer science research to artificial intelligence and machine learning.
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Evaluating Emotional Responses
Evaluation is something people do every day, whether they are assessing their to-do list or forming opinions about a book they’re reading. William Cunningham is investigating how evaluating other people or objects leads to emotional responses. Through a combination of social psychological and cognitive neuroscience techniques, Cunningham has found that affective states (in other words, emotional states) are built moment to moment by multiple processes that link together relevant information about the person’s environment with their own personal attitudes.