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Why admitting a weakness makes people like you more
Your main task this afternoon is to interview the last two candidates for the position of manager on your team. At the close of the second interview you realize both candidates have the same relevant experience, strong academic results and practical ideas to implement once they start. You’re wondering how you’ll ever choose between them. As the final candidate gets up to leave, he catches his foot awkwardly on the table leg, upending the dregs of his coffee over the new floor. He leaves ashen-faced. Who do you think you’ll end up picking? If the Pratfall Effect is correct, it’ll be the clumsy candidate. The bias was discovered in 1966 by Harvard University psychologist Elliot Aronson.
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The Secret behind One of the Greatest Success Stories in All of History
In Steven Pinker’s new book, Enlightenment Now, he argues that we live in the best of times—and must remain devoted to reason and humanism if that is to continue. In thinking about the state of the world, it is easy to see the signs of backsliding, and to feel at least a little despair. And this, argues Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, is a profound error. In Enlightenment Now, he makes a powerful case that the main line of history has been, since the Enlightenment, one of improvement. We, the people of Earth, are better off now than we have ever been. And to fail to understand this—and the reasons why—is to put that very progress at risk.
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Gun Control Versus Mental Illness: After Florida Shooting, Trump Deepens a Fraught Debate
After more than two dozen people died in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration was committed to tackling "the difficult issue of mental health." The person identified as the shooter previously sought help for mental illness, the Washington Post reported. The shooting in Parkland is now among the most deadly mass shootings in American history. Debates following these tragic events in the U.S. have become increasingly polarized, with some focused on gun control and others focused on mental health. Trump's statement did not include any mention of gun control.
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Chester A. Arthur Is the Most Forgotten President in U.S. History, According to Science
The third Monday of February, which many Americans know as Presidents’ Day, is supposed to be a time to remember George Washington’s Feb. 22 birthday. And few would argue that the first U.S. president doesn’t deserve to be remembered; likewise for Abraham Lincoln, whose Feb. 12 birthday is also remembered by many on the same day. But, while Presidents’ Day may be well and good in terms of historical recognition, Washington and Lincoln hardly need a special day to stay uppermost in Americans’ memories. For other presidents, the matter of memorability is quite a different story, two recent studies have shown. For a 2014 study published the journal Science, psychology researchers Henry L.
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Funeral after funeral, an emotional marathon for survivors of the Parkland school shooting
Under vacation-blue Florida skies, the young mourners have emerged from family SUVs and minivans at funeral after funeral, high school girls in black dresses and heels and teen boys in black shirts and pants. “This is physically and emotionally the kind of marathon I never want anyone else to have to run,” said Ken Cutler, a city commissioner, following one of the funerals Sunday for victims of last week’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Seventeen people died, mainly teens. “These are children who have never had death touch their lives,” said Cutler, 58, whose wife is a teacher who survived the shooting.
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Power’s Role In Sexual Harassment
Why do they do it? A series of sexual-harassment accusations against well-known business leaders, celebrities and politicians has left people wondering why some successful men behave this way. In many cases, power seems to play a role. Certainly, the majority of influential men treat women appropriately. But what is going on from a psychological standpoint with the ones who don’t? Research shows they have different motivations yet typically share specific personality traits. Their power amplifies proclivities they already have.
