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Why We Pass Some Cars, Follow Others
Cars are the ultimate status symbol. They also generate some remarkable forms of discrimination. A Maserati gets more respect than a Volkswagen Bug. Classic psychological studies have demonstrated that a drivers extend more patience and courtesy to motorists driving expensive cars than those in older, cheaper vehicles. In their seminal 1968 experiment, for example, Anthony N. Doob and Alan E. Gross found that drivers waited longer to honk at a high-priced car than when blocked by an old model. This builds on a wide body of research showing that people act more aggressively toward others of low social status.
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Does Your Sexual Orientation Shape Your Career Plans?
Lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals gained some new strides against discrimination this week when President Barack Obama announced plans to bar federal contractors from hiring or firing employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. But despite job protections, marriage equality laws and other protections that members of the LGB community are garnering, many of them believe their sexual identities will at some point encumber their careers, research indicates. And that expectation may have at least some degree of influence on their actual career choices.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Emotional and Behavioral Effects of Participating in an Online Study of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: An Experimental Analysis Jennifer J. Muehlenkamp, Lance P. Swenson, Kristen L. Batejan, and Stephanie M. Jarvi Although there is a strong need for research on nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), it can be difficult to obtain institutional review board (IRB) approval for these types of studies. IRBs often worry that asking participants about their NSSI experiences might in some way harm them.
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Dads Who Do Dishes Raise Ambitious Daughters
New York Magazine: Dads who equally divided the drudgery of household chores with their wives tended to have daughters whose “when I grow up” aspirations were less gender-stereotypical, suggests an upcoming paper in Psychological Science. Moms’ work-equality beliefs did also color their daughters’ attitudes toward gender roles, but this study found that a stronger predictor of girls’ career goals was the way their dads handled domestic duties.
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Is it Better to Learn Something in Small, Frequent Chunks of Information?
TIME: It is better to learn small chunks of information, frequently, than big chunks, infrequently. I will explain by presenting several ideas from experts on learning and then combining them. In 1956, a cognitive psychologist, from Harvard, named George A. Miller introduced a concept in the journal Psychology Review. That concept has become known as “Miller’s Magic Number” or “Magic Number Seven (Plus or Minus Two)“. In that paper he presented the idea that people can only store seven (plus or minus two) chunks of information in their short term memory. Notice that the word chunks is used, and not pieces or bits.
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Ellen Langer: Science of Mindlessness and Mindfulness
On Being: Social psychologist Ellen Langer's unconventional studies have long suggested what brain science is now revealing: our experiences are formed by the words and ideas we attach to them. Naming something "play" rather than "work" can mean the difference between delight and drudgery. She is one of the early pioneers — along with figures like Jon Kabat-Zinn and Herbert Benson — in drawing a connection between mindlessness and unhappiness, between mindfulness and health. Dr. Langer describes mindfulness as achievable without meditation or yoga — as “the simple act of actively noticing things.” Listen here: On Being
