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Why Many Workers are Playing It Safe — Unhappily
The US economic recovery remains on a slow trajectory, as evidenced by the latest Commerce Department report. Due in part to a brutal winter throughout the country, growth in the first quarter of this year practically stopped. And while employers are hiring aggressively after the winter cold snap, the Labor Department says job growth still lags behind the millions of people just now entering the workforce or looking to get off unemployment rolls. The shaky economy and rocky job market have left many people underemployed—working in part-time jobs or occupations that are simply far below their capabilities and credentials.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Don't Do It Again: Directed Forgetting of Habits Gesine Dreisbach and Karl-Heinz T. Bäuml Can directed forgetting be used to eliminate habits? Participants completed a directed-forgetting task where they associated words with either a left or a right button press. Participants were told to remember or to forget the original associations before being reshown the words. In the new presentation, half of the word/button-press associations were compatible with those in the original presentation and half were not.
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The Source of Stereotypes
It’s human nature to categorize people. When we meet someone for the first time, we make instant judgments about their social status and their personality. Susan Fiske has devoted her career to examining the role of these kinds of judgments in stereotypes and bias. Her research shows that we favor people whom we see as warm and competent, and snub those we view as cold and inept. These perceptions are heavily influenced by race, age, gender, and disability, which can lead to stereotyping and discrimination. With the help of brain imaging, Fiske has found that our social perceptions and prejudices have neural components.
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Individual Brain Activity Predicts Tendency to Succumb to Daily Temptations
Activity in areas of the brain related to reward and self-control may offer neural markers that predict whether people are likely to resist or give in to temptations, like food.
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An Ill-Timed Smile Can Hurt You in Negotiations
Smiling can be a disarming expression on a date or at a social gathering. But in the boardroom, it could prove perilous. A new psychological study examines how the interpretation of facial expressions can impact economic decision making in a business setting. "A business person in a negotiation should be careful about managing his or her emotions because the person across the table is making inferences based on facial expressions," said Peter Carnevale, professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. "For example, a smile at the wrong time can discourage cooperation." The study—a joint project between Carnevale and Celso M.
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Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling, and the Science of Moral Judgments
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy are the latest in a long line of public figures — Paula Deen, Mel Gibson, Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson — whose remarks have drawn accusations of racism. In all of these cases, words are receiving much more attention than deeds. Sterling’s remarks about Blacks are receiving far more attention than his alleged discriminatory behavior against African American and Latino tenants at apartment buildings he owns. For more than 20 years, Bundy has refused to pay fees for the cattle he has been grazing on federally owned lands, arguing that he does not recognize the existence of the US government.
