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Psychology Explains Why People Are So Easily duped
The Washington Post: True or false: “The Eiffel Tower is in France.” Most of us can quickly and accurately answer this question by relying on our general knowledge. But what if you were asked to consider the claim: “The beehive is a building in New Zealand.” Unless you have visited New Zealand or watched a documentary on the country, this is probably a difficult question. So instead of recruiting your general knowledge to answer the claim, you’ll turn to your intuition. Put another way, you’ll rely on what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness” — truth that comes from the gut, and not books.
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George Washington Trumps Pinocchio for Inspiring Honesty in Kids, Study Says
Boston.com: The study, published in Psychological Science, concludes positive moral tales like "George Washington and the Cherry Tree" work better at instilling a sense of honesty than "Pinocchio" or the "Boy Who Cried Wolf," in which the protagonists suffer the negative consequences of lying in the end. Stories with morals intended to guide children and instill a sense of honesty are nothing new, but studies examining their effects are few and far between. Read the whole story: Boston.com
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How to Design an Effective Plea for Donations
Pacific Standard: You know those pleas for donations you get in the mail—the ones that prominently feature a picture of a hungry, or otherwise endangered, child? Why do you glance at some before throwing them into the recycling, while others inspire you to reach for your checkbook? Two newly published studies suggest it largely depends on how savvy the respective charities are in pushing certain psychological buttons. One finds that requests featuring a single child are more effective than those with multiple faces. A second suggests that child had better not be too attractive. Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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Can Youth Sports Predict Career Success?
The Wall Street Journal: High school sports experience translates into better success in the workplace, according to a Cornell biodata study. Cornell University's Kevin Kniffin, the study's co-author joins the News Hub. Watch the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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The Hidden Rules of Bigotry
Who is good? And who is better? We make these value judgments all the time, and for good reason, about individuals. But most of us have been taught not to make such judgments about groups of people. Equality is a core principle of American society, and it’s unjust—or at least politically incorrect—to subscribe to social hierarchies. But such explicit hierarchies have played a powerful role in American history, and many believe that they still do—in a more subterranean fashion. Indeed, some psychological scientists suspect that rules of superiority and inferiority are still alive and well in the American psyche, shaping our judgments of race and religion and even age in subtle ways.
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Insecurity at the Borderline
The Huffington Post: Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who has represented Mississippi since 1978, this week used a clever psychological strategy to fend off a primary challenge from the right wing of the party. "The Tea Party," he confessed on a final campaign swing, "is something I don't really know a lot about." Nobody believes that. Cochran hasn't been living in a cave. What he was doing, very effectively, was marginalizing his Tea Party rival, playing on the insecurities of a GOP "fringe" faction within the party's establishment. And his opponent took the bait, reacting with hostility toward the powerful incumbent and behaving ungraciously in defeat.
