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Even Babies Can Recognize What’s Fair
TIME: When your preschooler declares, “That’s not fair!” after her brother receives an imperceptibly larger piece of cake, she’s not just being selfish. Kids have a keen sense of fairness, a characteristic that research increasingly shows is an innate part of human morality. Indeed, the latest study, published in Psychological Science, finds that even babies are disturbed by displays of injustice — and even when it doesn’t apply to them. “We found that 19- and 21-month-old infants have a general expectation of fairness, and they can apply it appropriately to different situations,” said study co-author Stephanie Sloane, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, in a statement.
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A Gesture of Authority: What’s the Point?
My very first classroom teacher had a long wooden pointer, and she wielded it like a weapon. At least that’s my gauzy recollection. Many of the lessons were written on the blackboard, and she would use her pointer to direct our attention to this or that bit of information. She was an absolute and unquestioned authority in my small world, and her ubiquitous pointer served to reinforce that perception. Pointing remains a basic tool of instruction, both in the classroom and beyond. Elementary school teachers still use pointers, though these days most of them are plastic and colorful, with clownish hands attached.
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Broken Hearts Really Hurt
“Broken-hearted” isn’t just a metaphor—social pain and physical pain have a lot in common, according to Naomi Eisenberger of the University of Califiornia-Los Angeles, the author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In the paper, she surveys recent research on the overlap between physical and social pain. “Rejection is such a powerful experience for people,” Eisenberger says.
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The Physiology of Willpower: Where Does Discipline Come From?
Huffington Post: Willpower is the key to much that's good in life. Willpower is what makes us save for the future rather than splurge now. It helps us to keep our heads down, studying and working when we really don't feel like it, to earn that degree or promotion. Willpower allows us to say no to that tempting cigarette, extra dessert, or second glass of whiskey -- and to hop on the treadmill. And, of course, failures of self-control can sabotage all those goals. So it's no wonder that psychological scientists have been studying willpower for decades, trying to figure out who is disciplined under what circumstances -- and why.
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The Oops! Response
Scientific American: Is intelligence innate, or can you boost it with effort? The way you answer that question may determine how well you learn. Those who think smarts are malleable are more likely to bounce back from their mistakes and make fewer errors in the future, according to a study published last October in Psychological Science. Researchers at Michigan State University asked 25 undergraduate students to participate in a simple, repetitive computer task: they had to press a button whenever the letters that appeared on the screen conformed to a particular pattern.
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Inside “60 Minutes” placebo story
CBS News: Some new scientific research is causing quite a stir in the medical community. The fight is over antidepressants, and whether they work any better than a simple placebo. In an report airing this Sunday, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl spoke to the psychologist behind the study, Irving Kirsch, associate director of the Placebo Studies Program at Harvard Medical School. He says that his research challenges the very effectiveness of antidepressants. Kirsch says the difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people.
