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Kind Words Can Lead to Harsh Consequences
LiveScience: Politeness has a place, but not in high-stakes situations, according to researchers. Whether a pilot is making an emergency flight or a doctor is trying to help a patient make a surgical decision, the sort of vague, evasive responses that help us avoid hurting someone's feelings can have disastrous consequences, according to a team of scientists, including Jean-François Bonnefon and Wim de Neys of the National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Toulouse in France, and Aidan Feeney of Queen's University in the United Kingdom. The more sensitive an issue, the more polite we tend to become, according to the researchers. Read the full story: LiveScience
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Allô Maman, j’ovule !
Slate France: Savez-vous ce qu’est l’œstrus ? Il s’agit de ce qu’on appelle communément les “chaleurs” chez les femelles des mammifères, une période d’attractivité sexuelle indiquant qu’elles sont prêtes à être fécondées. On a longtemps cru que, dans l’espèce humaine, l’évolution avait fait disparaître complètement l’œstrus mais, depuis quelques années, les chercheurs estiment, à certains signes discrets, que cette petite part de “bestialité” est encore présente, enfouie au plus profond de nous. En clair que les femmes envoient toujours, au moins inconsciemment, des signaux avant leur ovulation et que les hommes sont capables, tout aussi peu consciemment, de les percevoir.
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5 Facts About the Wealthiest 1 Percent
LiveScience: Protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in New York City's financial district and has since spread to hundreds of cities around the country, call themselves "the 99 percent": They say they're protesting on behalf of all but the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. The protesters object to corporate control of government policies, which they say has led to unfair tax loopholes, job outsourcing, cuts to public programs and gross overcompensation of executive employees, all of which have caused an ever-widening wealth disparity between the top 1 percent and the rest of the country. So what is the disparity? How is wealth distributed in the United States?
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Why telling the truth could save your life: Most of us would rather lie to avoid awkwardness (even in high-risk situations)
Daily Mail: Many of us would rather tell a white lie than the brutal truth to avoid an awkward social situation. Instead of admitting a friend’s new hair-do is hideous, we may choose to say ‘it’s unique’ or ‘just you’. But a study has revealed that being too polite can have disastrous consequences in high-stakes situations. It could result in a doctor not administering the correct treatment if a nurse has not flagged up a potential error, a pilot crashing because a colleague has not pointed out a mistake, or staff ignoring strange occurrences in the workplace to avoid embarrassing colleagues or their boss, resulting in fraud.
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Save the world – but nick a bit of it for yourself
Times Higher Education: If you have ever felt the urge to mug an old lady after buying a package of eco-friendly soap powder, you may not be alone. According to social science publisher Sage's most downloaded article of 2009-10, going "green" boosts our tendency to lie and steal. The article, "Do green products make us better people?", was published in the Sage journal Psychological Science. It describes a series of experiments devised by Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, both assistant professors in the University of Toronto's School of Management. Read the whole story: Times Higher Education
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How old do you feel inside?
Chicago Tribune: Those of us lucky enough to grow old must contend with the miserable stereotypes of what it's like: the frailty, the forgetfulness, the early bird specials. But in aging, as in many things, attitude can make all the difference. Research has shown that how people feel inside, and their expectations of their capabilities, can have a greater impact on health, happiness and even longevity than the date on their birth certificates. In her seminal "counterclockwise" study, in 1979, Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer brought men in their 70s and 80s to a weeklong retreat that was retrofitted, from the music to the newspapers, to look and feel like 1959.
