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Powerful ‘Queen bee’ women block others getting promotion
The Telegraph: Psychologists studying the workplace found top women often distanced themselves from other women and refuse to help them rise through the ranks. They concluded that when women were aware of gender bias at work, they were more likely to act like men and distance themselves from women. However when the atmosphere at work let them be women, they feel less threatened and actually wanted to encourage and mentor other women. Read more: The Telegraph
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Facebook Rankings Reflect National Stereotypes
Der Spiegel: Take a look at the most popular US Facebook pages and you could be forgiven for thinking that the stereotype of fast food-scarfing Americans is true. According to the statistics portal Socialbakers, the top 10 most popular American sites on the social networking platform include the fast-food chains McDonald's, Taco Bell and Subway. And the rankings for Ireland do nothing to dispel the country's image as a nation of pint-swilling tipplers. Its top 10 Facebook pages include four alcohol brands, with no fewer than two appearances by the national beer, Guinness.
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Anti-epilepsy drug could stave off Alzheimer’s
The Telegraph: Giving the drug levetiracetam to patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition known to foreshadow Alzheimer's, improved their ability to remember. It also reduced overactivity in a part of the brain tasked with remembering called the hippocampus, MRI scans showed. People with MCI who have excess activity in the hippocampus are known to be at the highest risk of being daignosed with full-bolwn Alzheimer's in the following four to six years. Read more: The Telegraph
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Red pill or blue bill: Who cares? Getting to choose is the best part
National Post: Life is about making choices, from the mundane (Should I eat a Kit Kat for breakfast?) to the momentous (Should I accept this new job?). Though we agonize over some decisions, researchers have found that we generally like having choices. And after we choose something, we tend to like it more. However, a new study examining the experience of choice, suggests that it’s not just about the selections — it’s about the selecting. Simply having the possibility to choose is pleasurable.
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Two Faces of Death: Inside the Existential Mind
You’re visiting a friend who lives on the 20th floor of an old, inner city, block of apartments. It’s the middle of the night when you are suddenly awakened from a deep sleep by the sound of screams and the choking smell of smoke. You reach over to the nightstand and turn on the light. You are shocked to find the room filling fast with thick clouds of smoke. You run to the door and reach for the handle. You pull back in pain as the intense heat of the knob scalds you violently. Grabbing a blanket off the bed and using it as protection, you manage to turn the handle and open the door.
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How Media Can Encourage Our Better Side
Violent media—films, TV, videogames—can encourage aggression, and lots of research says so. But psychologists haven’t spent as much time looking at the ways media with more socially positive content help suppress meanness and prod us toward cooperation, empathy, and helpfulness. When and why might a game or a movie mobilize our better angels and squelch our devils? A review of the literature, including his own work, by psychologist Tobias Greitemeyer at the University of Innsbruck in Austria sorts out those questions and proposes a model to explain the cognitive processes underlying their answers.
