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We Need to Talk About ‘The Giving Tree’
Like many new parents, when our first child was born, we were delighted to receive gift boxes of tiny pajama sets, monogrammed baby blankets, and lots and lots of children’s books. We received seven copies of “Goodnight Moon” alone. By the time our second and third children arrived, we were proud owners of multiple copies of “The Giving Tree.” The Shel Silverstein book is a classic, and we were excited to share it with our kids — we thought it would be like revisiting an old friend from our own childhoods. But when we read it, something felt wrong.
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Why AI Is A Growing Part Of The Criminal Justice System
Facial recognition technology is all around us—it’s at concerts, airports, and apartment buildings. But its use by law enforcement agencies and courtrooms raises particular concerns about privacy, fairness, and bias, according to Jennifer Lynch, the Surveillance Litigation Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Some studies have shown that some of the major facial recognition systems are inaccurate. Amazon’s software misidentified 28 members of Congress and matched them with criminal mugshots. These inaccuracies tend to be far worse for people of color and women.
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The Most Dangerous Way to Lose Yourself
When John F. Kennedy was 17, he was part of a prank club. At Connecticut’s elite Choate school in 1935, word spread that the group was planning to pile horse manure in the gymnasium. Before this “prank” could happen, the school’s headmaster confronted the troublesome boys. The scheme was the culmination of a list of offenses at the school, and young Kennedy was expelled. Though the sentence was eventually reduced to probation, the headmaster suggested that Kennedy see a “gland specialist” to help him “overcome this strange childishness.” The doctor Kennedy ended up seeing was Prescott Lecky, a young, mutton-chopped psychologist.
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Innovative Addiction Treatments Hold Promise for Stemming the Opioid Crisis
In a new issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, researchers propose novel treatment strategies, based on advances in brain science, that could help prevent abuse of opioids and other drugs.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring effects of hypnotic suggestion on implicit attitudes and ways to enhance children’s understanding of scientific models.
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Touting Flavor Before Nutrition Encourages Healthy Eating
Evocative labels such as “twisted citrus glazed carrots” and “ultimate chargrilled asparagus” can get people to eat more vegetables than they otherwise would—as long as the food is prepared flavorfully, a nationwide study shows.
