-
Are first impressions really accurate?
Fictional stories are replete with villains and heroes with an almost magical ability to discern other people’s characters – think Hannibal Lecter or Sherlock Holmes. In real life, too, many people (including certain world leaders) seem to think they have this skill. Question-and-answer sites like Quora are filled with posts like: “I can read people’s personalities and emotions like a book. Is this normal? But do any of us really have an exceptional skill for judging other people’s personalities? Psychologists call such people – or the idea of them – “good judges”. And for more than a century, they have been trying to answer the question of whether these good judges really exist.
-
In Sesame’s New Show, To Play Is To Learn
Turn on your TV and surf the stuff meant for kids. I dare you. You'll likely find a surfeit of fast action and fart jokes. And that's what makes Esme & Roy so unusual. The new show, about an unlikely duo who babysit monsters, is Sesame Workshop's first animated children's program in more than a decade, and it deftly combines the Workshop's parallel passions — for learning and play. In fact, Esme & Roy is dedicated to an idea that can feel radical these days: That learning and play aren't parallel at all. When done right, they should converge, each in service of the other.
-
‘An anxious nation’: Barnes & Noble sees a surge in sales of books about stress
Yes, modern life in America is ... a lot. Psychologists say they’ve seen the toll it’s taken on people, and surprisingly so has Barnes & Noble. Sales of books related to anxiety rose 26 percent in June from a year ago at the bookseller. Liz Harwell, its senior director of merchandising, said the company had never seen a comparable increase in book sales related to anxiety.
-
White threat in a browning America
In 2008, Barack Obama held up change as a beacon, attaching to it another word, a word that channeled everything his young and diverse coalition saw in his rise and their newfound political power: hope. An America that would elect a black man president was an America in which a future was being written that would read thrillingly different from our past. In 2016, Donald Trump wielded that same sense of change as a threat; he was the revanchist voice of those who yearned to make America the way it was before, to make it great again.
-
Are rich people more likely to lie, cheat, steal? Science explains the world of Manafort and Gates.
What is about money that makes people do bad things? It seems a fair question when the news is dominated by misdeeds of the rich and powerful. The Paul Manafort trial, now entering its third week, has revealed details of his alleged crimes: defrauding banks out of tens of millions of dollars, evading taxes by stashing huge sums in offshore accounts and using riches earned through unregistered work for foreign governments to buy $15,000 ostrich and python jackets. Manafort’s deputy Rick Gates testified about the small fortune he embezzled and spent on his globe-trotting infidelities. Also last week, Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was charged with insider trading.
-
Katie Ledecky Crosses Into the World of Pro Sports. It Feels Like Home.
Katie Ledecky was not angling to become the face of American swimming when she joined the Palisades Porpoises as a 6-year-old. Her grand goal was to make it to the other side of the 25-yard pool without having to stop and rest on the lane line. “Swimming is really just for me still a hobby,” Ledecky said. Then she caught herself. “It’s more than that now, I guess.” Ledecky, 21, was speaking in June, shortly after she had secured her first major sponsorship, a seven-year deal with the TYR swimwear company worth more than $7 million. Outwardly, her daily life has not changed much since she turned pro this spring, aside from persistent jokes about her obligation to pick up dinner checks.
