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Unlike Humans, Bonobos Shun Helpers And Befriend The Bullies
Even very young babies can tell the difference between someone who's helpful and someone who's mean — and lab studies show that babies consistently prefer the helpers. But one of humans' closest relatives — the bonobo — makes a different choice, preferring to cozy up to the meanies. That's according to experiments described Thursday in the journal Current Biology, by scientists who wanted to explore the evolutionary origins of humans' unusually cooperative behavior. "In the animal kingdom, there are all kinds of acts of cooperation.
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Can Kindness Be Taught?
Thanks to a challenge from the Dalai Lama, a number of preschools are trying to teach something that has not always been considered an academic subject: kindness. “Can you look inside yourself and tell me what you’re feeling?” Danielle Mahoney-Kertes asked a class of prekindergarten students at P.S. 212 in Queens recently. “Happy,” one girl offered. “Sick,” said another. A boy in a blue T-shirt gave a shy thumbs down. “That happens too,” Ms. Mahoney-Kertes, a literacy coach, reassured him.
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To Change Your Life, Consider the Easy Route
Change is hard. Everybody knows that. So we head into our New Year’s resolutions with our teeth gritted, determined to battle our way to success. Sure, we know that most of us are doomed to fail, and that the yoga studios that are packed on January 2 will be back to their Zenlike calm by February. With enough willpower, though, we hope that we can beat the odds and bull our way through. But what if this attitude has it exactly backwards? What if the key to success isn’t trying hard but not trying very hard at all? The idea sounds crazy, because it runs contrary to how most people, and even most psychologists, view the process of self-control.
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We Asked 615 Men About How They Conduct Themselves at Work
The victims of sexual harassment who have recently come forward are far from alone: Nearly half of women say they have experienced some form of it at work at least once in their careers. But there has been little research about those responsible. In a new survey, about a third of men said they had done something at work within the past year that would qualify as objectionable behavior or sexual harassment.
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Research suggests friends are how we survive work
What motivates you to come to work? At times it may be money, a sense of progress, or the opportunity to contribute to society. But when it’s a rainy Friday morning and we’re low on sleep, research suggests our real motivation isn’t a what, it’s a who. Here are the five types of colleagues that make us look forward to coming to the office. The Inspiration is your platonic work crush: you don’t want to be with them, you want to be them. This person can either be a formal mentor (someone who knows they are mentoring you), or simply a more experienced colleague you deeply admire (someone you learn from by osmosis).
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Is Your Child Lying to You? That’s Good
Should parents be troubled when their kids start to deceive them? Odds are, most of us would say yes. We believe honesty is a moral imperative, and we try to instill this belief in our children. Classic morality tales like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “Pinocchio” speak to the dangers of dishonesty, and children who lie a lot, or who start lying at a young age, are often seen as developmentally abnormal, primed for trouble later in life. But research suggests the opposite is true. Lying is not only normal; it’s also a sign of intelligence.
