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This is what happens when Americans are told about rising inequality
The Washington Post: The sharp growth in economic inequality — and its visibility as an issue in both the 2012 and 2016 American political campaigns — has led to an important debate about how to respond. Some in this debate suggest that economic inequality isn’t that important after all. Instead, they argue, it’s economic opportunity that Americans really care about. Americans just want good jobs and the prospect of upward mobility. It’s not so important to them that the gap between the wealthy and everyone else continues to grow. Indeed, some Democratic strategists believe that focusing on inequality could backfire. Our work suggests, however, that this view is mistaken.
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Try These ‘Love Hacks’ to Fix Your Marriage
The New York Times: After studying thousands of couples, the psychologist Eli Finkel has an explanation for the decline in people’s satisfaction with their marriages over the past four decades: It’s a matter of emotional supply and demand. Many people are looking to their partners to replace the companionship and emotional support once provided by extended families and local institutions like churches, bowling leagues, bridge groups, fraternal lodges and garden clubs. Meanwhile, though, many couples are so busy with their jobs and parenting that they’re actually spending less time together by themselves. What to do?
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Whites Have Huge Wealth Edge Over Blacks (but Don’t Know It)
The New York Times: The Yale researchers suspected that many people would not get the answers right. “I’m a person who studies inequality, who should really know how inequality looks,” said one of the psychologists, Michael Kraus, who researches the behaviors and beliefs that help perpetuate inequality. “And I look at the black-white gap, and I’m shocked at the magnitude.” Black families in America earn just $57.30 for every $100 in income earned by white families, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. For every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04. ...
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The Government’s Role in Combating Loneliness
The Wall Street Journal: Loneliness is hazardous to your health—and more psychologists and doctors are calling for a public-health campaign to fight it. “This has been underappreciated in the past,” says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, “but cumulative data over hundreds of studies with millions of participants provides robust evidence of the importance of social connections for physical health and risk for premature mortality.” Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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How to Fight ‘Fake News’ (Warning: It Isn’t Easy)
The New York Times: No, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is not being discontinued. No, Earth will not be plunged into darkness for 15 days. And, no, Katy Perry did not broker peace with the Islamic State. Those are a few of the falsehoods spread online that are in need of debunking in this age of “fake news,” when misinformation seems to appear from nothing and reaches hurricane-force speeds in an instant. Researchers have spent decades trying to understand how such misinformation spreads and, now, a review of their work offers new guidance for the journalists, fact-checkers and others working to find, and defend, the truth.
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THE TRICK TO DEBUNKING FAKE NEWS
Pacific Standard: The ultimate weapon against such disinformation would be a less credulous public. But given our tendency to believe "facts" that confirm our biases—and for startling but unverified assertions to stick in our brains—is that really possible? Can fake news be successfully debunked? Just-published research offers no panacea, but it does provide some concrete suggestions. "The effect of misinformation is very strong," said co-author Dolores Albarracin, a psychologist at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign.
