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Low-Income Extraverts Spend More on Status Than Introverted Peers
Banking data indicate that the types of goods and services that low-income individuals buy may depend, in part, on personality.
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Taking Photos Won’t Take You Out of the Moment, Study Suggests
The New York Times: On Monday, I will be one of millions watching the moon punch a hole in the sun during the Great American Eclipse of 2017. In preparation, I’ve been thinking about how I want to spend my roughly two minutes of totality, when day surrenders, briefly, to coronal night. Should I try to capture my experience with photos? Or should I soak in the moment as deeply as I can? These two goals may not actually be in opposition, according to a study in this month’s issue of Psychological Science. In several experiments, researchers found that taking photos during an experience helped people remember visuals more accurately, even when they didn’t revisit their photos.
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Study finds women in gender-equal countries have better cognitive skills – here’s how to understand it
The Conversation: Let’s try you. Read the title above once, then cover it and write down word for word what you remember. Having difficulties? How well you do may be down to which country you live in. That’s according to a new study, published in Psychological Science, involving an impressive 200,000 women and men from 27 countries across five continents. It revealed that women from more conservative countries performed worse on memory tests than those from more egalitarian countries. Demographics expert Eric Bonsang and his colleagues analysed national survey data from individuals above the age of 50.
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Why Do Humans Talk to Animals If They Can’t Understand?
The Atlantic: “Do you think it’s weird that I tell Nermal I love her multiple times a day?” My sister’s question was muffled, her face stuffed in the fur of her six-month-old kitten (named for the cat from Garfield). We were sitting in the living room of her apartment and, as always, Nermal was vying for our attention—pawing at our hair, walking along the couch behind us, spreading across our laps and looking up at us with her big, bright eyes. She’s almost aggressively cute, and inspires the kind of love that demands to be vocalized. I’d find it weirder if my sister weren’t doing so. ... But why do we do it?
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What Happens to Creativity as We Age?
The New York Times: One day not long ago, Augie, a 4-year-old Gopnik grandchild, heard his grandfather wistfully say, “I wish I could be a kid again.” After a thoughtful pause, Augie came up with a suggestion: Grandpa should try not eating any vegetables. The logic was ingenious: Eating vegetables turns children into big strong adults, so not eating vegetables should reverse the process. No grown-up would ever come up with that idea. But anyone with a 4-year-old can tell similar stories. Young children’s creativity seems to outstrip that of even the most imaginative adults. How does the ability to come up with unusual ideas change as we grow older? Does it begin to flag in adolescence?
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Like Adults, Children Show Bias in Attributing Mental States to Others
Young children are more likely to attribute mental states to characters that belong to the same group as them relative to characters that belong to an outside group.
