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One of the most popular job interview questions is biased and unfair, says Adam Grant
Quartz: You’re 10 minutes into a job interview. You’ve had a bit of small talk and run over the basics of your resume. Then the interviewer leans back and asks a question that begins the dreaded phrase: “Tell me about a time when…” Who knows what will follow? “When you overcame a professional challenge.” “When you managed workplace conflict.” “When you slew a wild unicorn.” Behavioral questions like these are among hiring managers’ favorite interview tactics. They’re meant to offer unique insight into a potential employee’s personality and how a person might fit into company culture.
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THE SUBTLE BIAS THAT UNDERLIES OUR IDEOLOGICAL LEANINGS
Pacific Standard: There are many theories as to why someone grows up to be a liberal or a conservative. These range from psychological (liberals tend to be more open to ambiguity) to developmental (authoritarian parents tend to have conservative children) to physical (taller people tend to lean right). New research points to something even more basic—a way of making sense of the world that underpins one's political orientation. It's best described as the answer to a question: When you are asked to judge a situation, do you instinctively reach for an inherent explanation, or an extrinsic one? Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Associative Learning of Social Value in Dynamic Groups Oriel FeldmanHall, Joseph E. Dunsmoor, Marijn C. W. Kroes, Sandra Lackovic, and Elizabeth A. Phelps The researchers examined value-based learning in social situations in two experiments. In the first experiment, participants received large monetary offers from "good" dictators and small monetary offers from "bad" dictators. The good and bad dictators then offered similar monetary amounts while partnered with a novel dictator.
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Being Neurotic May Help You Live Longer
New York Magazine: To some people, the word “neurotic” can conjure images of a certain type of psychotherapy: Woody Allen types splayed out on long divans, with Freudian therapists sitting coolly behind them, asking vague questions about Oedipal complexes. Psychology’s come a long way since Freud, though, and today, this scenario feels a bit like an anachronism — and so, in some ways, does the term. In 1994, the condition of “neurosis” was dropped entirely from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, psychiatry’s encyclopedia of mental disorders.
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Uncovering the Secrets of a Trustworthy Face
Scientific American: We tend to trust the people around us. We trust cab drivers and doctors with our lives, we trust chefs handling our food, and we trust strangers to watch our belongings while we step away. But trust is not like candy on Halloween, we do not just give it to anyone who knocks on our door. Psychologists have long been interested in understanding what leads people to trust others, and the face has long been at the center of this research. Some people just look trustworthy. Faces that look happy even when not smiling and those that have feminine and even baby-likefeatures tend to be trusted more.
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How Taking Photos Affects Your Memory of the Moment Later On
New York Magazine: Recently I transferred a stash of photos from my iPad to my computer. As the hundred-some photos flashed by on the screen, I found myself reliving the full panoply of emotions from memories long forgotten. Such is the power of photographs — which is why my friends and I are fans of the saying that if something wasn’t captured by camera, it’s like it never happened. To a certain extent, that may be true, and not just because old photos make it easier for us to reminisce about times gone by. In fact, recent research suggests that the act of photographing something helps us remember the visual aspects of the moment better, even if we never look at the photo again.
