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Should Parents Play Videogames With Their Children?
The Wall Street Journal: About twice a month the Davis family microwaves a bag of popcorn and sprawls around a large flat-screen TV for the night. But they don’t stream Netflix. They fire up a Nintendo Wii U and play “Mario Kart,” the gravity-defying racing game. “It’s not just pressing buttons,” said Gary Davis, 53, of Webster, N.Y. “There’s a lot of joking going on.” Despite the fact that “Mario Kart” involves neither senseless slaughter nor barbaric hedonism, his sons are into it. “It’s cool to see my parents interested in things I’m interested in also,” said Will, 14. ...
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The Mixed Blessing of Workplace Friendships
A group of psychological scientists led by Jessica Methot of Rutgers University took a closer look at the benefits — as well as the potential tradeoffs — of friends at work.
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To Get a Job in Your 50s, Maintain Friendships in Your 40s
The New York Times: We hear it all the time: People who are over 50 take longer to find jobs than younger people. Connie Wanberg, a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, had long heard gloom-and-doom stories to that effect, but she wondered how strong the data was to support them. Very, as it turned out. According to a study by Professor Wanberg and others, job seekers over 50 were unemployed 5.8 weeks longer than those from the ages of 30 to 49. That number rose to 10.6 weeks when the comparison group was from 20 to 29. Professor Wanberg and three other researchers — Darla J.
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Working From Home Makes You More Effective, But Only In Moderation, So Think Carefully Before You Ask Your Boss If You Can Do It
Bustle: I've barely gone into an office to work for the last two years (hi, I am a writer), so let me tell you my take on working from home: It's a serious mixed bag. Apparently researchers agree with me on this, too, because a new study found that though working from home makes employees happier and more productive, it works best when it's done in moderation. So much for the dream of the future in which everyone works happily from home all the time, making office space obsolete, right? ...
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Carol Dweck Revisits the ‘Growth Mindset’
Education Week: For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say “secretly” because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals—and there it stayed. However, my colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know. We found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students’ mindsets, we could boost their achievement. More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset).
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The Dark Side of Empathy
The Atlantic: I’m not usually in favor of killing, but I’d make an exception for the leaders of ISIS. I’d feel a certain satisfaction if they were wiped off the face of the Earth. This is a pretty typical attitude, shared even by many of my more liberal friends, even though, intellectually, it’s not something that we’re comfortable with or proud of. Where does this malice come from? Psychologists have standard explanations for murderous feelings towards groups of strangers, but none of them apply here. I don’t think ISIS is a threat to me or my family or my way of life; I’m not driven by disgust and contempt; I don’t dehumanize them; I don’t think of them as vermin or dogs. ...
