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Going to the Principal’s Office, in Black or White
Pacific Standard: Despite decades of political debate, racial disparities continue to run rampant in American schools. One particularly important imbalance: the race gap in school discipline, especially suspension rates. Now, researchers have discovered an unfortunate revelation: Teachers come down harder on black students than whites for the same infractions. ... But an explanation for the gap remained elusive, and without knowing what specific factors were behind the disparity, there wasn't much either researchers or educators could do about it, Stanford psychology graduate student Jason Okofonua writes in an email. ...
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Lilly Pulitzer for Target: They Came, They Waited, They Went Home Mad
The New York Times: Never underestimate the hunger of a barely thawed populace for a warm breeze of Palm Beach. Last Sunday, they lined up in droves at Target stores across the country, or set alarms for predawn hours to wake up and shop Target.com. (Some New Yorkers lined up early at a Bryant Park pop-up on Thursday.) The object of their collective obsession was the Lilly Pulitzer for Target collection, an affordable line of brightly printed women’s wear, children’s wear, home goods and matching makeup. ... Combining an artificial scarcity of products with a collect-them-all mentality can be a huge driver of sales, said Michael I.
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Chemische Signale im menschlichen Schweiß (Chemicals in Sweat May Convey Positive Emotion)
Der Standard: Angst, Anziehung und sogar Erfolg – betrachtet man die Forschungen der letzten Jahre, scheint Schweiß durch chemische Signale eine ganze Palette an Gefühlsregungen zu kommunizieren. Und da darf das Glück nicht fehlen. Ein europäisches Forscherteam kam auf die Idee, die chemischen Spuren von positiven Empfindungen in unserer Transpiration zu suchen. Nach Angaben der in "Psychological Science" publizierten Studie nimmt unsere Nase Glücklich-Sein bei anderen nicht nur wahr, der Gefühlszustand steckt auch an. Read the whole story: Der Standard
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Framing Time in Days, Not Years, Could Spur Action Toward Goals
Measuring time in days instead of months, or months instead of years, can make future events seem closer and thus more urgent.
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Online ‘Mindset’ Interventions Help Students Do Better in School
Brief web-based interventions with high school students can produce big results in their schoolwork and their appreciation of a positive, purposeful mindset, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Two interventions, each lasting about 45 minutes and delivered online, raised achievement in a large and diverse group of underperforming students over an academic semester," wrote Gregory Walton, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, along with his colleagues.
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Fair Is Fair, But Not Everywhere
The Huffington Post: Imagine this scenario: Two commercial fishermen head out to sea at the break of dawn, and spend the next ten hours hauling in the day's catch. When they wearily return to dock and count their take, one has three times as many fish in his hold. How should the two fishermen be compensated for the long day's work? Many people consider this a no-brainer. Three times the fish, three times the pay -- simple. Reward is based on merit -- in this case, successful fishing. In academic jargon, it's called "merit-based distributive justice." The alternative -- one alternative -- is to divide the spoils equally.
