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Actually, People Still Like to Think
The New Yorker: This past July, Science published a paper with an alarming conclusion: most people would rather give themselves an electric shock than be alone with their thoughts. A slew of news stories followed, seizing on this dramatic evidence of our inability to be content without external distractions. “I was surprised that people find themselves such bad company,” Jonathan Schooler, a University of California, Santa Barbara, psychologist, who was not involved in the study, told the Boston Globe. The University of Virginia psychologist Timothy Wilson and his collaborators began the study with a simple question: When our minds turn inward, “is it a pleasing experience”?
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The Bare Walls Theory: Do Too Many Classroom Decorations Harm Learning?
NBC: To decorate her kindergarten classroom for the new school year, Lori Baker chose cheerful alphabet and number charts featuring smiling children of different races. In the reading corner, she hung three puffy paper flowers from the ceiling and posted dancing letters spelling “Welcome to Kindergarten.” Otherwise, though, the 20-year teaching veteran exercised restraint and deliberately left several walls bare in her room at Whittier Elementary School in Harvey, Ill., a predominately African-American, working-class city about 25 miles south of Chicago. The latest research suggests she’s onto something.
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Are Women Better Decision Makers?
The New York Times: RECENTLY, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said that if we want to fix the gridlock in Congress, we need more women. Women are more focused on finding common ground and collaborating, she argued. But there’s another reason that we’d benefit from more women in positions of power, and it’s not about playing nicely. Neuroscientists have uncovered evidence suggesting that, when the pressure is on, women bring unique strengths to decision making. Mara Mather, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, and Nichole R.
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25 Is the New 21
The Atlantic: My 22-year-old daughter, Emma, waved goodbye to her college campus last spring and walked into a job this fall. Given the still-tepid state of the economy and all the stories—in the news and from friends—about recent graduates who can’t find work, you might well imagine that my husband and I are thrilled. And we are. Sort of. Emma’s job is a good one, and she is lucky to have it. She is an editorial assistant at a well-respected magazine. But it is the kind of job that countless millennials are landing these days: part-time, low paying, with no benefits.
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Is your boss making you sick?
The Washington Post: Having a bad boss can make your work life a misery, but it can also make you sick, both physically and mentally, researchers say. “The evidence is clear that the leadership qualities of ‘bad’ bosses over time exert a heavy toll on employees’ health,” says Jonathan D.
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The Psychology Behind Our Collective Ebola Freak-Out
Time: In Hazlehurst, Miss., parentspulled their children out of middle school last week after learning that the principal had recently visited southern Africa. At Syracuse University, a Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist who had planned to speak about public health crises was banned from campus after working in Liberia. An office building in Brecksville, Ohio, closed where almost 1,000 people work over fears that an employee had been exposed to Ebola. A high school in Oregon canceled a visit from nine students from Africa — even though none of them hailed from countries containing the deadly disease. Read the whole story: Time
