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Your Brain Doesn’t Work the Way You Think It Does
At the very beginning of her new book Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, psychology professor Lisa Feldman Barrett writes that each chapter will present “a few compelling scientific nuggets about your brain and considers what they might reveal about human nature.” Though it’s an accurate description of what follows, it dramatically undersells the degree to which each lesson will enlighten and unsettle you. It’s like lifting up the hood of a car to see an engine, except that the car is you and you find an engine that doesn’t work at all like you thought it did. ...
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Legendary Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert Outlines 8 Money Principles Will Bring You the Most Happiness for Your Dollar
Money can't buy happiness. "This sentiment is lovely, popular, and almost certainly wrong," says Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert in a paper he coauthored. Money provides an "opportunity for happiness," the authors say, since moneyed people can live longer and healthier lives, enjoy financial security, have leisure time, and control what they do every day. What's puzzling, Gilbert and his colleagues Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia and Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia say, is that money doesn't buy more happiness. ...
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How to Navigate Conflict With Your Research Adviser
APS Authors/Members: Jay J. Van Bavel and Leah H. Somerville We all know mentor-mentee relationships can be tricky. This crucial topic was brought into relief for Jay when he served on a panel that discussed mentorship in July. Beforehand, panel organizers sent a survey to student and postdoc participants, asking them to anonymously disclose what frustrates them about their advisers. Hundreds of complaints poured in, ranging from the mundane to the seriously unethical.
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Exploring The Intersection Of Empathy And Leadership
What makes a good leader? Is it an ability to make difficult decisions that others can’t or don’t want to? Is it being able to relate to the needs and desires of your employees/followers/subordinates so as to maintain good morale among the rank and file and promote productivity? Is it an innate ability to connect emotionally with others? ...
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Understanding the Outrage Over Altering Holiday Celebrations Despite COVID-19 Risks
APS Member/Author: Juliana Schroeder With the holidays fast approaching and COVID-19 cases and deaths reaching new highs, some U.S. officials are, to limit the spread of COVID-19, urging—or even requiring—that residents alter their typical celebrations. For instance, New York governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order that limited residents to a maximum of 10 people over for Thanksgiving dinner, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended similar precautions. ...
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Katy Milkman on How to Nudge People to Accept a COVID-19 Vaccine
THE END OF covid-19 is in sight, as effective vaccines move closer to approval. However, society faces a new crisis: uptake. If too few people agree to get immunised, the value of a vaccine will be limited—and the world could face a situation much like today’s, with many ill and dying, social isolation and withering economies. But behavioural science can help.
