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Why do drivers hate cyclists?
CBC: On last week's program, we had a conversation about a proposal to license cyclists in Vancouver. That unleashed a torrent of feedback - more than we've ever had on a single item, and much of it hostile to cyclists. This week, we asked psychologist Ian Walker why drivers get so angry about cyclists. Walker studies traffic and transportation psychology in the United Kingdom. Read the whole story: CBC
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Why Screams Are So Upsetting
Scientific American: If there is one sound that bettered our ancestors' chances of survival, it might be the scream. When a baby needs food, it hollers; if a ravenous lion prowls a little too close, a blood-curdling shriek alerts the tribe. Yet from an acoustic standpoint, screams—and how our brain processes the sound—have been largely overlooked by researchers, until now. A study published in July in Current Biology found that screams are sonically unique in a way that perfectly captures our attention.
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Many Children Under 5 Are Left to Their Mobile Devices, Survey Finds
The New York Times: A small survey of parents in Philadelphia found that three-quarters of their children had been given tablets, smartphones or iPods of their own by age 4 and had used the devices without supervision, researchers reported on Monday. The survey was not nationally representative and relied on self-reported data from parents. But experts say the surprising result adds to growing evidence that the use of electronic devices has become deeply woven into the experience of childhood. ... It was not clear how often the parents had bequeathed old devices as digital hand-me-downs or had bought new ones.
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Job crafting and creating meaning in your work
re:Work: Rarely are jobs designed to match the talents, preferences, and aspirations of the individual. Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, discusses the art and science of job crafting. Read the whole story: re: Work
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The Leadership Style That Can Make Men Look Inferior
Asking for help can improve decision-making, but also prompt others to question your competence, especially if you’re a man.
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Selective Media Coverage May Cause Us to Forget Certain Health Facts
The health facts presented by mass media in the midst of a disease outbreak are likely to influence what we remember about the disease -- new research suggests that the same mass media coverage may also influence the facts that we forget. The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, indicate that personal anxiety and mass media coverage interact to determine what people remember about a disease. “The starting point for our study was the exaggerated coverage of Ebola in 2014 despite the absence of any serious consequences in the United States,” says psychological scientist Alin Coman of Princeton University.