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Baltimore riots mainly fuelled by thrill-seeking teens, not genuine racial justice concerns, says psychologist
National Post: A Canadian-born psychologist who studies violence says the Baltimore riot is primarily driven by “Type T” (thrill-seeking) teens at the end of a long winter, with probably few social or racial justice motives. “The death of Freddie Gray is probably the opportunity and pretext for riotous fun, thrill, risk and profit (looting),” said Dr. Frank Farley, a professor of psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia and a past president of the American Psychological Association. Gray died from a severe spinal injury a week after police subdued him in an April 12 arrest, the latest in a string of highly publicized deaths involving police and black men in America.
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Brain, Behavior, and the Economy
Psychological science, once criticized for underestimating the impact of socioeconomic factors on psychological development and functioning, now plays a lead role in investigating how wealth and poverty affect thought, emotion, and action throughout our lives. Top researchers from the United States and Europe presented some of the most profound findings on cognition, brain, behavior, and development in socioeconomic contexts during the inaugural International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS), held in March in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
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CEOs Perceived as Moral Rally More Support
Some economists argue that a business leader’s primary responsibility is to maximize company profits and that the pursuit of any other goal, including contributing to the broader welfare, is just bad business. Consider a CEO’s plan to provide employees with free, healthy meals. On the one hand, the CEO could justify the policy on the basis of a moral obligation to care for employees’ health. On the other hand, the CEO could use a pragmatic explanation; the availability of meals will motivate employees to work longer hours. To get this plan off the ground the CEO must decide on the best way to justify this decision to stakeholders.
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Benchmark Project: Expert Online Survey Announcement
Expert members are invited to participate in an expert crowd-sourcing survey that seeks to establish benchmarks in working memory research. The Benchmark Project is led by Klaus Oberauer (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Stephan Lewandowsky (University of Bristol) and seeks to identify theory-relevant benchmarks in working-memory research. To date, more than 27,000 articles have been published on short-term and working memory. The plethora of publications not only provides a huge knowledge based, but it also presents an obstacle to principled identification of the core phenomena that are essential for theorizing.
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To Weather Criticism, It Helps To Think Of The Big Picture
NPR: Think back to the last time you got negative feedback — like when your doctor suggested you lay off the cigarettes or when your mother advised you to get rid of that ridiculous goatee. Though we all understand the value of constructive criticism, we don't like hearing that we've done something wrong. And the knee-jerk reaction is to act defensive. But if you focus on the big picture and future goals, you may be able to trick your mind into being a bit more receptive. That's what researchers at the Ohio State University discovered in a study published Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Read the whole story: NPR
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Real life Dr Dolittles
Nature: Will we ever be able to talk to animals? In this episode, Geoff Marsh meets a variety of researchers and animals who persevere at the communication barrier in the name of science. Listen to the whole story: Nature
