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Online dating’s age wars: Inside Tinder and eHarmony’s fight for our love lives
The Washington Post: Tinder, America’s fast-growing online-dating juggernaut, last week unveiled its first big branding partnership aimed at its core audience of millennial fling-seekers: a neon-drenched video-ad campaign hyping Bud Light’s mega-keg party, “Whatever, USA.” Meanwhile, over at Tinder’s less-youthful rival eHarmony, a recent ad saw its 80-year-old founder counseling a single woman besieged by bridesmaid’s invitations to take some time (and, of course, the site’s 200-question compatibility quiz) to find that special someone: “Beth, do you want fast or forever?” ...
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Acetaminophen May Reduce Both Pain and Pleasure
The commonly used pain reliever acetaminophen may have a previously unknown side effect: Blunting positive emotions. Visit Page
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Babies resemble tiny scientists more than you might think
PBS: It’s been well established that when infants see something surprising, they look longer. This is true for babies as young as two months. But until recently, few had asked why. A new Johns Hopkins University study has found that when an object behaves in an unusual way, the baby will explore more, learn more and “spontaneously test relevant hypotheses about the object’s behavior,” according to Aimee Stahl, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins who also is one of the study’s authors. The baby, in other words, becomes a tiny scientist. The study was released today in the journal, Science. Read the whole story: PBS
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Men And Women Use Different Scales To Weigh Moral Dilemmas
NPR: You find a time machine and travel to 1920. A young Austrian artist and war veteran named Adolf Hitler is staying in the hotel room next to yours. The doors aren't locked, so you could easily stroll next door and smother him. World War II would never happen. But Hitler hasn't done anything wrong yet. Is it acceptable to kill him to prevent World War II? ... "Women seem to be more likely to have this negative, emotional, gut-level reaction to causing harm to people in the dilemmas, to the one person, whereas men were less likely to express this strong emotional reaction to harm,"Rebecca Friesdorf, the lead author of the study, tells Shots.
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Do College Admissions by Lottery
The New York Times: The intense competition for admission to highly selective colleges and universities is destroying our kids. Suniya Luthar has spent about 20 years studying and documenting the growth of dysfunction among upper middle class youth, the prime candidates for admission to selective colleges. Luthar has found that extreme substance abuse, clinical depression, eating disorders and promiscuous sex are growing fast among these young people. Could there be a connection between these trends and the stress associated with applying to college? I think so. About 10 years ago, I suggested that admission to highly selective institutions should be done by lottery.
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Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning
Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Volume 16, Number 1) Read the Full Text (PDF, HTML) In the last 5 years, the use of handheld devices such as smart phones and tablets has exploded, and it should come as no surprise that the massive growth in smart technology has had a trickle-down effect, influencing even the youngest of users. Digital applications (apps) directed at children are big business; more than 72% of the top apps for sale in Apple’s App Store come from the Toddler/Preschool category. Children interact with apps in an intuitive way, which makes apps attractive to parents and teachers as a way to help children access new information and learn new skills.
