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Compassion & Business Conference
The Compassion & Business Conference will be held Tuesday, Tuesday, April 30, 2013 from 8:00am to 4:00pm at Stanford University. For more information visit ccare.stanford.edu/?page_id=226&ee=68.
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Getting the Cold Shoulder
The New York Times: In “Jealous Guy,” John Lennon described his heart-aching insecurity as “shivering inside.” In “The Rain Song,” Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant bemoaned, “I’ve felt the coldness of my winter.” And in “It Will Be Lonely This Christmas,” the ’70s band Mud crooned desperately, “It’ll be cold, so cold, without you to hold.” The poets were right about the chill of isolation and rejection — more, perhaps, than even they knew: when a person feels lonely or is being excluded by others, his or her skin literally becomes colder. For the past several years, our lab has been studying just how people respond to exclusion and other social interactions.
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The Mind’s Compartments Create Conflicting Beliefs
Scientific American: If you have pondered how intelligent and educated people can, in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence, believe that evolution is a myth, that global warming is a hoax, that vaccines cause autism and asthma, that 9/11 was orchestrated by the Bush administration, conjecture no more. The explanation is in what I call logic-tight compartments—modules in the brain analogous to watertight compartments in a ship. The concept of compartmentalized brain functions acting either in concert or in conflict has been a core idea of evolutionary psychology since the early 1990s.
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Too Big, Too Small? Optimal Circle Of Friends Depends On Socioeconomic Conditions, Goldilocks
Science 2.0: Do you prefer to have a few close friends or a larger social circle that is less deep? Social psychologists say your preference reflect your personality but also individual circumstances - like socioeconomic conditions. Social psychologists Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia and Selin Kesebir of the London Business School say that Americans may prefer a large social network, for example, because Americans move around a lot. Thus, it may make sense to spread time and resources across many friends to minimize the loss of any one friend moving away. Economic conditions at a given time are also a factor.
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‘It’s Just a Dog. Get Over It.’
The Wall Street Journal: Last week, the singer Fiona Apple told her fans that she would be canceling the South American leg of her concert tour in order to be with her dying dog. Ms. Apple's announcement, made in a four-page handwritten letter to fans, has elicited some pushback and—let's face it—some downright snarky commentary, as in: It's just a dog, Fiona. Get. Over. It. What's surprising, though, is that close to 80,000 people have "liked" Ms. Apple's Facebook FB +0.33% posting of her letter, and the vast majority of fans have supported her decision. Such expressions of support are unusual.
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Society for the Study of Human Development 8th Biennial Meeting
Registration is now open for the 8th Biennial Meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Development to be held Nov. 3–5, 2013 at the Fort Lauderdale Beach and Spa Resort, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Discounted early registration is available until October 15, 2013. This year’s conference theme is: Rethinking Developmental Science across the Life-Span/Life-Course: Theory, Methods, and Applications For program information (including keynote and invited plenary symposia speakers) and to register for the conference and lodging go to: www.sshdonline.org
