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Fear of Disloyalty Drives Anti-Immigrant Bias
Fear of immigrants remains such a potent force in American life that the Republican Party is overtly relying on it in advance of the mid-term elections. But why, exactly, do so many people see a newcomer to the nation and perceive a threat? New research suggests it's a matter of perceived loyalty. The latest findings report that immigrants who see themselves—or are viewed as—having dual identities are less likely to be seen as people who can be depended upon if and when the country finds itself in a crunch. "Humans are acutely attuned to the loyalty of newcomers," writes a research team led by psychologist Jonas Kunst of Yale University and the University of Oslo.
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The Pathology of Prejudice
Driving around the part of Fresno, California, where Shannon Brown spent much of her life feels a bit like entering an alternate, more insular version of America, something out of an earlier time. We passed a white woman holding a baby in a driveway. An older white man worked in his yard. A white woman walked a dog. There didn’t appear to be a single person of color in the area, I said. That’s because there are none, Brown replied. Brown, 48, is white, with blond hair, pale blue eyes, and milky skin. She wore a checkered black-and-white dress, a silver cross dangling from her neck. Brown had nothing against diversity, she explained.
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NIH Funding for “Short Courses” in Behavioral Science Methods
The National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research is funding educational activities called “short courses” that enhance the development of skills in the behavioral sciences.
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The Cognitive Advantages of Growing Older
If, like me, you’re on the wrong side of sixty, you’ve probably noticed those increasingly frequent and sinister “senior moments.” What was I looking for when I came into the kitchen? Did I already take out the trash? What’s old what’s-his-name’s name again? One possible reaction to aging is resignation: You’re just past your expiration date. You may have heard that centuries ago the average life expectancy was only around 40 years. So you might think that modern medicine and nutrition are keeping us going past our evolutionary limit. No wonder the machine starts to break down. In fact, recent research suggests a very different picture.
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Pretend play is less beneficial for early child development than play that’s rooted in real life
Child-raising and early education would do well to shift towards play, books, and visual media that are more rooted in real life. Young children—particularly those aged over three years—often prefer these things to pretend play that involves fictional characters, cartoons, and fantasy. Play that’s based on what adults do can enhance early child development. This advice challenges Western beliefs that fictional, pretend play is central to early child development and the growth of individual creativity. No strong evidence supports the idea that pretend play based on fiction or fantasy has a unique, causal role in creativity. And some evidence suggests that it can disrupt children’s thinking.
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Suicide rate up 33% in less than 20 years, yet funding lags behind other top killers
More than 47,000 Americans killed themselves in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, contributing to an overall decline in U.S. life expectancy. Since 1999, the suicide rate has climbed 33 percent. Americans are more than twice as likely to die by their own hands, of their own will, than by someone else's. But while homicides spark vigils and protests, entering into headlines, presidential speeches and police budgets, suicides don't. Still shrouded in stigma, many suicides go unacknowledged save for the celebrities – Robin Williams, Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain – punctuating the unrelenting rise in suicide deaths with a brief public outcry.
