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Infants Know Plants Provide Food, but Need to See They’re Safe to Eat
Infants as young as six months old tend to expect that plants are food sources, but only after an adult shows them that the food is safe to eat, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that, after watching an adult put part of a plant and part of a man-made object in her mouth, infants at 6- and 18-months of age preferentially identify the plant as the food source.
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Your Next Job Application Could Involve a Video Game
The New York Times: Brittni Daron jumped through a lot of hoops before she landed her job as a solution consultant at Oracle. At the tech giant, as at other firms in Silicon Valley to which she applied, she endured weeks — and occasionally months — of phone interviews, in-person interviews, mock presentations, personality tests and technical tests for both the skills she claimed to have and those she didn’t. This might sound a little ridiculous, but it’s not unusual. I’ve met lots of job seekers in the last few years who underwent a similar form of H.R.
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Americans’ Eating Habits Take a Healthier Turn, Study Finds
The Wall Street Journal: Years of warnings by health officials and grim news on the bathroom scale appear to finally be having an impact on the nation's eating habits. While there is no sign the high level of obesity has fallen, Americans say they are consuming fewer calories and cutting back on fast food, cholesterol and fat. Working-age adults consumed an average of 118 fewer calories a day in the 2009-10 period than four years earlier, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Poor People Judge Harm-Doers More Harshly
Pacific Standard: How harshly do you judge someone with a habit of hitting people? How about a lout who engages in sexual harassment? Newly published research suggests the answer depends in part on how well you’re doing financially. A study published in the journal Psychological Science finds people with low incomes judge wrongdoers more severely. French researchers Marko Pitesa and Stefan Thau report this dynamic only applies to ethical issues involving injury or loss, and suggest it reflects the poor’s “lower ability to cope with the effects of others’ harmful behavior.” Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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Psychologists: Getting Liberals to Agree Really Is Like Herding Cats
Scientific American: When he was President, Bill Clinton famously (and perhaps apocryphally) complained that getting Democrats to agree on a course of action was like herding cats, while the Republicans didn’t seem to have this problem. All political parties are large coalitions of people with varied interests and beliefs, but is it possible that ideological differences between the parties could play a decisive role here? A new paper by researchers at New York University, in press at Psychological Science, suggests that the answer is yes. A large body of psychological research has shown that people tend to overestimate how much others share their beliefs, feelings, and practices.
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Altruistic Acts More Common in States With High Well-Being
People are much more likely to decide to donate a kidney to a stranger — an extraordinarily altruistic act — in areas of the United States where levels of well-being are high, researchers find.
