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What a Mess: Chaos and Creativity
The Huffington Post: One of the most influential ideas about crime prevention to come out in recent years is something called the "broken windows theory." According to this theory, small acts of deviance -- littering, graffiti, broken windows -- will, if ignored, escalate into more serious crime. In practice, this theory leads to zero tolerance of public disorder and petty crime. Both theory and practice have been embraced by some big city mayors, most notably Rudy Giuliani, who credited the strategy with significantly cutting serious crime in 1990s New York City. ... This was the point of departure for psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota.
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Please, Don’t Be This Couple
Prevention: Couples retreats, group bike rides, dinner reservations for four? Yup, sounds like you're in love—and so are a bunch of your friends. But when was the last time you booked a table with an odd number of seats? According to new research in the journal Psychological Science, that couples-only social circle might cultivate an unhealthy prejudice against your single pals. In a study of 450 people, both single and coupled, researchers found that those in a stable relationship were more likely to treat individuals of the same status favorably—even in situations where relationship status was irrelevant, like a job interview or voting for a political candidate.
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Why Gender Equality Stalled
The New York Times: This week is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s international best seller, “The Feminine Mystique,” which has been widely credited with igniting the women’s movement of the 1960s. Readers who return to this feminist classic today are often puzzled by the absence of concrete political proposals to change the status of women. But “The Feminine Mystique” had the impact it did because it focused on transforming women’s personal consciousness. ...
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How a bad relationship can make you ill – by damaging your immune system
The Daily Mail: Feeling anxious about close relationships could make you fall ill - by damaging your immune system. Not only does anxiety appear to raise levels of stress hormones in the body, it also makes it less effective at fighting off illness. ... Though some scientists believe that attachment anxiety can be traced back to childhood, Dr Jaremka noted that people who feel anxious can change, over time. 'It's not necessarily a permanent state of existence,' she said in the study published in the journal Psychological Science. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Memory Strategy May Help Depressed People Remember the Good Times
Research highlights a memory strategy that may help people who suffer from depression in recalling positive day-to-day experiences.
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How To Use Deliberate Confusion To Learn Faster
Business Insider: We all know that confusion doesn't feel good. Because it seems like an obstacle to learning, we try to arrange educational experiences and training sessions so that learners will encounter as little confusion as possible. But as is so often the case when it comes to learning, our intuitions here are exactly wrong. ... That's the finding of Travis Proulx and Steven J. Heine, researchers who published their results in the journal Psychological Science. If you're about to engage in any sense-making activity, from analyzing data to solving word problems, you may want to try delving into material that doesn't make much sense first. Read the whole story: Business Insider
