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Psychology of Compromise: Why Congress Fails
LiveScience: Hyenas do it. Elephants do it. But apparently congressional representatives do not. "It" would be cooperation, which has been little-seen in Washington during the "fiscal cliff" negotiations. Despite a deadline they themselves set with consequences no one wanted, Democrats and Republicans went down to the wire before passing a bill that averts major cuts and tax increases but sets the stage for more bickering over the raising of the nation's debt limit and other budgetary issues. ... With few aisle-crossing congressional representatives around, it's no wonder the two sides rarely see eye-to-eye. But negotiation is tough even without the extra complication of politics.
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Why Do People Go Nuts on New Year’s Eve?
U.S. News & World Report: True story. Last year, I went to a New Year's Eve party based on the following facts: It was being held at a very cool coffeehouse and geared toward an older crowd. By older, I mean not 20somethings, who I'd considered the rowdiest of revelers. And by coffeehouse, well, it seemed an unlikely site to teem with drunk crowds of 20somethings. In my mind, that combo created the possibility for a dignified New Year's celebration, one in which people weren't humping each other in plain view and vomiting. Hopefully, not at the same time. I know I sound like a New Year's Eve scrooge, but my definition of not fun definitely includes crowds of vomiting humpers. ...
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Racial Essentialism Reduces Creative Thinking By Making People More Closed-Minded
New research suggests that racial stereotypes and creativity have more in common than we might think. In an article published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researcher Carmit Tadmor of Tel Aviv University and colleagues find that racial stereotyping and creative stagnation share a common mechanism: categorical thinking. “Although these two concepts concern very different outcomes, they both occur when people fixate on existing category information and conventional mindsets,” Tadmor and her colleagues write.
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College Costs: Would Tuition Discounts Get More Students to Major in Science?
TIME: How much money would it take to get an English major to switch to engineering? Would a $1,000 discount on tuition every year do the trick? What about $5,000? What if switching majors not only reduced students’ debt load but also made it much more likely that they would find a job after graduation? Would that be enough to change their mind? Cheaper tuition might motivate some students to tough it out, but Timothy Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change, urges schools and policymakers to proceed with caution.
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Energy Drinks Promise Edge, but Experts Say Proof Is Scant
The New York Times: Energy drinks are the fastest-growing part of the beverage industry, with sales in the United States reaching more than $10 billion in 2012 — more than Americans spent on iced tea or sports beverages like Gatorade. ... Last August, Scottish researchers reported that 1,000 milligrams of taurine taken as a supplement appeared to improve the performance of middle-distance runners. But other taurine studies have been negative or inconclusive. “We found it difficult to make any conclusions about what taurine was doing,” said a graduate researcher at Tufts University, Grace Giles, who headed a study that ran participants through a battery of mental reaction and memory tests.
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Babies’ language lessons may start inside the womb
CBC News: Newborn babies respond differently to their mother tongue as compared to foreign languages thanks to all the listening they did while in the womb, a joint study by American and Swedish researchers suggests. ... "This study moves the measurable result of experience with speech sounds from six months of age to before birth," lead author Christine Moon, a psychology professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., said in a statement. Moon described the study as the first to show that fetuses learn about these sounds prenatally.
