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Wealth equity? We all want it
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: New York Times' reporter Jeff Zeleney recently wrote that Mitt Romney and his allies were lacerating President Barack Obama as determined to expand government until the United States resembles Sweden. Think Paul Ryan or Tommy Thompson would disagree? But Romney, Ryan and Thompson might be surprised to find out that both Republicans and Democrats favor a distribution of wealth much more like Scandinavian countries than our own. Research by Harvard Business School's Michael Norton and Duke University's Dan Ariely also document how mistaken Americans are about wealth distribution and social mobility.
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How To Live Fearlessly
Prevention: Does the thought of boarding a plane make your palms sweat? How about starting a new job, or even just speaking up in a meeting? Anxiety plagues all of us in different ways, but new research from the University of California, Los Angeles suggests that conquering it could be as simple as naming it. Researchers asked 88 people who were afraid of spiders to approach a captive tarantula. They were then shown a different spider, and instructed to either verbalize their negative emotions, describe the spider neutrally, talk about something else entirely, or say nothing at all. Then they were asked to approach the tarantula again.
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‘That Giant Tarantula Is Terrifying, but I’ll Touch It’ – Expressing Your Emotions Can Reduce Fear
Can simply describing your feelings at stressful times make you less afraid and less anxious? Researchers investigate.
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Why Waiting Is Torture
The New York Times: SOME years ago, executives at a Houston airport faced a troubling customer-relations issue. Passengers were lodging an inordinate number of complaints about the long waits at baggage claim. In response, the executives increased the number of baggage handlers working that shift. The plan worked: the average wait fell to eight minutes, well within industry benchmarks. But the complaints persisted. Puzzled, the airport executives undertook a more careful, on-site analysis. They found that it took passengers a minute to walk from their arrival gates to baggage claim and seven more minutes to get their bags.
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Study shows teens imitate risky sex of films, TV
The Washington Times: Can you name the last five movies your teenage son or daughter has watched with friends? How strong was the sexual content in those movies? Does it really matter? New research suggests it does. The study, conducted by Ross O'Hara and soon to be published in the journal Psychological Science, found that on-screen promiscuity promotes promiscuity in real life. “Adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in movies start having sex at younger ages, have more sexual partners” and engage in riskier sexual activities, Mr. O'Hara said. While at Dartmouth University, Mr.
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Does Alcohol Really Help People Get Along?
Men's Fitness: There’s nothing like an open bar to turn a mandatory office gathering into a late-night party, where even the most argumentative coworkers can get along. But while alcohol has a reputation for breaking down social barriers, does it really work as a social lubricant? To answer this question, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh put strangers together in groups of three and told them they were studying how alcohol would affect their execution of certain tasks.
