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Emotions: Separating Fact from Fiction
Accumulating scientific evidence about emotion defies common sense, suggesting common beliefs about emotions have been in error for over 2,000 years. We’ll dispel three widespread fictions about emotions that lurk in classrooms, boardrooms, and bedrooms around the world. We’ll then explore a radically new scientific understanding of what emotions are and how they work.
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No Bones about It: People Recognize Objects by Visualizing Their “Skeletons”
Do humans learn the same way as computers? Cognitive psychologists have debated this question for decades, but in the past few years the remarkable accomplishments of deep-learning computer systems have fanned the flames, particularly among researchers who study object recognition. Humans effortlessly know that a tree is a tree and a dog is a dog no matter the size, color or angle at which they’re viewed. In fact, identifying such visual elements is one of the earliest tasks children learn. But researchers have struggled to determine how the brain does this simple evaluation.
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Cheer up! Optimists live longer
Here’s a good reason to turn that frown upside down: Optimistic people live as much as 15% longer than pessimists, according to a new study spanning thousands of people and 3 decades. Scientists combined data from two large, long-term studies: one including 69,744 women and another of 1429 men, all of whom completed questionnaires that assessed their feelings about the future. After controlling for health conditions, behaviors like diet and exercise, and other demographic information, the scientists were able to show that the most optimistic women (top 25%) lived an average of 14.9% longer than their more pessimistic peers.
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Venture capital funds led by people of color face more bias the better they perform, Stanford researchers find
When a black-led venture capital firm has an impressive track record, it encounters more bias from professional investors, according to new research by Stanford scholars. In a new study led by Stanford psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt, in collaboration with the private investment firm Illumen Capital, researchers found that when venture capital funds are managed by a person of color with strong credentials, professional investors judge them more harshly than their white counterparts with identical credentials.
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For Conception crew, surviving the fire is just the first step in a long healing process
In July, Ann Crawley led a group of teenagers and children on a successful diving trip aboard the 75-foot Conception. Last week, she woke up to a flood of messages from friends and family informing her that the diving boat had gone up in flames off the coast of Santa Barbara, killing 33 passengers and a crew member who were asleep below deck. For Crawley, a former crew member of the Conception and an accomplished diver, California’s worst maritime disaster in modern history is deeply personal. ... “It really does set in motion a very basic and probably evolutionary tendency to seek other people out when we feel stress,” said Anthony Mancini, a psychology professor at Pace University.
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UW psychologist Kristina Olson thought the MacArthur Foundation had the wrong ‘genius’
The word “genius” makes Kristina Olson squirm. When the MacArthur Foundation rang last year to tell her she’d won one of its coveted fellowships — colloquially called genius grants — the University of Washington psychologist figured it was a mistake. “Are you sure you have the right Kristina Olson?” she asked. Even though the caller ticked off items on Olson’s résumé, including her groundbreaking research on transgender children, it was weeks before she was convinced it wasn’t all an elaborate prank. Olson still won’t mention the prize unless pressed. Where she comes from, in central Illinois, boasting is almost as inexcusable as not being nice.
