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Teens’ Penchant For Risk-Taking May Help Them Learn Faster
NPR: The teenage brain has been characterized as a risk-taking machine, looking for quick rewards and thrills instead of acting responsibly. But these behaviors could actually make teens better than adults at certain kinds of learning. "In neuroscience, we tend to think that if healthy brains act in a certain way, there should be a reason for it," says Juliet Davidow, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University in the Affective Neuroscience and Development Lab and the lead author of the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Neuron. ...
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The Chicago Cubs, the Goat Curse and the Psychological Roots of Superstition
Scientific American: It is, of course, scientifically impossible for the legendary Curse of the Billy Goat—which dictates that the Chicago Cubs will never win the World Series—to affect the outcome of games in the 2016 postseason. To give credence to the curse (laid on the team in October 1945 by an angry bar owner whose smelly mascot goat was evicted from Wrigley Field) is irrational and the very definition of magical thinking. And yet, as the Cubs once again seek to end their 108-year World Series Championship drought, lifelong fans like Michael Pardys struggle—and fail—to remain rational. Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Can We All Become Geniuses?
Science GO: Genius lies somewhere in the human mind, bringing mathematical insight, sparking artistic inspiration and enabling some to see what most cannot. Might we augment our biology with technology to unlock the genius inside us all? Read the whole story: Science GO
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Young Children See a Single Action and Infer a Social Norm: Promiscuous Normativity in 3-Year-Olds Marco F. H. Schmidt, Lucas P. Butler, Julia Heinz, and Michael Tomasello Children live in a social world, and that world has norms relating to behavior. Studies of how children learn these norms often explicitly instruct the children, indicating that an observed behavior is the "right way" to perform an action. The researchers examined whether children would naturally infer behavioral norms without explicit instruction.
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Lessons in the Delicate Art of Confronting Offensive Speech
The New York Times: As unlikely as that may sound to anyone who has heard the infamous 2005 tape of Donald J. Trump boasting about sexually accosting women to the chuckling encouragement of Mr. Bush, an “Access Hollywood” host at the time, it just might have stifled the celebrity billionaire. A body of psychological research shows that even mild pushback against offensive remarks can have an instant effect — as difficult as that can be, especially with a boss, a friend or a celebrity. ...
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How to raise a genius: lessons from a 45-year study of super-smart children
Nature: “What Julian wanted to know was, how do you find the kids with the highest potential for excellence in what we now call STEM, and how do you boost the chance that they'll reach that potential,” says Camilla Benbow, a protégé of Stanley's who is now dean of education and human development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. But Stanley wasn't interested in just studying bright children; he wanted to nurture their intellect and enhance the odds that they would change the world. His motto, he told his graduate students, was “no more dry bones methodology”. ...
