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The Power of Collective Memory
Scientific American: In China, people remember the period from roughly 1849 to 1949 as the “century of humiliation.” The time was turbulent, from the First Opium War (a defeat by the British) through many other defeats and unfavorable treaties in which Chinese people were dominated by the Japanese, French and English. Although the century was declared over in 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was established, the Chinese remember the sting of those times and still interpret modern events through them. For example, in 1999 during the NATO bombing of Belgrade as a part of the war in (former) Yugoslavia, U.S.
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The Murky Ethics of Driverless Cars
Pacific Standard: So you’re driving down a dark road late at night when suddenly a child comes darting out onto the pavement. Instinctively, you swerve, putting your own safety in jeopardy to spare her life. Very noble of you. But would you want your driverless vehicle to do the same? ... Rahwan and colleagues Jean-Francois Bonnefon and Azim Shariff describe six studies, all conducted online via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. In the first, the 182 participants “strongly agreed that it would be more moral for autonomous vehicles to sacrifice their own passengers when this sacrifice would save a greater number of lives overall.” Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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What Is A Nudge?
NPR: Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Nudge How can a simple adjustment - a nudge - change our behavior for the better? Professor Richard Thaler says his "nudge theory" can make it easier for people to save money, eat healthily and more. Read the whole story: NPR
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Building Public Trust in the Police
A comprehensive report examines the psychological research on the factors that drive public trust and law-related behavior.
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Psychological Training for Entrepreneurs Helps Fight Poverty
In 2015, Uganda was named the world’s most entrepreneurial country, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Although 28% of adults in Uganda own or co-own a business, around 70% of new businesses collapse within two years. "Ugandans are good at starting enterprises but have a high failure rate," Charles Ocici, executive director of Enterprise Uganda told The Guardian. "It is one thing to own economic assets, and it is another to run a business and generate sustainable income." In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, psychological scientists Michael Frese, Michael M.
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Your perfectionist parenting style may be detrimental to your child
The Washington Post: Even if you were horrified at the idea of hovering over your child as Amy Chua did in her polarizing 2011 bestseller "The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," I'm betting there was a part of you that looked at her perfect children with at least a tinge of envy. As portrayed in the book, Chua's magic formula of no playdates, no TV and always being No. 1 in everything (except for gym and drama, of course) ended up producing two girls who were straight-A students and who also were wildly talented in music. Oh, and they both ended up going to Harvard University. Read the whole story: The Washington Post
