-
A Judge’s Guidance Makes Jurors Suspicious Of Any Eyewitness
NPR: The state of New Jersey has been trying to help jurors better assess the reliability of eyewitness testimony, but a recent study suggests that the effort may be having unintended consequences. That's because a new set of instructions read to jurors by a judge seems to make them skeptical of all eyewitness testimony — even testimony that should be considered reasonably reliable. Back in 2012, New Jersey's Supreme Court did something groundbreaking. It said that in cases that involve eyewitness testimony, judges must give jurors a special set of instructions.
-
Can Shame Be Useful?
The New York Times: MODERN American culture is down on shame — it is, we are told, a damaging, useless emotion that we should neither feel ourselves nor make others feel. This is particularly the case when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction. The nation’s drug czar, Michael Botticelli, has led a well-intentioned campaign to eradicate feelings of shame in addicted people by, in part, likening addiction to cancer, a disease outside of people’s control. But in fact, the experience of shame — the feeling that one has failed to live up to one’s own standards — can play a positive role in recovery from addiction, as well as from other kinds of destructive habits.
-
Why a looming storm makes us think we can eat all the junk food we want
The Washington Post: Milk, bread, eggs, ice-melt: These are the necessities we run out and buy when the forecast calls for a couple of inches of snow. These, we know, are the staples that will get us through any kind of inclement weather. But when a blizzard threatens to bury us in two feet of powder and make us prisoners in our own luxury studio apartments with only Netflix for company for Godknowshowlong? ... Consumer behavior experts have theories about why we respond to an impending weather disturbance by filling our carts with dark chocolate gelato and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
-
Wearing a bike helmet might make you more dangerous
The Guardian: Perhaps safety helmets should carry a health warning. Wearing them, it appears, encourages dangerous risk-taking. In an extraordinary study, Dr Tim Gamble and Dr Ian Walker, from the University of Bath’s department of psychology, have shown that wearing a helmet is likely to increase sensation-seeking and make people less safe – even in situations where headgear is not required. The academics believe that their findings, published in the journal Psychological Science, call into question the effectiveness of safety advice, notably about the wearing of helmets for leisure activities such as cycling.
-
You Don’t Know as Much as You Think: False Expertise
Scientific American: It is only logical to trust our instincts if we think we know a lot about a subject, right? New research suggests the opposite: self-proclaimed experts are more likely to fall victim to a phenomenon known as overclaiming, professing to know things they really do not. People overclaim for a host of reasons, including a desire to influence others' opinions—when people think they are being judged, they will try to appear smarter. Yet sometimes overclaiming is not deliberate; rather it is an honest overestimation of knowledge.
-
Mental depletion complicates financial decisions for the poor
PBS: Kristen Doerer: How does being poor affect people’s financial decisions? What factors affect their decision making? Dan Ariely: Well, none of us always make the best financial decisions. One of the big lessons from behavioral economics is that we make decisions as a function of the environment that we’re in. And what is the environment that you’re in, in terms of your money? They — as in everyone — want to take it away from you. Your immediate environment is comprised of coffee shops, supermarkets, websites, apps and all kinds of things — none of which have an interest in your long-term or short-term financial well-being.
