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How to Be a Better Writer: 6 Tips From Harvard’s Steven Pinker
Time: U want 2B a better writer? Good writing is often looked at as an art and, frankly, that can be intimidating. No need to worry. There are rules — even science — behind writing well. Our brain works a particular way; so what rules do we need to know to write the way the brain best understands? To find out the answer I gave Steven Pinker a call. Steven is a cognitive scientist and linguist at Harvard. He’s also on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Read the whole story: Time
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Sons’ Intelligence Linked to Fathers’ Criminal History
Sons whose fathers have criminal records tend to have lower cognitive abilities than sons whose fathers have no criminal history, data from over 1 million Swedish men show. The research, conducted by scientists in Sweden and Finland, indicates that the link is not directly caused by fathers’ behavior but is instead explained by genetic factors that are shared by father and son. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Mothers and Lovers: From Parenting To Romance
Most of us would probably agree that our early childhood experiences influence who we become as adults. But this is actually a fairly provocative notion. And especially provocative is the idea that our upbringing—the quality of the parenting we get—has long-term implications for how we later interact with other adults, including our intimate partners. This is not an easy connection to study for a couple of reasons. It takes a lot of time and planning to study people from childhood into adulthood, and what’s more, neither parenting quality nor the quality of romantic relationships is easily and objectively analyzed.
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Stressed at Work? Blame Your Email.
The Wall Street Journal: A new lexicon is emerging to describe the unique stresses of work in the 21st century. Researchers have coined a term, “telepressure,” to describe our urge to respond immediately to emails. The definition also includes those who find themselves repeatedly thinking about how they need to return a note to their colleague or jot an email back to their boss. “You have trouble cognitively letting it go,” said Larissa K. Barber, an assistant professor of psychology at Northern Illinois University. Barber and a colleague recently authored a paper that links this preoccupation with work communication – it can also apply to texts, she said – to burnout.
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Why YouTube Videos Go Viral
New York Magazine: Half of all YouTube videos have fewer than 500 views, but a tiny fraction of the 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute garner millions of hits, turning amateur filmmakers into stars or launching viral marketing campaigns. Recently, a video of a New York woman getting catcalled posted by the advocacy group Hollaback! became an internet sensation. A video of men trying to lure a drunk woman home went viral last week, before it was revealed to be a hoax. A few days ago, a clip of a man singing “Blackbird” to his dying son started making the rounds. ...
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When Thankfulness Can Hurt Us
U.S. News & World Report: Todd Kashdan, a psychology professor at George Mason University, is one of those guys. The good kind. The type who, when the waiter brings the check, doesn’t miss a beat and offers his credit card before his friends do. But sometimes, one of Kashdan’s friends takes the gesture as a challenge and insists on paying the bill himself. That’s where things can go wrong. Instead of “thank you” and “you're welcome,” it’s “I got it” and “no, no, no, I got it.” Instead of warmth and appreciation, it’s discomfort and confusion.
