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Magic May Lurk Inside Us All
The New York Times: How many words does it take to know you’re talking to an adult? In “Peter Pan,” J. M. Barrie needed just five: “Do you believe in fairies?” Such belief requires magical thinking. Children suspend disbelief. They trust that events happen with no physical explanation, and they equate an image of something with its existence. Magical thinking was Peter Pan’s key to eternal youth. The ghouls and goblins that will haunt All Hallows’ Eve on Friday also require people to take a leap of faith. Zombies wreak terror because children believe that the once-dead can reappear. At haunted houses, children dip their hands in buckets of cold noodles and spaghetti sauce.
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Curiosity: It Helps Us Learn, But Why?
NPR: How does a sunset work? We love to look at one, but Jolanda Blackwell wanted her eighth-graders to really think about it, to wonder and question. So Blackwell, who teaches science at Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High in Davis, Calif., had her students watch a video of a sunset on YouTube as part of a physics lesson on motion. "I asked them: 'So what's moving? And why?' " Blackwell says. The students had a lot of ideas. Some thought the sun was moving; others, of course, knew that a sunset is the result of the Earth spinning around on its axis. Once she got the discussion going, the questions came rapid-fire. "My biggest challenge usually is trying to keep them patient," she says.
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Why It’s Wise to Gamble First, Eat Later
Pacific Standard: According to conventional wisdom, people in an agitated emotional state tend to make bad, impulsive decisions. Fear and anger often lead us to take actions we later regret. But a more recent line of research suggests there is much to be said for the intuitive wisdom of the body. According to mind-body oriented scholars such as Antonio Damasio, uncomfortable sensations that inhibit our normal thought patterns can sometimes provide valuable guidance. A research team led by Utrecht University psychologist Denise de Ridder suggests these thinkers are on to something—at least when the unpleasant feelings are those created by a growling stomach.
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At the Ballot Box: Are You a Political Extremist?
Election Day 2014 arrives at a time of extreme political division in the U.S., and moderates of both parties are worried about the fringe. It’s always the case, and especially in mid-term elections, that extremists in their zeal will vote and canvas and rally their troops, while moderates will disengage and stay home. But who are these extremists really? Some dismiss citizens with extremely strong political opinions as rigid and dogmatic, intolerant of ambiguity and fearful of uncertainty and change. And it’s certainly not hard to find examples of such overzealous—even loony—extremism on the political stage today.
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Extraordinary Experiences Are Socially Isolating (So Next Time, Take a Friend)
Big Think: Think twice before motorbiking across India or seeking out other extraordinary experiences, say a team of Ph.D. students studying the effects of great experience on conversation. Having a much more interesting time with life than your peers is a recipe for social isolation, according to their report published in Psychological Science. In an experiment which supported the group's conclusion, individuals given a very interesting video to watch later felt excluded when the majority of the group had watched a far more boring video. Contrary to what the people who watched the interesting video expected, conversation seems to thrive on the mundane. Read the whole story: Big Think
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Can You Learn Self-Control?
The New York Times: Walter Mischel conducted one of the most famous experiments in 20th-century psychology. In the late 1960s, he oversaw a test at Stanford University using a group of preschoolers. These studies gave him access to children whom he subsequently tracked for decades, collecting data on each child’s education, health and other factors. Now, more than 40 years later, he’s published a book, “The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self Control,” about the experiments. In the marshmallow test, Mr.
