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Yes, I’m a Good Person. But Did You Hear About Her?
Pacific Standard: Want to feel a sense of purpose in your life? Do a good deed for someone. On the other hand, if immediate happiness is your priority, let someone else do a good deed for you. Those are among the fascinating findings of a new study published in Science magazine, which analyzes how morality and immorality are expressed, and experienced, in the real world. This subject has been studied extensively by social psychologists in recent years, leading to important insights. We now know that liberals and conservatives live in somewhat different ethical universes, and that doing a good deed gives us license to cut a few ethical corners later in the day.
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Children capable of learning to control junk food cravings: study
NY Daily News: For children, the lure of cookies and fast food is distinctly more powerful than for adolescents and adults, although children's cognitive wiring is well suited to train such cravings, according to researchers hailing principally from Columbia University. "These findings are important because they suggest that we may have another tool in our toolbox to combat childhood obesity," says psychological scientist and lead researcher Jennifer A. Silvers, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University in the laboratory of Professor Kevin Ochsner.
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Number Crunching May Make People More Selfish
In the 1970s, the Ford Pinto became synonymous with unethical management decisions. Although it was known that the car had an unfortunate tendency to explode in rear-end collisions, Ford went ahead with production after a cost-benefit analysis predicted savings of $11 per car, at a cost of only 180 burn deaths. As a result, several dozen people were injured or killed before the design flaw came to light. New research suggests that even basic math calculations may significantly increase people’s likelihood of engaging in selfish and unethical behavior. Researchers Long Wang (City University of Hong Kong) Chen-Bo Zhong (University of Toronto), and J.
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Apple or Ice Cream? The Mechanics of a Healthy Choice
You’ve been trying to lose some weight, but you also get hungry for a snack in the evening. So imagine you go to the kitchen to check out your options, and you find apples and
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Das entfesselte Selbst (The unbridled self)
Die Welt: Für den, der sich in gefährliche Gewässer begibt, ist es wichtig zu wissen, was ihn erwartet. Odysseus, der bekannteste Seefahrer der griechischen Mythologie, wusste es. Andere hatten ihn vor den Sirenen gewarnt, die er auf seiner Heimfahrt von Troja treffen würde. Die Fabelwesen saßen auf Klippen in der See und lockten mit ihrem unwiderstehlichen Gesang die Schiffe so nah an die Klippen, dass sie dort zerschellten. Darum ließ sich Odysseus an den Schiffsmast binden und verstopfte die Ohren seiner Matrosen mit Wachs. Diese bewusste Entscheidung, sich selbst zu kontrollieren, ließ ihn in die Reise überstehen.
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Alcohol Makes Smiles More “Contagious,” but Only for Men
Consuming an alcoholic beverage may make men more responsive to the smiles of others in their social group, according to new research in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings suggest that, for men, alcohol increases sensitivity to rewarding social behaviors like smiling, and may shed light on risk factors that contribute to problem drinking among men. “This experimental alcohol study, which included a social context, finds the clearest evidence yet of greater alcohol reinforcement for men than women,” says psychological scientist and lead researcher Catharine Fairbairn of the University of Pittsburgh.
