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Voters’ Preexisting Opinions Shift to Align with Political Party Positions
The views expressed by political party leaders can change how individual voters feel about an issue, according to findings from a longitudinal study of voters in New Zealand.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring contingent attentional engagement, cooperation in chimpanzees, and the role of eye gaze in decision making.
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People Link Body Shapes With Personality Traits
Our first impressions of the personality traits of people we’ve just met may depend on their body shape.
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There’s a Downside to Attending an Academically Selective School, Study Says
When sending their children to school, parents will often aim for schools with high scores and challenging programs, but according to a new analysis of data from Project TALENT, selective schools with a higher average achievement level may actually exert a negative influence on students' long-term success. The nationally representative, longitudinal study of over 377,000 high school students found that while students who attend socioeconomically advantaged high schools tend to complete more schooling, earn higher annual incomes, and work in more prestigious jobs 11 and 50 years later, those who attend selective, high-achieving schools tend to experience the opposite.
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How Children Learn to Recognize Faces
“I’m very, very good at recognizing faces,” said Kang Lee, a professor of applied psychology and human development at the University of Toronto, who studies the development of facial recognition skills in children. If he has met a person once, he said, he will recognize that person two or three years later. “One encounter for me is sufficient, my brain has encoded it.” But young children take years to master this skill. And this is a holiday season when we mess around with faces. For those just developing the ability to recognize faces, Halloween masks, costumes, fake noses, false beards, wigs and elaborate makeup present special challenges.
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Your Lonely Child’s Path to a Happier Life
Many children come home from school around this time of year with a lament no parent wants to hear: “Nobody likes me.” While childhood inflicts emotional bumps and bruises on most people, feeling rejected by playmates and peers can be particularly painful, according to several recent studies. Left unchecked, that kind of exclusion can trigger self-doubt and anxiety, undermining a child’s well-being and school performance. --- Children’s patterns of relating to others begin forming by 3 or 4, and remain remarkably stable if nothing is done to change them, says Mitch Prinstein, author of “Popular,” a recent book on forming positive social bonds.